Moving beyond Study

In the prior post, Stuck on Study, I discussed influences that keep us stuck in study.  In this post, we are going to explore getting unstuck and moving beyond just amassing knowledge of the Word of God.  We are going to look at how we assimilate the Word of God into our lives.  Here are some general guidelines to get started:

1) Identify principles and “callings”.  As you study the Word of God always be on the look out for biblical principles.  Principles are timeless life lessons that should guide our daily living.  For example, “Love your neighbor as yourself” or “What every you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance.  It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.” Col. 3:23-24  Read with a pencil in hand and when you find a principle write it down and/or mark it in your Bible.

 “Callings” are moments of insight where we believe God is calling us forward to work on something specific.  For  example, you might be reading about forgiveness and realize that are avoiding a very important apology.  Or, recently I was reading about how our bodies are a temple and I realized as I read it that I had failed for a long time to be as good a steward of my physical health as I should.  My temple had fallen into disrepair from years of neglect and abuse.  I felt very much that God was calling me to address the neglect of my body and took action to change.  Which brings us to our next point…

2) Create a specific action plan for assimilating an insight into your life.  How often have you had an insight from scripture but then made no conscious effort to apply it?  What was the last thing you learned in scripture?  What did you do with that knowledge?  When I realized how much I neglected my body, I also recognized that I needed to detoxify my body from the abuse it had been through.  I attended a lecture on detoxing, read a book on it, researched it on the internet and went to a health food store and sought recommendations from two different people with experience.  I also began bicycle riding, yoga and eating a diet of more whole foods.  I did each of these things in incremental steps.  The important thing to note is that once I had the insight, I created a concrete action plan to move forward.  How is God calling you now and what is your plan of action?

Paul expressed our need to implement very succinctly.  He wrote to the Philippians, “The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”  (Philippians 4:9)

3)  Work your plan until you see transformation.  Too often people simply do not persevere long enough to see the fruit of labor.   A desire for immediate gratification coupled with a penchant for grabbing at newness results in constantly shifting too rapidly to see results.   Persist until you see a shift in your baseline behavior.  In other words, you need to keep at it until what is normative for you changes.  For example, as I ate more whole foods I had to very consciously plan what I would eat and when I would eat it.  I had to educate myself on certain foods and work at making them a part of my daily eating.  I persisted until I found myself reflexively desiring the right foods.  I persisted until I found that certain unhealthy foods had simply lost their appeal to me.  My baseline appetite had changed.

4)  Fake it, till you make it.  New behavior and attitudes feel contrived or disingenuous at first.  There is a reason for that, they are artificial.  They are not true to who you are or you would already being doing them.  That is okay.  That is just part of the transformation process.  Becoming a new person, even if it is a better person, can feel awkward and uncomfortable at first.  Over time this sensation will pass.   In the meantime, keep applying your new life lessons despite how uncomfortable you may be.

Next post we will explore specific tools that can create and maintain momentum through this process.  Blessings to you from The Practical Disciple as you seek to understand and incorporate God’s Word into your life.

1 thought on “Moving beyond Study”

  1. The scripture that called me was that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I know God loves me dearly and thinks I rock, so I am working on my self esteem. I am doing a work book by David Burns on self esteem and reading a book by Nathaniel Branden on raising my self esteem. I am tired of feeling inferior and figure that is not what God wants for me so I am working on it. If he thinks so much of me, how dare me think less of myself!

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