The Easiest Bible Study – Meditate on God’s Word and Grow Closer to the Lord
When I first started reading the Bible, I honestly had no idea where to begin. Even though my mom talked about Jesus, we didn’t read the Bible, pray or go to church together regularly. I am thankful my mom sowed seeds of truth, however, I wouldn’t say I grew up in a christian home.
It wasn’t until I was in my late 20s and had my first child that I started attending a bible study for the first time and really started reading the Bible consistently. During this time I fell in love with God’s Word and continued growing ever since.
Once COVID hit, nearly all bible studies came to a halt or were held virtually. I had to stop relying on questions and bible studies to feed me God’s Word, and had to start teaching myself how to read and meditate on His word.
It was during this time that I came across the easiest Bible study, called the 4 R’s method and I love it.
If you are in a season of life with little ones or newborns or you are just finding it challenging to spend time in the Word every day, then this method is for you! You can honestly do just the 4 R’s in 5 minutes if you had to. Even that 5 minutes will make a difference.
You only read one verse a day. You could read more if you wanted, like a passage, or a chapter and still apply the 4 R’s.
I personally like doing just one verse/day in my life right now. It is one of the easiest Bible studies I have used, but besides that, I truly enjoy going slow and soaking up God’s Word this way. I have seen and heard things from God that I haven’t before because I am going so slowly through the scriptures.
I feel that it has allowed me to go deeper into each verse and grow in my relationship with God.
The 4 R’s stands for:
- Read
- Rewrite
- Relate
- Respond
I am going to take you through what the 4 R’s are, and also give a verse example, so you can see how I practically apply this bible study.
4 R’s Bible Study – Read
Read the Bible verse. First let’s back up a bit, and see how you might choose what book to start with in the Bible. This can be a dilemma, especially when first starting out, because you just don’t even know where to start in reading your Bible.
I know this was a challenge for me when I first started. Here are a few tips and options to get you going:
- Pray – pray about what book to start with and seek God’s wisdom and will.
- Start from the beginning – with Genesis. You would start any other book by reading it from the beginning, so why not do this with the Bible.
- Start with searching for God’s wisdom – Proverbs is a great book to start with because it is a book about wisdom. We want to be seeking God’s wisdom, and to those who seek and ask, much will be given. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” James 1:5
- Start with the gospels – The four gospel books – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are also great starting points for reading your Bible. They give the account of Jesus’ birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection.
- A favorite book of the Bible – This can help you be motivated especially if you don’t have a consistent routine yet. You want to enjoy and look forward to your time with the Lord. A favorite book of the Bible may be the motivation to do just that.
Once you figure out what book you are going to start with, just read the first verse of the first chapter. Write down the verse word for word in a notebook or take notes on your phone or computer.
Read the verse in a couple of different versions. A quick note on bible versions. There are more than 60 types of bible versions and they can be categorized into three types:
- Word for Word – word for word follows most accurately the Hebrew, Aramic and greek texts. Popular word for word translations are King James Version (KJV), its counterpart the New King James Version (NKJV) and the English Standard Version (ESV).
- Thought to thought – Thought to thought translations examine the whole sentence and translate it to an understood meaning. That’s why thought to thought are more easily understood and readable to us. Scholars translate in a way that is true to God’s Word and make it easy for us to understand. The Common English Bible (CEB) and New Living Translation (NLT) are popular thought to thought translations. New International Version (NIV) is considered word for word, but also weaves in thought to thought when necessary.
- Paraphrase – Tries to tell the reader what the passage means by paraphrasing it with easier language. Popular paraphrase bibles are The Living Bible, and The Message (MSG)
I have come to love reading the verse in a few different types of translations to get a fuller picture of what God is saying. I try to read the verse from each type of version. For example, I’ll read the verse in a word for word translation (ESV), thought for thought (NLT) and a paraphrase (MSG).
You can easily search for different versions online if you don’t own different translations. There are also parallel bibles that contain two or more translations for your convenience.
For our example, I am reading proverbs right now and will take you through Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding
Pro 3:5 ESV
That’s the first step. Just read it and write it down word for word. I did look the verse up in a couple of translations and you can see that below:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding”
Pro 3:5 NLT
Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Pro 3:5 MSG
That’s it, read the verse in one or a few different translations and write down one of the versions word for word. Now we move on to the second step of rewriting.
4 R’s Bible Study – Rewrite
After you have recorded the verse word for word, rewrite the verse in your own words. Repetition is the key for learning and by rewriting the verse you are using multiple senses to process and understand what God is saying in the verse.
Be careful not to change the meaning of the words or context. Use synonyms or similar words to rewrite. By rewriting the verse, something may stand out to you that you didn’t notice the first time by reading it. This is a short step and only takes a few minutes. This is how I rewrote out example in Pro 3:5
“Rewrite – Completely trust God with all yourself. Do not lean or trust in what you can see.”
That’s it. Simple, right? Now on to step three, relate.
4 R’s Bible Study – Relate
This is where you can write down the meaning of the message. You want to record the truth of the verse, what God means through this verse, not what it means to you. As christians, we are in search of the truth, and God is all true, so we want to find out His will through His Word.
It may be a challenge to figure out what God is saying in a verse. You can observe and record what you understand. To help you understand what He is saying, you could write down what you find out about these things:
- God’s character – truths about God, the character and attributes of God
- Repeated words or phrases – these are key and important. When words are repeated that is a clue they are important to God and He repeated them for a reason.
- Facts – what are the facts in the passage. Think of the 5 W’s – who, what, where, when and why?
- Definitions and meanings of words – look up words that stand out to you (but try not to look up too much what that passage means. You can do this step after your study if you like, but try to listen and follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in your personal study time with the Lord)
The relate section does not have to be long or complicated. Simply put, you are just trying to figure out God’s meaning of the verse to the best of your ability. For our example in Proverbs 3:5 I simply wrote:
“Relate – Give God all your trust, have faith. He is trustworthy and faithful. Don’t depend on yourself, completely give yourself over to God and have faith.”
I simply wrote what the meaning of the verse is to my best ability, and wrote some characteristics of God – that He is trustworthy and faithful.
I also looked up the meaning of the words “with all my heart” means because it really stood out to me and I wanted more explanation for it. This is what I found out:
The word “heart” in Proverbs 3:5 was an old English idea referring to the center of the whole person. This center of a person included their emotions, thoughts and will.
Also, if the passage you are reading reminds you of other verses you can also write them in the relate and respond sections. When I read what trusting the Lord with all your heart meant, I wrote down Deut 6:5.
5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Deut 6:5
4 R’s Bible Study – Respond
Now even though God has one meaning for His Word, there are limitless applications of God’s Word.
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Heb 4:12
Your response is where you take God’s Word and apply it to your life. We can learn about God’s Word all day, but if we do not take it and try to live it out in our lives, we will not be transformed as God intends.
We want to be teachable and moldable by God. We want His Word to transform our lives. So it starts with thinking about how we can apply and live out what God has said to us.
This might be a prayer for help and change. It might be an actionable step you can take right now.
For Proverbs 3:5 this is what I wrote in the Respond section:
“Respond – Lord, thank you for helping me see this morning on my walk this exact verse. I prayed God that I don’t see all that you see, and I need you to help me trust you. You are good and work out all things for your glory and my good. Even in some pain and struggles in a relationship right now, you are working it out and helping us grow through this pain. Help me trust you with all my being, heart, mind, soul and strength. Trusting you with all my heart, (my feelings, emotions and the center of my being) is where I need most help trusting you. My emotions are fleeting and ever changing. You are my rock and I need help completely depending on you, on your Word and your promises, not on my thoughts and emotions.”
The response part is where you can really pour out your heart to the Lord and write down how God is using this verse to change your thoughts or teach you truth in some area of your life. This is where you really grow in your relationship with the Lord.
In conclusion, you could read just one verse/day and still grow in your relationship with the Lord. There are seasons where that may be all that you can do. Savor the time with God. Go deeper in your reading and walk with the Lord by following the 4 R’s method: read, rewrite, relate and respond.
Now it’s your turn. How do you study your Bible? Let me know below:) Blessings!