Top 7 Bible Study Hacks To Start Today
What You Can Do Today To Have a Better Bible Study
Before we get started I want to thank relight.app of this collaboration. Check out their site for an amazing Bible study tool. (I use it, it’s great.)
1. Use Focus Modes
Focus modes can be super helpful for guarding your Bible study time. Setting this up can keep you from getting unnecessary notifications and even limit the apps that are available to you, so that you can still use technology to aid in your study.
2. Take Your Time
Technology can make you work too fast, especially in personal bible study—you barely skim the text before you start immediately tapping on things like cross references and commentary. Don't let it rush you! Read the text slowly, even several times, before engaging with study tools and aids.
3. Read Confessions and Catechisms
Read the reformed confessions and catechisms as commentaries! Some other apps do let you do something like this, but Relight puts it front and center, in the "Related" section under each verse. Anytime a confession or catechism uses the verse you're studying as a scripture proof, it will show up under that verse!
4. Use Cross References
Cross references—especially Relight's which drops in inline under the verse you're studying—are a great way to quickly look for other verses that, when studied, might aid in your understanding of the original verse, or give you a more comprehensive view of what scripture is saying about a particular topic.
5. Dig Into Church Fathers
Calvin never wrote commentary on some books of the Bible, like Proverbs, but it's still possible to see comments by him that relate! If Calvin mentions the verse you're studying in his commentary on another part of scripture (or even the Institutes!), it will show up in the Related section.
6. Use Word Studies
Doing a quick word study is a great way to see how that word was translated in other parts of scripture, but proceed with caution. But technology can sometimes be both friend and foe depending on how it's used, and if your word studies are making you doubt your translation's accuracy, talk to your pastor.
7. Use Paper When It’s Easier
Using technology to study the Bible doesn't mean you have to give up paper. You can use your paper Bible to read the Word, a paper notebook to take notes, and an app like Relight on your phone or tablet to read commentaries you don't have a paper copy of, or to do things that are cumbersome like looking up a ton of cross references.
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