My Bible study method is eclectic. Sometimes I read through the Bible in a yearlong program. Other times, I simply open God’s word to a portion of Scripture and meditate on it, asking God for guidance. I don’t mean that I stick my finger in the Bible and just read wherever it lands—although I have done and it actually can be fun—but my normal approach to Bible study is to pore over texts that relate to something on my heart. Also, if one of our pastors preaches from a certain Psalm, I might go back to that Psalm later and spend more time meditating on it.

Every morning for the last two or three weeks, I have been reading and re-reading Romans chapter eight. I have read nearly one hundred books on evil and suffering, and my mind keeps going back to portions of this chapter in Romans. Morning after morning, reading that chapter, I find new things. Now, if you had asked me a few weeks ago whether I planned to study one chapter of Scripture for the next three or four weeks, I would have said no. But here it is: Romans 8.  It is on my heart and on my mind, and it’s so rich.

This morning, I went from Romans 8 to the book of Job. I was thinking about God’s sovereign plans and the tests He put Job through, as well as the significance of Job chapter one, which gives us a backdrop that even Job didn’t know! The focus of the book of Job is not simply evil and suffering; the book is also about the testing of Job’s faith. Sometimes my Bible study is systematic, other times I find myself going from place to place in my Logos Bible study software, wherever I sense the Spirit of God leading me.

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