The Bible is my favorite book, period. The purpose of this post isn’t to convince you that it’s God’s inspired word or that you need to read it. If you’re not already at least somewhat convinced of it’s importance and power, I don’t know that this post will be super helpful to you. I’m speaking to those who realize the Bible is incredible, but struggle to make it an enjoyable part of their daily routine.

Perhaps the 2 most basic disciplines for the Christian’s spiritual journey are reading the Bible and prayer. The application of most sermons you hear tend to point towards these 2 disciplines in some way, shape or form. It’s hard for me to imagine having a growing and vibrant spiritual life if you’re not regularly hearing from God through his word and communicating with him in prayer. I try not to approach these disciplines with a “religious” or legalistic mindset, but I would strongly admonish every Christian to make sure these are daily habits. That being said, I used to have a very difficult time connecting my time in God’s word and prayer.

I would read a passage, feel somewhat inspired by it and then set the Bible down. I might take out a journal or try praying in some other way, but the prayer time never felt connected to anything I had just read. I always felt these two disciplines should be married and intertwined, but they always felt very disconnected. Something changed for me last year that has permanently shifted how I approach these two disciplines.

A pastor at Seacoast recommended that I read The Divine Mentor by Pastor Wayne Cordeiro. For me, it was a very simple, but profound read. In the book, Pastor Wayne shares the S.O.A.P. method of studying scripture. The S stands for scripture, the O stands for Observation, the A stands for application and the P stands for prayer. The idea is simple and I’ve been following this method every day for about 6 months.

Here’s what I do….I follow a basic Bible reading plan on the YouVersion Bible app. I’m doing the Bible in a year plan, so I start by reading through the different scriptures for the day. After I’m done with that, I take out my journal. As I’m reading through the different scriptures, I’m trying to pay attention to any passages that stick out that God may want me to focus on. After I’m done reading, I’ll pick one passage that I want to journal about. I date and title the entry and then I write the passage down for the S portion of the exercise. Then I write down any observations I have. I don’t try to be super deep or anything. I just try to be attentive to anything that sticks out to me from the passage. After that I’ll write down anything that sticks out for application. I don’t try to inundate myself with lots of to-dos, but I just want to make sure I’m always approaching scripture with an attitude that says I want to change. Then I write my prayer out. I pray whatever I’m feeling for the day and just let that go where it goes. I do this every single day and it has completely changed the way I approach reading the Bible and prayer.

Because I date and title every post, I’m going to be able to look back at 2016 and easily look through everything I felt the Lord impressed on my heart this year. If my kids or loved ones ever want to look through my journals in the future, they’ll be able to see what I felt God had communicated to me throughout my life. The discipline of S.O.A.P. has been life-changing for me and my time with the Lord in the morning is the most valuable portion of my day. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

That being said, there’s nothing magical about Pastor Wayne’s method. If you already have one that works for you, please stick with it by all means. I just wanted to briefly share what I’ve been doing in hopes that it might be helpful to you. The Bible is God’s inspired word and is an indescribably valuable asset, but it must be accessed. To access the infinite wisdom contained in its’ pages, some type of method must be employed. I heard a pastor say recently that “the best system is the one that works,” so on that note, I encourage you to keep growing through the intentional disciplines of reading the Bible and prayer.