SO, WHO'S FEEDING YOU? A recipe for feeding yourself from God's Word.

I LOVE going out to eat!  When my husband asks, “So what are you making for dinner?”, I would much rather say, “RESERVATIONS”, than “meatloaf”.   After years of fixing 6 course holiday feasts and feeding my family thousands of everyday meals, I much prefer to go to a restaurant where someone else feeds ME!  I’m happy to let the restaurant professionals do the planning, the shopping, the preparation, the serving, and the clean up.  Let’s hear it ladies!   Who’s with me???

When it comes to spiritual food, sometimes I also prefer to let someone else feed me.  Pressed for time, or energy, or motivation, I prefer a leisurely spiritual sampling from a “meal” prepared by someone else.  I’m content to let my pastor, or a devotional writer, or a television preacher, or a Bible teacher put in the prayer, and preparation, and study, so I can fill up on what the Lord has taught them.  I’ve come to learn however, that there is much to be learned, as well as joy and satisfaction to be had, when I’m the one doing the praying, and preparing in order to feed myself. 

Don’t get me wrong!  There’s nothing wrong with letting someone else feed us.   But if that is our ONLY source of feeding, we don’t know what we’re missing by letting someone else do all the preparation!   

While on a mission’s trip to Nassau this summer with the senior high students from our church I had a conversation with a young woman from another group there at the same time.  She was a brand new believer in Jesus, flush with all the passion and excitement a newly begun relationship with Jesus brings.  She loved listening to her pastor and hearing messages on the internet, but when it came to reading the Bible and discerning it’s truths for herself, she was clueless, which is not at all surprising from someone so new to Bible study.

I can remember when I was there.  Even after I knew Jesus by faith, I could only articulate the obvious from my Bible reading.  I could easily answer the “who, what, when, where, how and why” questions, but the lessons and truths hidden in the Bible’s pages were a mystery to me.  

Then came many years of participation in the ministry of Bible Study Fellowship International where I was required not only to answer the obvious questions about the text, but to think about what I’d learned that wasn’t so obvious.  It was SO hard at first! I puzzled at how others managed to see things that totally escaped me!  But eventually, empowered by the Holy Spirit, inspired by the challenge to think, and encouraged by those ahead of me who were obviously thriving on the experience of feeding themselves, something changed.  Studying all by myself with only the Holy Spirit to guide me, the truths of God’s Word began to be mine!

So, when I heard this young lady talk about her desire to feed herself from the Bible, I HAD to pass along what I learned about feeding myself!  It is not difficult, so if you are one of those people who wants more than just second hand spiritual food, or you’re someone new to the Bible who wants to get more out of it, I will share a simple, "feed yourself" recipe for Bible study with you.

First, a few helpful hints.  If you have the time to follow all these steps in one sitting, it could take you anywhere from ½ to one hour (or more if you really get going!) to complete them all.  BUT, if you break them up, doing only one step a day from the same passage, it will take less time and you'll get to be in the same passage for a week!  The first and second steps are the least time consuming.

Next, pray that the Holy Spirit will create a desire in you to feed yourself and open your eyes to see what you’ve been missing.

Lastly, this is a very versatile method.  Once you get the hang of it, you can use it at your family devotional time, or for teaching Sunday School, and even for leading others in a study, as well as for your own pleasure.  

So here is the recipe for feeding yourself from God’s Word.

STEP 1  READ THE PASSAGE

STEP 2  THE CONTENT

Read the passage again and answer the “who, what, when, where, how, and why” facts and put them on paper.  Then write ONE sentence (subject and verb please) that summarizes what the passage is about.  This should be relatively easy even for the novice.

STEP 3: THE LESSONS – What do you learn from the passage?

In order to draw out the important lessons that lie within the passage, but may not be immediately obvious, ask the following (not all will apply):

What do I learn about God from the passage?  What pleases/displeases Him?  What is HE like?  

Are there any warnings or commands to take heed of, or promises to appropriate?

Are there any good examples you want to follow?  Or bad ones you want to avoid?

Of all God could have included in His Word, why do you think He included this particular passage?

Are there any specific things for which to pray?

What new thoughts do you have from the passage?

WRITE DOWN any conclusions you may have reached in answer to the questions.

STEP 4:  APPLICATION – Where in my life does this lesson apply?

What situation or circumstance (job, relationships, spiritual life, family, etc.) is going on in your life right now to which this lesson applies?

STEP 5 – ACTION STEP – What step can you take today to begin putting this lesson into practice in your situation?  Begin doing what you said.

Let me give you an example of what this can look like from Luke’s gospel, chapter 6, verses 12-16.

STEP 1:  READ THE PASSAGE

STEP 2:  CONTENT - After answering the “who, what, when, where, how and why” questions, the content sentence I wrote was:  After a night in prayer, Jesus chose 12 of His disciples to be apostles.

STEP 3: LESSON - Although it was possible to draw other lessons from the passage, the one I chose to focus on because it spoke directly to me was this one:  Although Jesus had perfect communion with the Father, He still chose to go away by Himself and spend an entire night praying.

 

STEP 4:  APPLICATION  The situation in my life that this lesson spoke to was a summer of an inconsistent, hurried, and shallow prayer life.  

STEP 5: ACTION STEP – Beginning tomorrow, instead of getting up and watching the news first thing, I’m going to get my coffee and sit out on the porch to read my Bible and spend time praying.

Get the idea?

There are some verses that have challenged me in the need to learn to feed myself.  One is from the words of the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 2, verse 2 where he says:  “like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.”

When we are newborn, baby believers, we do CRAVE spiritual milk and at first, we need need someone else to feed it to us so that we may begin to grow to spiritual maturity, but we can’t keep on growing on a diet of milk alone.  The milk we once craved, we need to replace with meat, and we have to move beyond having someone else provide it.

The writer to the Hebrews says this in chapter 5, verse 14, “Solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained THEMSELVES to distinguish good from evil.”

So, if you and I are still surviving only on food provided by others, it might be time to grow up and train ourselves to feed ourselves!   

Tomorrow when you find yourself hungry for God’s Word, where will you go?  You can always go to your devotional, or to the internet, or to a tape of your pastor’s last sermon – nothing wrong with that!  

But maybe it just might be time to start experiencing the joys of discovering God’s truths all by yourself with only the Holy Spirit to guide you.

Maybe now that you have a “recipe”, you'll get cooking!