I fell in love with Bible study about a year and a half ago.
I know some would gasp that I didn't "love" it before, but the truth is I did not. I struggled to keep up with my "daily bread" so to speak. Then I went through a tough time, a low time. I'm talking "yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death" time. And that's when I discovered it.
At first I sought out verses to help make me strong. Then my husband would find passages he felt would speak to me in my situation. I began writing them all down in a little notebook. I'd take it everywhere and read them daily -- often two or three times a day.
Then as my son worked his way into the spring semester of his church-based preschool, I discovered that church's women's Bible study program. There was a number to choose from and I took days to decide which I would sign up for. It was a tough decision, as I've always loved to read and learn and the topics were all great. The only one I knew I did not want to go to was the one on Daniel. I have a great anxiety about eschatology and since I was already battling anxiety of biblical proportions anyway, I decided to steer clear of this one.
So I signed up for I nice friendly one about talking to God and went to church that Wednesday night. This is what I learned. One: Always write down the room number you're trying to get to before you enter the mega-church. And Two: God will speak to you the way He chooses, despite what you think.
I couldn't find the class I had signed up for and no one I asked seemed to know where it was either. So I finally fell into step with a group of women who were heading to their study and just decided to join whichever one that was. You've probably already guessed; it was Daniel. Beth Moore's Daniel to be exact.
I was smitten. The research she put into it, the amount of history we studied, the explanation of end-of-times prophesy. I finally understood something I'd ran from most of my life. Don't get me wrong. She didn't claim to have all the answers, she simply explained what the Bible said. And how most of Daniel's prophesies have already come true. And how they can relate to our lives today.
I was hooked. I wanted to know more, because the more I learned about this precious Book I thought I already knew, the more I realized I know nothing.
I took to reading Bible commentaries and history books. I read just about every faith-based book that crosses my path. I fell in love with talking about the Word and hearing what others thought. I took every Bible study that mega-church offered and I could squeeze into my schedule. I started going to hear speakers and watching televised pastors. I discovered that some were more motivators, while others left me feeling fed and still others were so far off based they were not even in the same religion. And I learned that I began to trust myself to discern who to believe and who not to when it came to spreading the Word. Before I trusted everyone with a television show or whose picture graced a book jacket. Now I know God's Word, I know what to listen for when it comes to the Voice of God, and I know what the prompting of the Holy Spirit is.
My anxiety slowly melted and at the end of it I am closer to God than I've ever been in my entire 32 years of knowing Him. It came from learning who He is and what His ways are. Because I know His Word better, I know Him better. And I'm also proud to admit how little I really know and how much I'm still trying to learn.
