Prayer | Knowable Word

When You’ve Led a Bad Bible Study: Praying

October 14, 2019 By Ryan Higginbottom

Every Bible study leader has been there. You leave the meeting, sit in your car, and think, “Wow, that was a stinker.”

Bad Bible study meetings take lots of different forms, but they’re all disappointing. And, depending on how you handle a bad meeting, this disappointment can cling to you and affect your outlook on your friends, your calling, and the church itself.

In this post and the two that follow, I will suggest some ways to move on from a bad Bible study meeting. I hope this helps you process what happened and plan for the future with faith and love.

The first step is to pray.

Why Should We Pray?

Leading a Bible study is a great ministry opportunity, so when a meeting goes sour, it is good to speak with God. After all, we seek supernatural transformation during these meetings! We depend on God to work in us and in our friends.

When we pray, we acknowledge both God’s control and our small place in the world. We need him more than we can fathom, and prayer is the best expression of our dependence on our Father.

Praying can—and should—take several forms. Below, I’ve suggested six ways to pray.

Lament

That Bible study did not go the way you wanted. It did not go the way it should have gone. Bad Bible studies won’t happen in heaven.

It’s okay to sit in the grief of this disappointment before the Lord. It’s more than okay—it’s a good thing. Most Christians need more Biblical lament in their lives. We mourn what’s wrong; we grieve what has been lost; we long for God to make things right.

Invite God to search you

Like King David (Psalm 139:23–24), invite the Lord to search you. Ask him to expose any sin and any mistakes that contributed to the bad Bible study meeting.

Be prepared to sit in silence. Invite and receive conviction from the Holy Spirit. You may find it helpful to journal as you pray.

Confess your sins

If God has convicted you of any sin, confess it to him. It may be impatience, laziness (lack of preparation), failure to love, a critical spirit, or pride. No matter what you have to confess, do so understanding the seriousness of the offense and the warm embrace of God who is eager to assure you of his forgiveness.

Not every bad Bible study meeting is the result of sin on the leader’s part. But this may be a good opportunity to humble yourself before God and repent of any sins related to your study-leading ministry.

Pray for your people

Pray for those people who come to your Bible study group, especially those who attended the bad meeting. Pray that God would protect them from error and frustration, that they would continue to seek God in his Word and grow. Ask God to keep them faithful in their personal devotions, that he would remind them of his presence with them, and that they would return to the next group meeting with enthusiasm.

Pray for each of your friends in the group by name. Pray especially for any people who you think might have contributed to the meeting not going well. Be sure not to harbor bitterness in your heart against them.

Pray for the next meeting

Pray for yourself as you prepare for the next meeting of your Bible study group—that God would give you understanding of his word and love for his people. Pray that God would gather your group together again and that your friends would participate, be honest with each other, and grow in their understanding and application of the Bible. Pray that the Holy Spirit would bless the next group meeting richly.

Give thanks

There are so many reasons to thank God; don’t let one frustrating ministry experience leave a bad taste in your mouth.

Thank him for his Word and for the chance you have to study and help others understand it. Thank God for each of the people in your Bible study group by name—not just for their participation, but for all the gifts they bring to each gathering.

Finally, don’t forget the gospel when you’re giving thanks. God’s love for you does not depend upon your performance or any “good” outcomes from your ministry. Thank God that his love for you is fixed and firm and that you can know this for sure by looking to the work of Jesus: his cross, his empty tomb, and his kingly throne.

It’s Easier Not to Pray

After a bad Bible study meeting, it’s tempting to brush it off, to think it’s no big deal, and to try to forget it as quickly as possible. That’s far easier than praying.

But if we skip this step we miss an opportunity. And we may be overlooking some of the work God is doing in us and in our group. Sometimes these bad experiences show up for just that purpose.

3 Essential Ingredients for Understanding the Bible

February 18, 2019 By Ryan Higginbottom

Nadya Spetnitskaya (2018), public domain

It’s not popular these days. So many people are counting carbs and dodging gluten. But it’s true: I love bread.

Bread is one of God’s great gifts—a gift so great that even someone with my paltry cooking skills can throw together a passable loaf.

While there are thousands of variations, the core bread recipe is remarkably simple: flour, water, yeast, and salt. That’s it.

Experts can punch up the flavor with add-ins and fancy baking techniques, but those four ingredients are essential. Without them, you might whip up something delicious, but you don’t have bread.

It’s the same way with understanding the Bible. There are a few essential elements that must be present if we’re to learn from God’s word.

The Bible

This may be obvious, but it must be said. In order to understand the Bible, we need to actually read the Bible!

We don’t need to be Hebrew or Greek scholars. God has been generous in providing plenty of quality English translations. And for most of us, these translations are easy to access.

But we do need the actual words of the Bible. Not study notes or a friendly devotional or a commentary. Not at first. We need time to read, hear, and meditate on the words of God.

The Bible is meant for Christians to read and understand. God is not trying to hide its meaning from you. You are smart enough to read and study the Bible.

Humility

If we aim to understand the Bible, we must approach it with humility.

What is true in our personal relationships is also true in our approach to the Scriptures—in order to learn, we must be convinced that we have things to learn! When we draw near to the Bible, we are submitting to an authority. We approach the bench in handcuffs, we do not bang the gavel. The posture of the Christian disciple must be one of open hands, bowed head, well-worn knees.

As we meet with God in his word, we acknowledge that we are naive and foolish. Ignorant and forgetful. Frail. Incomplete in our understanding.

But God is wise. He is experienced. All-knowing. Never forgetting. Strong. On top of all that, he loves to communicate about himself and his world through his word.

When we call the Bible “God’s word,” this is not just a synonym. This is a reassuring, bulls eye-accurate description. We must come humbly to the Bible because the God of the universe stands behind these words.

The Holy Spirit

Finally, we need help to understand the Bible. This is help that God loves to give, but we cannot understand the Bible on our own.

God helps us grasp the Bible by coming to us himself in the person of the Holy Spirit. We need the Spirit’s work and power to give us both insight and the gift of repentance.

The Holy Spirit is described as our helper and teacher (John 14:26). Paul writes that we have received the Spirit of God “that we might understand the things freely given us by God” (1 Corinthians 2:12), and that, because of the Spirit, “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16).

If you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit dwells within you. Pray and ask for his help as you read the Bible.

Closing

There is more to say about studying the Bible, of course. This website is devoted to saying more about studying the Bible! But this article is about the essentials.

Remember this the next time you seek out God in the Scriptures. Read the Bible. Approach with humility. Ask for the Holy Spirit’s help. And God will give you hearty, nourishing, sustaining food that will bring deep satisfaction to your soul.

Reading the Bible for the Ten Thousandth Time

November 26, 2018 By Ryan Higginbottom

Lilian Dibbern (2018), public domain

We’re good at learning our surroundings, aren’t we? After living in one place for many years, we know every last detail. We know which noises are normal and which drips and knocks require a phone call. We know the cold spots of each room, the number of stairs between floors, and which floorboards squeak the loudest. If necessary, we could find our bed in the deepest darkness, because we know our place. It’s home.

For some people, this familiarity is comforting. They like the warmth and security that comes from knowing a place inside and out. But for others, the comfort makes them uneasy. It seems boring and dry, like a mouth full of uncooked oats. They start to look for something new.

Some might think of the Bible as predictable and stuffy, especially those who have been reading it for years. They know every beat of every story. There are no more surprises; the excitement is gone.

By instinct we know that first-time readers of the Bible need guidance. But long-time readers need help too. In this article we’ll explore some of the ways to combat boredom and lethargy for experienced Bible readers.

Five Ways to Fight Bible Weariness

There are many ways to guard against the boredom that can come with age and familiarity. Here are five of the best.

Remember why you’re reading. The Bible is not boring because it has a grand, explosive, eternal purpose. We read the Bible in order to know the God of the universe! We wouldn’t know him, or know how to approach him, if he didn’t tell us. And because God is infinite, we cannot exhaust our understanding of him. So, while you might know all the stories in the Bible, you can always know and worship the God behind those stories better. And here’s a glorious follow-up: This is exactly what God wants!

Adjust your routine. There are lots of different ways to take in the Bible. If you’ve been reading a lot, try listening. Read through the Bible as quickly as you can. Or take six months, read one book as many times as possible, and let it sink into your bones. Study the Bible, memorize it, sing it. A different translation or a different physical Bible might offer the fresh perspective you need.

Teach the Bible. Most Bible teachers will tell you they learn far more during their teaching than any of their students. Most churches and ministries often need Sunday school teachers, Bible study leaders, and volunteers at the local nursing home. Don’t shy away from children’s ministries either—you really have to know and believe the Bible to explain it to kids! If your Bible intake is not just for yourself, you may find it more challenging, comforting, and life-giving.

Apply the Bible. Though the Bible’s text and truths don’t change, we do. This means that the same accurate interpretation of a passage at age 25 has massively different implications when we’re 55. Application is the most difficult step of Bible study, so we often skip it, but application is precisely where we are forced to trust in God. Our faith grows the most when we take steps of obedience and witness God supporting our feet. To fight disinterest in the Bible, push your Bible study from observation and interpretation all the way to application.

Share the gospel. It’s tempting to think the Bible is dusty and anemic when we never witness the power of God through its words. In addition to applying the Bible to ourselves, we can see this power as we tell others about Jesus. The Holy Spirit most often uses the words of the Bible to awaken the dead and grant faith in Christ, and we can be a part of this! If you want to see just how powerful the Bible is, pray for opportunities to talk to others about Jesus, and then rejoice and obey when those opportunities arise. (God loves to answer this prayer!)

Ask and You Shall Receive

When we feel fatigue with the Bible, the problem is not with the book. The problem is with us.

But remember—God is a compassionate father who loves his children. At the bottom of every strategy given above is this encouragement: Talk honestly with God about your struggles. Confess your sin, your apathy, your lack of love. Ask him to be merciful, to change you from the inside out.

Don’t let your boredom with the Bible lead you away from God. Take it to him; he already knows and is eager and able to help.

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Context Matters: Ask, Seek, Knock

August 24, 2018 By Peter Krol

When you hear those 3 short words—ask, seek, knock—what is the first thing to enter your mind? If you cross paths with the statement, “Ask, and it will be given to you,” you don’t even need the context, right? You know beyond a shadow of doubt that it’s talking about prayer. Can’t we just get right to application? Why bother asking the interpretive question: What does it mean?

Because context matters. If we learn to read the Bible for what it is—and not as a collection of independently assembled proverbial sayings—we’ll discover that some of our most familiar passages say something slightly different from what we’ve always assumed.

The Text

What does “ask, seek, knock” mean? My answer to the question depends on which text we’re looking at. For the sake of this post, I’m focusing on Jesus’ words in Matt 7:7-11, deep within the Sermon on the Mount.

Marco Verch (2017), Creative Commons

The Problem

The problem is that the paragraph also appears, nearly verbatim, in Luke 11:9-13. And the context there clearly refers to prayer:

“Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).
“And he said to them, ‘When you pray, say…'” (Luke 11:2-4).
“How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask for him!” (Luke 11:13).

So I would be wrong to say that “ask, seek, knock” is not about prayer. Certainly it’s about prayer…in Luke 11.

And so we take this clear teaching on prayer in Luke’s gospel, and we assume Matthew means the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount. I’ve even seen commentaries on Matthew that take “the Holy Spirit” from Luke 11:13 and import it into Matt 7:11, as though “the Holy Spirit” must be the “good things” Jesus wants us to ask for in Matt 7.

Now I affirm that Scripture interprets Scripture. But we must not forget that each Scripture has a context. We have no trouble remembering this fact when we try to reconcile Paul’s teaching on justification by faith with James’s teaching on justification by works. Similarly, Matthew 7:11 meant something to the original audience of Matthew’s gospel, who probably didn’t yet have access to Luke’s gospel. So how would they have understood Matt 7:7-11 within its own context?

An Analogy

Different biblical authors can use the same event for a different purpose. We have endeavored to show this fact with respect to the feeding of the 5,000 and the resurrection of Jesus.

And if they can use the same event for a different purpose, why can’t they also use the same sayings for a different purpose?

The Sermon

I’ve already argued for reading the full Sermon on the Mount as a single speech. And I’ve explained the sermon’s big picture, along with the main theme of Matt 7:1-12: reciprocity.

Matt 7:7-11 fits squarely within this train of thought:

Matt 7:1: First reaction to tension or conflict among kingdom citizens: Don’t judge. Let it go.
- Matt 7:2: Your standards of sizing others up will be reciprocated against you. Implication: Be as generous as possible in your assessment, so others will be generous in their assessments of you!
Matt 7:3-4: If you can’t let it go, your second reaction is to evaluate yourself first.
- Matt 7:5: Otherwise, you will not be able to see your sibling’s issue clearly.
Matt 7:6: Not everyone is a fellow kingdom citizen. Those outside the kingdom are not strong candidates for correction.
Matt 7:7-11: [The text at hand.]
Matt 7:12: Conclusion: Do to others what you wish they would do to you.

Catch This Train

So, when Jesus tells you to keep the principle of reciprocity in mind (doing to others what you want them to do to you), and he applies it to cases where we find ourselves in the midst of disagreement…

Wouldn’t it be marvelous if he gave us some direction about how to resolve those disagreements?

Now that I’ve discerned that my antagonist is a brother (Matt 7:3-4) and not an outsider (Matt 7:6), and I’ve confessed my part in the conflict and have taken full responsibility for it (Matt 7:5a)…how do I now help my fellow Christian to get the speck out of his or her eye (Matt 7:5b)?

Jesus’ conclusion is clear enough: I should approach this person in the way I would want him to approach me (Matt 7:12). So how would I want someone to approach me if they’ve got a problem with me they can’t overlook (Matt 7:1)?

I would want them to ask for my perspective on the matter instead of making declarations about how terrible they believed my motives to be.
I would want them to seek to understand my perspective and not merely dismiss it as foolish, immature, or idolatrous.
I would want them to knock on my door, gently respecting how sensitive the issue might be to me. I would not want them to force their way in with their side of the story.

So perhaps I ought to approach others in the same way I would prefer to be approached.

What the Father has to Do With It

As a father, I understand these principles of gentle and compassionate reciprocation. If my son asks for bread, I won’t give him a stone (Matt 7:9). If my son asks for a fish, I won’t give him a serpent (Matt 7:10).

And my Father in heaven is even better than I am at giving good gifts when I ask (Matt 7:11)! So we do have, after all, an oblique reference to prayer. But this prayer in Matt 7:11 is not the paragraph’s main idea. It simply supports the larger argument that it will go better for you if you ask questions instead of making demands.

Jesus does something here that he’s already done in chapter 6 of this sermon (which Ryan carefully explained a few days ago): He links our relationship with God to our relationships with one another. In Matt 6:14-15, he explains that a failure to forgive others is evidence that we have not been forgiven by God. And now in Matt 7:11 he suggests that if we can trust God to give us good things when we ask, and we can trust our evil selves to give good gifts to the children we love, so we can trust God’s people to give us good things when we ask as well.

Conclusion

What better thing can we ask others for than peace, unity, understanding, and mutual respect, especially when we have offended one another?

In other words, the way to remove the speck of a fellow Christian is not to come at it with a shovel and dig it out. You do it by asking questions, seeking to understand the person’s point of view, and knocking on the issue respectfully until the person is willing to open the door and let you in. Isn’t this exactly how you wish people would treat you when they have a problem with you?

Context matters.

Note: I readily admit I could be wrong about this. Perhaps Jesus really is changing the subject to prayer in Matt 7:7-11, and then again to a broad principle for relationships in Matt 7:12. As one example, perhaps John Stott is right when he says, “Matthew 7 consists of a number of apparently self-contained paragraphs” (Stott, J. R. W., & Stott, J. R. W. (1985). The message of the Sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian counter-culture (p. 174). Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.). The issue is that Stott—an otherwise keen observer of the Bible’s train of thought—does not in this case argue his point from the text; he merely assumes it and exposits the text accordingly.

So I wrote this post in an effort to allow the genre and train of thought—more than widespread assumption—to drive interpretation.

Thanks to Adewale Odedina in Nigeria for suggesting I tackle these verses.

Context Matters: The Lord’s Prayer

August 20, 2018 By Ryan Higginbottom

Olivia Snow (2017), public domain

You’re probably familiar with the Lord’s Prayer. In fact, you might feel like you’ve heard it a million times.

You might pray it as a family or during worship at church. Many pastors have preached through this passage, and most of the church’s historic catechisms analyze this prayer in detail.

But we rarely consider the context of the Lord’s Prayer. Because of the frequency with which this prayer is recited, the Lord’s Prayer might be the passage of Scripture most often removed from its context.

But context matters. The Bible is not a collection of independent stories, proverbs, and prayers. Each book was written by an author with a purpose. If we learn to read the Bible for what it is, we’ll discover that some of our most familiar passages take on different or deeper meanings than we’ve always assumed.

The Sermon on the Mount

As recorded by Matthew, the Lord’s Prayer falls in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. (Peter has written about this portion of Matthew’s Gospel recently here and here.)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. (Matthew 6:9–13)

This sermon is for Jesus’s disciples (Matt 5:1), and in chapter six Jesus is teaching about spiritual practices and values. For a watching world, these are crucial aspects of life that denote one of Jesus’s followers.

Private Religious Practices

In Matthew 6:1–18, Jesus is concerned with the disciples’ religion. And Jesus contrasts the children of God with the hypocrites and Gentiles. The overarching command is this: “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven” (Matt 6:1).

When you give to the poor, don’t draw attention to yourself like the hypocrites. Rather, give to the poor in secret. (Matthew 6:2–4)
When you pray, don’t draw attention to yourself like the hypocrites. Rather, pray to your Father in secret. (Matthew 6:5–6)
When you fast, don’t draw attention to yourself like the hypocrites. Rather, fast in secret. (Matthew 6:16–18)

In each of these situations, Jesus says the hypocrites will reap the reward they seek (honor or praise from people) but nothing else. Those whose practices are done in private—without concern for notoriety—will be rewarded by God.

The Lord’s Prayer falls in the middle of this instruction. It is not a prayer that is prayed to attract attention, but it is private, trusting communication between a disciple and God.

God is Father

In the Lord’s Prayer we are famously instructed to address God as “Our Father,” but this is part of a longer and wider point Jesus is making about God’s family.

Until the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had not spoken of God as Father in Matthew’s Gospel. But in these three chapters, Jesus refers to God as Father 17 times, with a whopping 12 of them coming in chapter six. Part of Jesus’s point is that his disciples have a new relationship with God. He is not simply the law-giver or judge, but he is father.

This is the exact point Jesus is making when he introduces the Lord’s Prayer. He tells the disciples not to “heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do.” The Gentiles think that when they pray they will “be heard for their many words.” But for disciples, God is Father, and “your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

You do not need a lengthy or eloquent prayer to turn God’s gaze. You already have his attention. You are his child! Of course he will listen!

The way we pray, including the way we pray the Lord’s Prayer, reveals whether or not we believe God is our loving father.

Forgiveness

The fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer concerns forgiveness, and Jesus continues to teach about the topic after saying “Amen.”

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:14–15)

The word “for” at the beginning of this sentence is instructive. For disciples, Jesus’s teaching on prayer must be connected to their interactions with other people. The way they approach God in prayer, and even the forgiveness they seek from God, is connected to the way they forgive others.

We don’t have the space to exhaust the Bible’s teaching on forgiveness, but many other passages teach that we cannot earn forgiveness from God. What Jesus says here must make sense when considering other portions of the Bible which are more straightforward.

In short, the way people treat those who have sinned against them reveals an important part of their heart toward God. Those who are forgiven by God make a consistent practice of forgiving others. And those who do not forgive others may not know the forgiving love of God.

Conclusion

The Lord’s Prayer is not an isolated collection of six requests. And while it is instruction from Jesus on how to pray, it is more than that.

The Lord’s Prayer is an illustration of what it looks like to pray to a heavenly Father who knows what you need before you ask him. It is an example of how to pray in secret, how not to practice your righteousness before men, and how to seek reward from God. And it is a reminder that our relationship with God cannot be divorced from our relationship with other people.

Context matters.

Don’t Cease Without Praying

October 31, 2016 By Ryan Higginbottom

Prayer is one of the clearest acknowledgements from Christians that we depend on God. For every step, for every breath, for every word we speak in God’s name, we need the wisdom and strength that only God can provide. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing.

At Knowable Word, we’ve described a time-tested method of studying the Bible. But don’t let the steps and descriptions lead you into self-reliance. You can follow the OIA method all you want—if you do not have the help and favor of God, it won’t do you a bit of good.

anonymous (2016), public domain

Pray for Understanding

The good news of the Bible is that, for Christians, God’s love doesn’t depend on our actions. God’s love relies on Jesus’s actions in our place.

And yet God wants us to pray. He uses our humble reliance on him in prayer to teach us and change us. We especially need this when we try to understand the Bible.

We should pray because we are blind. In our flesh, we cannot see what we should see in the Bible; we need God to open our eyes (Psalm 119:18).

We should pray because we are dim. Though we think ourselves smart, our natural minds cannot discern spiritual truths. The Holy Spirit helps us know the things given to us by God (1 Cor 2:10–16).

We should pray because we are distracted. We often find the world’s beeps and boops more delightful than God’s word. We need the Spirit to guide us into all truth (John 16:13).

We should pray because we are distant. We may observe the Bible carefully and interpret it accurately, but if we keep God’s word at arm’s length, we are wasting our time. We need God to incline our hearts to his testimonies (Psalm 119:36).

Observation and interpretation lead us to the main point of a Bible passage, and we need God’s help on every inch of the journey. Moving on from the main point, our need to pray only skyrockets.

Pray for Living

The hardest work of studying the Bible is application. In this third step, we listen to God’s call to change. Anyone who’s tried to change knows how powerless they are on their own.

We should pray because we are clueless. We are often oblivious to our sin. We are used to our patterns and hardened to their effects on others. We need God to show us the grievous ways in us (Psalm 139:23–24).

We should pray because we are resistant. We like our sin; it is comfortable and familiar. We need the Spirit to convict us (John 16:8).

We should pray because our growth is God’s work. God has no less than our complete sanctification in view (1 Thess 5:23).

We should pray because our growth is also our work. Because God is at work in us for his good pleasure, we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12–13).

We should pray because we need transformation. Christians are works in progress. We should ask God to show us our sin, grant us repentance, and, as we behold God’s glory, transform us from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor 3:18).

Pray and Pray Some More

Bible study calls for frequent prayer. Acknowledging God’s rule, his power, his goodness, and his love should be second nature.

The Psalmist knew what it was like to seek God regarding his word. Let’s learn to pray in the same way.

Deal with your servant according to your steadfast love,
and teach me your statutes. (Psalm 119:124)

Let Down Your Guard to Keep Up the Fight

July 27, 2015 By Ryan Higginbottom

In the classic image of a gray, moat-encircled castle, the drawbridge is a crucial defense tool. When the bridge is up, enemies are exposed and archers have the advantage.

In this position the castle is isolated and cannot receive any food, supplies, or correspondence. Though dropping the bridge makes the castle vulnerable, a fearful king who won’t let others inside is in trouble of a different kind. The king falls if the bridge doesn’t.

Your Heart is a Castle

Georges Jansoone (2006), Creative Commons License

We shield our hearts from others without thinking. On one level, this is natural—we don’t need to reveal deep secrets in every conversation.

But some people don’t let anyone across the drawbridge. We need community to apply the Bible, and at its core a community is a network of close, honest friendships. Letting down our guard is difficult, but it isn’t just a nice idea to consider—it’s essential to growing as a Christian. Without friendships, our hearts starve like the paranoid king.

Small Group Prayer

A small group is an important place to build Biblical community. Your fellow group members may not start out as your dearest friends. But as you meet regularly and discuss the most important topics in the world, you create an environment where transformational vulnerability is possible.

Even a brief period of prayer can promote honest sharing in your group. These opportunities can embolden people to disclose themselves in ways that mark true friendship.

The group leader should encourage prayer requests that cannot be delivered in another setting. You can learn about Bob’s aunt’s cat’s bunion surgery by email without missing an opportunity to care for Bob. But when Bob confesses his anger or loneliness or gluttony, you are better equipped to bear his burden and love him if you can look him in the eyes and draw him into a conversation.

Assignment #1: Find one personal item to share during your next small group prayer time. What are the areas of your life in which you see great need for repentance and growth? How can you strengthen your group with stories of God’s provision or his deliverance from an entangling sin (Heb 12:1, NASB)?

Applying the Bible

Effective Bible study involves careful observation, intense interpretation, and penetrating application. Though it is the most uncomfortable part of the process, if we skip application we’ve missed the point.

Applying the Bible is more than just saying “pray more,” “read my Bible regularly,” “trust in Jesus,” or “focus on the Lord in everything.” Amen to these exhortations, but when application is not concrete it’s like trying to visit Greenland by “going north.”

Friends within your small group can help you get specific, but you need to open the door before they can walk through. Here are two keys: practicing application on your own, and being willing to discuss application (past and future) in detail.

The vocabulary isn’t all that important, but the more familiar you are with the categories of application, the more broadly and thoroughly others will be able to address your concerns during your small group meeting. As part of this process you must anticipate the particular resistance your flesh offers to change. If you can pinpoint your tendencies, you can enlist help to combat them.

You also need to be able to talk about application with your friends. When the Holy Spirit helps us connect the main point of a passage to an area of disobedience in our lives, we need to push through the fear and feelings of exposure that often ride shotgun. If you are willing to be specific about your sin and answer questions from your group members, you will be that much closer to the obedience you seek.

Assignment #2: For your next small group meeting, read the relevant Bible passage ahead of time and prepare some personal applications to discuss with your group. Remember that vulnerability inspires vulnerability, and if one person in a group is willing to talk honestly, others will as well.

A Brief Note about Prayer in Bible Studies

January 9, 2015 By Peter Krol

There is a time not to pray. In fact, there are many such times.

Stefano Corso (2008), Creative Commons

Imagine this: A coworker invites you to his house for dinner and a movie. Somewhere after the beef and potatoes, but before the surround sound explosions begin, he unrolls a few small mats. He says that before you can get to the evening’s fun, you’ll have to kneel with him and face toward Mecca to seek Allah’s favor on your evening. The expectations are heavy, and he’s not asking your opinion on the matter. How would you feel?

Let’s not forget how others would feel if we expect them to take part in our religious rituals as well.

Now, I am not saying that there are more gods than one. Nor am I saying that all religions are equally valid. I am saying, though, that love and respect should drive us to reconsider our customs so as not to set up unnecessary stumbling blocks.

By all means, let us pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17). But that doesn’t mean our prayers have to be out loud. The Bible does not command us to begin every Bible study with corporate prayer.

If your Bible study focuses on reaching non-Christians, I strongly suggest not praying during the study. The gospel is already weird. Why make your attempt to reach out any weirder than it needs to be? Book discussion groups are pretty common these days. Why not have a “book discussion” group that discusses the best-selling book on the market? Most people attending such a group would expect to engage with ideas, but they would not expect to pray at the meeting.

DeYoung’s 5 Tips for Leading Small Groups

September 10, 2014 By Peter Krol

Kevin DeYoung posted a great article last week on leading small groups. His tips are:

Communicate early and often, and then follow through.
Think through your questions ahead of time.
Be mindful of group dynamics.
Know how to handle conflict.
Plan for prayer.

I wrote some similar things in my posts “How to Lead a Great Bible Study” and “5 Practices for Preparing Effective Bible Studies,” so I highly recommend the full article. Check it out!

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