How I Read and Study The Bible: Part 3

Okay so I've gone over the tools I use for Bible studying and journaling and I've gone over the books you should start with and how to get started. Now I'm going to do the super specific detailed part on how I highlight and take notes. 

You're going to need at least 4 highlighters. You can obviously use whatever colors you want but I use green, pink, purple, and blue to highlight different things in my Bible and notes. This has been a huge part of how I learn and notice things about God, things I want to apply to my life, things to pray about, etc. 

Summary- the overall theme or message of the chapter

Character of God- things that are said about God's character and who He is

Live It Out- things I want to apply to my life 

Prayer- words or traits I read that I want to mention when I pray 

Like I said, you can use whatever colors you want. The important thing is that you use the 4 categories and learn to recognize them while you're reading and taking notes. 

Here's a better explanation and some examples:

1. Summary

Sometimes this is literally just the title of the chapter itself. Sometimes its a verse or line that I feel like is the overall theme of what I'm reading. Sometimes its something I write in my notes and Bible that I feel like sums it up in my own words. And sometimes its multiple lines throughout the chapter that I think are the most important. Regardless, I always highlight that in green. I also try to write the summary in my own words at the beginning of my notes (if I can) and then highlight that in green. You can see in the above examples I highlighted the main titles of each verse because I felt like they summed up what the chapter was mainly about. 

2. Character of God

Originally I had the most trouble with this one. It has gradually become easier and I love and am proud of that. Once I read the entire passage, I take my pink highlighter and highlight key words or phrases that I believe show the character traits of God, who He is, things that He does, etc. Sometimes its really easy. Like when David says, literally, "You are righteous" or "You are a faithful God" but then other times there are verses that I feel like represent a certain thing that God does or who he is so I'll write it in my notes or in my Bible and highlight that in pink. In the pictures above I highlighted in pink (the darker pink- I have a coral pink that is hard to differentiate in these pictures lol) things like "He is a righteous judge", "a trustworthy refuge", etc. I use those terms again later and I'll get to that in a minute. 

3. Live It Out

I usually think of this one as "How Can I Apply This To My Life?" I use a purple highlighter to mark things that I feel are character traits I should strive for, things I want to do, or just things or verses in general I'd like to remember and apply to my everyday life. You can see in my examples that I used purple to mark things like "know Him, trust Him, seek Him" and "remember and acknowledge the great things that He has done." I use these later also. 

4. Prayer

This one is situational. I don't always find a "prayer" in my scripture but a lot of times I do. If there is a line that I read (especially something someone else is praying or saying to God) that I feel like I'd like to pray or say to God as well, I highlight it in blue. Some of these sort of go along with the things I want to apply to my life. Like in the above image I used purple AND blue to highlight things like "acknowledge the great things that he has done" because not only do I want to do those things, I want to pray those things. 

** you'll notice that I have other colors like orange, coral, yellow (which looks like a lot like green in the pictures, oops). these colors don't actually mean anything, they're just little extras that I like to highlight or remember. 

Now here is how I actually apply these things: 

Once I highlight these things in my Bible and my notes, I take my posts (or whatever you want to use) and summarize the Characteristics of God, "Live it Out," and Prayer and write them each out on their own notes. Then I use them throughout the day. Usually after I read my Bible I go sit on my front porch and pray. I take these with me and use them while I'm praying. They're reminders of what I want to pray to God to strive for (like asking Him to help me know him, trust him, and seek him), to remind me that I want to praise Him with my whole heart, to be thankful, and to acknowledge His works, and also a HUGE reminder of His character and who He is. 

Which brings me to the next part: PRAYER

Reflecting and praying after reading your Bible is just as important as the reading and studying. I like to pray before and after. I start by asking Him to help me understand, show me anything He wants me to know, give me clarity and concentration, etc. Then after I read, I spend the next chunk of time (as long as my children will allow lol) in prayer. Like I said above, I like to go outside on my front porch and pray. Wherever you feel the most comfortable and at peace. I bring my post-its out with me and use them as a guideline. I also use a prayer app, that I'll share about later if you're interested, and go through and name all the things throughout the day or week that I've wanted to bring to God. I praise Him. I thank Him. I repent and ask for His grace. I talk to Him. I cry to Him. I tell Him my worries and problems. This has been such a huge and important part of my day and has helped me in so many ways. 

I hope this has been helpful to at least one person. I am not an expert. I'm not a scholar or a teacher or a pastor. I'm not trying to teach or lead because those are huge responsibilities. But I just wanted to share with others what I do and how they help me every day. I mentioned before, but I've felt closer to God in the last few weeks spending my mornings (or any free time I can find) studying His Word. HIS Word. This Bible is made up of HIS Words or written by people he chose. Spending this time learning about Him and His character, learning and reading words from those who knew and followed Him so closely, and gaining clarity from commentaries and experts and definitions has helped me feel like I'm not just going through the motions as a Christian. I am learning to KNOW. TRUST. AND SEEK Him. I'm learning to repent. I'm learning to model my everyday actions after the One who gave us these instructions. And (this is a whole other soapbox of mine) that's really all it truly means to be a Christian right? It doesn't mean reciting a special prayer in Sunday school when you're 5, it doesn't mean going to church and singing some songs, then going home and living life no different than before, it doesn't mean quoting scripture or singing Hillsong songs or having a verse in your Instagram bio. It is knowing Him, seeking Him every day, and trusting Him. 

xo, katie