To a Christian, Bible study is as simple as it sounds. We believers in Christ study the Bible that God gave us as a personal religious and spiritual practice. This is described in the Bible as our devotional time with God.
Our personal devotions to God is our time spent with our God.

While preforming your daily devotions you come into God’s presence which deepens and strengthens your relationship with God.

What and how do you perform these devotions?
By reading the Bible, and meditating on what you’ve read, and spending time in prayer. As Psalm 42:1 so passionately expresses: “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.”
Reading the Bible and learning what God put in the Book makes me feel like what Psalm 42:1 expresses to the reader.

Let’s look at Jesus throughout His time here on earth when He would go off unto a quiet place to be alone with God His Father. He is showing us His personal devotional time with His Father.

Jesus knew then and it is shown to us in the Bible that personal devotions help us grow in spiritual maturity. God always has invited us, His followers, to be in an intimate relationship with Him.

God promises that if we seek Him with all our heart and soul we will find Him. God can never go back on His words or lie to us! Here in Deuteronomy 4:29 it tells us: “But if from thence thou shall seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find Him, if thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” This verse shows us we can and will find God if we seek Him with all our heart and soul.

Another benefit from an intimate relationship with God is that He gives you peace and rest for a worn out soul. Matthew 11:28 shows us how: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” That sounds like an invitation to rest and be at peace in God’s presence. This invitation to rest and be at peace is not the only promise He gives to us. Here in Psalm 91:1-2 He promises to protect us from evil:
1. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust.”

Having an intimate relationship is vital for your spiritual heath. So reading the Bible and praying and meditating on His words and having time alone with God in your secret place, you can dwell with Him in conversation and prayer.

Abiding in God’s word is key to spiritual growth. God dearly wants us to know Him and to know what He’s about, and to know what He’s doing in this world and in Heaven today. Reading the Bible reveals these things to us. The Apostle Paul tells us these things in
2 Timothy 3:16-17:
“16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness:
17. That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

Reading and knowing the words in the Bible and then understanding the meaning of God’s words is very important in your walk as a Christian today. Satan has people questioning everything these days, and even asking if what the Bible tells us is true. Satan stirs up confusion and tells lies. People that don’t know what is true and from God are truly lost! Christians today must know the true words of God from a King James Version Bible to keep from falling into these lies and the confusion created by Satan.

So quiet yourself and set aside distractions and go into your secret place. This puts you in the right mind to spend time in prayer. Remember God wants to be with us in this quiet secret place. Matthew 6:6: “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”

As we pray we can ask any questions of God in this secret place. Philippians 4: 6-7: “6. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God. 7. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, He taught them to address God as their Heavenly Father, showing both the reverence and the intimacy He has for His Father and wants us to have.

Jesus further taught His disciples that the Father knows what we all need, and He will give it to us.
Matthew 6: 25-33:
“25. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26. Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27. Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28. And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29. And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32. (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

In todays world we know working out is very good to our health. We all know to eat right, treat our physical body well and avoid bad habits, like smoking and drinking, so that our body will be healthy and fit.

So it is also true that working out spiritually with regular personal devotions are just that, a spiritual workout. The same is true with your spirit when you spend time regularly with God in his word and in prayer.

When you stop working out your health deteriorates, so to will your spiritual body deteriorate and fall away from God’s presence.

God keeps no record of wrongs for those covered under the blood of Christ. To try again, and even to fail again, is better than doing nothing at all. He will forgive you if you ask forgiveness always. He wants us to spend time with him so that we might be more like Jesus.

All glory to God
His humble servant Lee M Buchanan