Before You Start Your Bible Study

Where do I need to start studying my Bible?  I’ve tried over and over reading my Bible, but I just can’t get past the book of Leviticus.  What am I doing wrong?  You’re just so much more disciplined than me Aaron.  Stop!  Everything you just read I have been told so many times that I stopped counting.  I used to listen to people ask me the question, “Where do I need to start studying my Bible?” and I would respond with an arguably good answer, but it was the wrong answer.  I would tell the person to start reading in Genesis or Matthew, but this was the wrong answer.  My answer was too focused.  Learning the Bible doesn’t start with the Bible.  Learning the Bible starts with the mind.

The Secret

I almost drowned once.  You know what I was thinking about when I was under water fighting for air?  I was thinking about air, and I struggled and fought with the water current until I got air.  Another time I almost failed nursing school.  I had a 68% halfway through the semester when anything less than a 75% was failing.  You know what I did when I got my failing grade report halfway through that semester?  I quit my job, I got rid of my TV, I limited myself to no more than 6 hrs. of sleep per night so I could get in the library another 2 to 3 hours to study each day.  I cancelled my Facebook account.  I told my friends I wasn’t available to hang out.  I did what I had to do to turn my failing grade into a passing grade, and I did it.   The real reason I didn’t drown or fail nursing school was because I made breathing air and passing school the #1 priorities in my life at that time.  Those were very different situations from each other, but they had one very common feature: I was hungry.  When your hunger level overrides your comfort level, that’s when you start making progress.  The question the drowning person needs to ask is, “How bad do I want to live?”  The question the failing student needs to ask is, “How bad do I want to succeed?”  The question the Christian needs to ask is, “How bad do I want to learn God’s word?”  People say, “I don’t read the Bible like I should…”  Stop right there! How bad do you want to read the Bible?  You aren’t hungry enough.  That’s the problem.  You don’t want to read it bad enough.  Let’s be real. Your mouth says you want to read it, but your hunger meter says you want to scroll on your phone more.  Let’s stop petting the situation and get down to the facts.  Don’t be complaining that you can’t do something like read the Bible when you haven’t really tried.  You say, “I have tried!”  Did you?  Really?  Did you get up early on the days you didn’t want to and read when you didn’t want to?  Did you get to Leviticus and say, “I don’t know what this means right now, but I’m going to read it anyway, trust the process, and one of these days I WILL understand it.”  I personally do not enjoy the book of Job.  Every time I get to the book of Job I groan inside, but I read it anyway.  I never want to read it, but I read it anyway.  After having read the book over 20 times I can say that I understand it better than the first time I read it.  

Turning Desire Into Success

It’s not the raw power of will to succeed that leads to success.  It’s what the power of will leads you to do that spells real success.  For example, when I was failing nursing school, I wanted a passing grade badly.  How badly?  I wanted a 75% so badly that I started making real sacrifices.  I took pleasure and threw it out the window.  I wanted to pass school more than I wanted pleasure.  Lying in my bed willing myself to succeed wasn’t what turned my semester around.  It was when my power of will (potential energy) was converted into actual sacrifice (kinetic energy) that I started realizing success.  I didn’t see the success right away.  There were many days I wanted to quit, but my hunger was greater than my comfort.  When I passed school and got my degree, I’m sure many people said in their head, “Aaron is so smart and naturally gifted.”  No.  Aaron was not smart.  No.  Aaron was not naturally gifted.  Aaron had to work twice as hard as half the people in his class to get the same piece of paper.  He was hungrier than other people.  That’s all.  Daniel was hungry.  “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies,” (Daniel 1:8).  Daniel made up his mind that he was going to honor God.  He wanted to serve God more than he wanted to breath.  Joseph refused to defile himself by sleeping with Potiphar’s wife (Gen. 39:8).  Joseph made up his mind, and nothing was going to change it.  Jesus committed himself to the Father when He was on trial Peter says (1 Peter 2:23).  Jesus didn’t try; He did!  Moses forsook Egypt after making up his mind that he couldn’t sit idly by while God’s people suffered at the hands of the king who was paying for Moses’ education.  These aren’t halfway examples.  These aren’t men who had their feet half in, half out.  They said, “Let’s do this,” and they did it.  

Coming Full Circle

All of that to say, most people don’t actually want the spiritual goals they are asking about.  At least, they don’t want the goals bad enough.  When your hunger overrides your complacency then you will see results.  Hopefully you have gotten the point by now.  Do you want to understand the Bible?  Make real sacrifices.  It’s got to become a priority in your life.  Your priorities are the things that are going to get done no matter what.  Every year my #1 spiritual priority is to read my Bible through that year.  I set physical exercise goals too, but those never come in #1.  Needless to say, I always read my Bible through every year, and I rarely meet my physical exercise goals (they are really #3 or 4 on the list).  And just to let you in on a secret, there are probably 200+ days out of the 365 day year that I have to make myself read my Bible.  You do what you want to do or what you make up the mind to do.  Before you start asking experts where to start studying the Bible, perform a mindset evaluation.  Where is your hunger meter at?