If you want to grow in your faith and become like Jesus, you must – – absolutely must – – learn Scripture.
I want to walk you through a simple exercise for learning Scripture and applying it to your life.
Early yesterday morning I read Romans 15:13. This verse contains one of the concluding statements in Paul’s letter to the church at Rome. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (New American Standard Bible).
Learning Scripture can take on many different looks. Here is a simple way to understand Scripture.
First, break the Scripture down into small segments.
What are the segments here? (1) The God of hope. (2) Joy and peace. (3) Abounding in hope. (4) By the power of the Holy Spirit.
You can see that these are the main elements of this verse. It is Paul’s wish that we may have hope. Hope comes by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Accompanying the hope that we have in Christ is joy and peace.
We experience joy and peace as we trust (believe in) the Lord Jesus Christ.
Second, commit Scripture to memory. I’ve previously encouraged you to memorize Scripture. You can read about the importance of Scripture memorization here.
Breaking a verse down as described above not only helps me to understand the meaning, but it also helps me to memorize the passage. In fact, one helps the other. Understanding encourages memorization, and memorization helps understanding.
Third, meditate on the passage throughout the day and in the days to come. As you reflect and think about what you’ve done, understanding and application will abound more and more.
What is this passage saying to us? It is assuring us that we have hope and that our hope comes through our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is showing us that that hope abounds through the gift of the Holy Spirit within us. It further states that we will experience joy and peace as we trust in the Lord Jesus.
What an amazing passage of scripture! Is anything more important for our mental and emotional well-being than hope, joy, and peace? These are in abundant supply for those who trust in Christ.
As Paul wrote these words he was blessing the believers in Rome. May God who is hope fill you with joy and peace as you trust in Him. This kind of hope comes in believing. It is the blessing of God’s Holy Spirit within us.
May you constantly put your mind on the things above by spending time in Scripture and intensely seeking to understand what God has said to us.
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