For multitudes of people, the Bible provides supernatural strength. If it hasn’t done so for you perhaps you need a few simple suggestions on how to make use of this greatest of all tools for happy and efficient living.
You need not be a Bible scholar. Just take a few easy steps and this marvelous book will pour out its riches upon you.
1. Buy an attractive Bible with good print, a beautiful book, one that you like to hold in your hand.
Learn to love the book itself. Use a Bible that has sentimental value, as for example, one given you by your mother, father, pastor, or Sunday school teacher.
2. Pick it up, open it and read it.
It will never do you any good standing on a shelf.
3. Read through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the first four books of the New Testament.
Read one chapter a day. I suggest reading your daily chapter just before retiring. This will allow you to go to sleep with healthy, happy, positive thoughts soaking into your thought patterns for the next day.
By reading a chapter a day, you will complete these four books of the Bible in eighty-nine days. Then repeat the process. Read them over again. Most of the great principles of Jesus are found in these books. Master them and you will have His rare secret of great living. Then, when you have read them through twice, read them a third time and the total of the three times will take you two hundred sixty-seven days.
4. On the second reading of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, underline passages that appeal to you, and on the third reading, memorize one passage every day.
The more passages you commit to memory, the more completely you will be carrying the Bible around in your mind. Say these words over to yourself in spare minutes. These passages will serve as logs to cling to when sometimes you find yourself adrift and shipwrecked on the sea of life. They will hold you up and literally save your life.
5. We are afflicted by moods.
Sometimes we are fearful and worried, at other times we are angry and resentful; sometimes our loved ones are ill and at times we feel very lonely. There is an answer in the Bible to every mood. So, take your Bible in your hand, close your eyes and pray that God will give you just the message you need. Then open the Bible. The first statement you see may not be your answer, for God does not work in a mechanical manner. Continue reading and you will come to what He wants to say to you. You will recognize it when you see it. Incidentally, this will help you to become familiar with the entire Bible. In time, this familiarity will enable you to know where to look for help in specific situations.
6. Sometime when you have an entire evening to give to reading, read the entire Book of Psalms without stopping.
When you finish, you will have such an overwhelming sense of the victory of faith over all the troubles of life that you will want to shout for joy. There is nothing like it. Don’t miss it! In cases of grief and disappointment, I have known this practice to revolutionize a person’s entire outlook. It gives one the whole panorama of human suffering and spiritual victory in one dose.
7. Perhaps you will become so interested in the Bible that you will want to know the entire book as would a spiritual scholar.
If so, ask your minister for suggested study books to guide you in your search.
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