HOW TO STUDY GOD'S WORD Prelude

My grandson is almost a month old now. Since birth, he has been fully dependent on his mother for food since he is not capable of feeding himself. Milk from his mother’s breast is the only thing his young body can digest. However, it won’t be long before he will be holding his own bottle. And then shortly after that, his mother will put solid food on his tray and he’ll be able to feed himself with his hands. Before you know it, he’ll hold an eating utensil to pick up his food and eat. At age six or seven, he’ll probably have the ability to take the food provided for him and put it on his plate. By the time he’s in his teens, he just might be cooking a little bit for himself and his family. And as an adult, he’ll be preparing his own food and feeding himself.

“What does this have to do with studying God’s word you ask?” The process of how one grows physically, the food they eat and how they learn to feed themself correlates with their spiritual growth in The Word. How we develop spiritually from the milk of The Word served and prepared by others to partaking of the meat of The Word prepared by ourselves and served by God directly relates to the food we eat and our physical growth.

God expects us to “Grow-up” in Him. He expects us to be able to feed ourselves rather than depend on others to feed us all the time. He wants us to depend on Him first to supply whatever we need in order to be sustained rather than completely dependent on other people.

It is not God’s intent that we remain babies. Nor is it His intent that we live solely on milk and other people. He wants us to mature as believers to a point where we desire and seek the meat of The Word for ourselves.

“Be diligent to present YOURSELF approved to God, a worker (worker of The Word of God) who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” II Timothy 2:15

“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” I Peter 2:2

“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand.  In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!  Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.  But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” Hebrews 5:11-14

You’ve probably heard the old saying, “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime”—Author unknown

When we learn how to study God’s word, we can be fed for a lifetime! The spiritual food that sustains us will be readily available at all times.

Jesus answered, "It is written: Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4

God’s word is vital nutritional food for life. He desires for us to grow up in Him! He wants us to partake of the meat of His Word, study it for ourselves, rightly divide His Word and allow it to sustain us for life. Let’s eat!!

HOW TO STUDY GOD’S WORD Session 1 tomorrow.