Hidden in My Heart

Beginning to Study God's Word

James Dakis

Back in about 1982, when I was just starting my studies at Liberty Home Bible Institute, (to give you some perspective, there was no internet so classes were taken via cassette taped lectures and printed text/workbooks and, yes, a real Bible), I got into a conversation with a gentleman who told me that he was a faithful churchgoer. I will not disclose his particular denominational affiliation as this is not about church bashing. I was not bragging, however, in one of our regular, almost weekly discussions about religion, when I mentioned that not only had I read the Bible in its entirety but that I had read it more than once. He seemed both shocked that anyone who was not clergy would have done this, but also a bit confused. Why would anyone do that? Better yet, why read it more than once? I could almost hear the question in his mind.

I asked him if he, himself, had ever read it. His response was essentially, “No, why would I? That is my priest’s job.” He told me that he attended services on Sunday morning where he listened attentively to what the clergy of the church told him was in the Bible and trusted that what he was told was correct. I admired his faith that the teaching was correct, (not telling him that I had my own doubts about the particular church he attended, as this was not the issue at hand.)

This was followed up with a statement that almost made the man faint. I asked him, “What if you hear something in church that you don’t agree with? What if your priest says something that you think is an incorrect interpretation of the Bible? I know that he is, of course, an educated man in the theology of the Bible, the doctrines of the church, and so forth, but what if he says something contrary to your own beliefs or understanding?”

Wow! You would have thought that I had just suggested to a three-year-old that there was no Santa Clause! It seemed that he, and many people, believed that just because a man (or woman I guess) is an ordained member of the elite clergy, that any words spoken regarding the faith of the Bible are given with the same inerrancy. Anything this man heard from the pulpit must be true and without error. The clergy had gone to seminary. The reason he and millions of others went to church on Sundays was to have the truth of God’s Word bestowed upon them. This was the weekly feeding that they needed. Right? Well…no. Not really. Actually, not at all. (Thanks for the pressure, though.)

Even before I was one of the almost 500,000 people who identify as clergy in the United States according to https://datausa.io/profile/soc/clergy, I was aware that those who had been called to be the leaders of any faith were expected to be more knowledgeable than those they led and taught. Just as teachers in the academic world, coaches in athletics, vocational trainers, or anyone who assumes the task of training, teaching, grooming, or mentoring others must first go through the process himself, religious leaders are no different. However, faith, at least in most religions, and certainly as the Bible teaches it, should not be a passive part of a person’s life. It is a very active life and one that evolves and grows. In fact, for the born-again-Christian, salvation is only the beginning of the relationship a person has with God, when acceptance of a sinful nature and sin in one’s life comes, asking for forgiveness follows, and inviting Jesus Christ into the repentant person’s heart follows. The steps are spelled out clearly for us in the Bible;

“ For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” (Rom 3:23).

“ That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”(Rom 10:9)

“ Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;”(Act 3:19)

Notice that all these verses point to the first steps of a Christian’s life; salvation. However, one must not stop here. Another and almost as important step is that of sanctification. This is a word that we hear in church and theological discussions but don’t hear defined a lot. In fact, it is disappointing to think about how little emphasis is actually put on it. So, without further ado, let’s start by answering the question of just what sanctification is! Merriam-Webster defines sanctification as: “the state of growing in divine grace as a result of Christian commitment after baptism or conversion” (emphasis mine). Growing. This means that the Christian must do something to see that this growth happens. Granted, attending a good church where the Bible is taught is a good place to start. After all, we read in the Bible, “ Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”(Heb 10:25)(Emphasis mine). In other words, being in the fellowship of other believers is important. Hearing the Word of God preached by a godly man who has been called to the ministry is crucial. However, we are here to look at something much more than that today. What about individual study outside of our Sunday morning worship? What does it entail and how should it be done? Are there hard and fast rules for it? Let’s dive in and see!

Without a doubt, individual study of the Bible, or any aspect of your Christian life should involve prayer. Whether this is prayer before getting out of bed in the morning, prayer for guidance throughout the day, prayers of thanksgiving for meals, or other blessings, we should maintain a heart of prayerfulness at all times. In the past, I have recorded videos and done Bible studies on prayer itself because of its importance in every Christian’s life.

How Do I Study the Bible?

Is this just something that I do if I am going to go into vocational ministry? In a short answer; NO! Psalm 119:11 tells us, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” The psalmist has “hid(den)the Word of God in his heart. To “hide something in your heart” as the psalmist did, one must love it very dearly. Of course, to love something like this, it seems obvious that a very intimate knowledge of it is needed. After all, think about someone you would describe as a person you love with “all your heart”. This is someone near and dear to you. Someone you know better than anyone else. Someone you would do anything for. This is the way David, the writer of the psalm, feels about God, and the Word given to him. This is why David is the only man in the Bible who is not once, but twice referred to as a man after God’s own heart. (I Samuel 13:14 & Acts 13:22)

Some people equate reading the Bible to studying the Bible. While a habit of daily Bible reading is certainly a good one, it does not take the place of serious study. A chapter a day, a select text along with a devotional book by a respectable Christian author, or a plan where you read through the entire Bible in a set period of time, be it a year, six months, or whatever time frame you have decided, is a good plan for anyone. Whatever you do, my suggestion is to decide on something and set aside a time of your day that you hold to. Many people choose early morning because it allows you to start fresh before anything else has cluttered your mind or gotten you behind schedule. For me, I have chosen this because, although I do not have a job that takes me outside my home on a regular schedule, I do know that once I start opening my email, making phone calls, writing, running errands, etc., getting back into my reading chair in my office is that much harder. It is much easier for me to start my morning with my first cup of coffee, sitting in my chair, book opened up, with nothing else going on.

This may not be possible for you, particularly if you are a wife and mother who has an entire family relying on you to get the ball rolling in the morning. The same thing applies if you are a student with early morning classes, a third-shift worker who starts your day in the middle of the night, or someone who lives in a dormitory setting with people coming and going at all hours. Obviously, you have to find what works for you. However, don’t make excuses for why it can’t happen. It can and must happen. If it isn’t working, you need to find what in your life/schedule is interfering and adjust that!

Let it be known that the next statement is not meant to be one of bragging but if anything, one to point out how much I continue to learn. I read the Bible for the first time in 1975. I was twelve years old and read the New Testament from beginning to end. Shortly afterward, I read it again. Eventually, I tackled the Old Testament as well, although it was more challenging. To date, as I write this in late June 2021, I have probably read the entire Bible cover to cover at least six times, the New Testament ten times, and given the additional reading for school and self-study, another four or five. In no way does this make me a Bible scholar. If anything, it makes me a Bible student. It makes me someone who learns and gleans something new each and every time that I read a passage again. How can that be? If I read a textbook from just about any class I took in school from first grade through college, except for the material that I had forgotten, chances are the material would be the same again. Why then, do I read the Bible again and again? Why does it mean something new each time?

Quite simply, because the 12-year-old who read Ephesians 5:25, instructing husbands how to treat their wives made sense but had little meaning to me. When I first got married it was important to me. Now, having been married for almost two decades, it is a reminder every day to never forget that my life is to be one of constant devotion to the bride my Lord gave me. I had never dealt with the sorrows of the death of a loved one when I first read the Bible but have since then buried all four of my grandparents, my mother, and my in-laws. The Bible taught me as a boy how to obey my parents as a child and reminds me as a man how to continue to honor my parents even as an adult. The list is endless. The point is, the Bible speaks to us all differently at different times in our lives.

How to Pick a Study Method

There are many ways to actually study the Bible. Some people prefer to study alone. Still other prefer study groups. There is no single right or wrong way to do it. In fact, I have often been part of a study group while also doing my own, independent study. Study groups have varied but one thing that I have noticed with them is that the more involved each member is, the better they seem to be. The ones where one person facilitates and other contribute seem to work the best as they stay on course and have more specific direction but if the leader simply “spoon-feeds” others, meaning that he or she teaches while everyone else simply opens their collective mouths and takes in anything and everything without contributing, questioning, or doing any independent studying, this isn’t study, it is lecturing. I once actually led a group like this that got very frustrating. At one point I probably could have told the group that the Bible had been written by a group of trolls from middle-earth in the 3rd century who had a vision while deep sea fishing and they would have believed me, simply because they lacked the initiative to investigate or ask questions.

Study can be over a specific book of the Bible. I have been in study groups where we would decide in advance, what book we would study. We were a small group of about half a dozen men who met early in the morning once a week. We would spend about an hour digging deep into the text and often cover no more than about three or four verses. It was the kind of study that we enjoyed. This, however, is not for everyone. Study can also be topical It may be about prayer, Spiritual Gifts, forgiveness, forgiveness, etc. Finding applicable Bible texts to use and a good study guide for everyone to have if doing this in a group makes for good study. It can also lead to giving people something to read for the following week.

Whatever your final thoughts on this, remember that the Bible is a living book. It is a guide for your Christian life. It is not some ancient text that is outdated. While it doesn’t have specific answers to every situation in your life, it does give instructions that can lead us to these answers. Only through regular study of it can we be confident in our understanding of it.