Treasures in the Word
Today I am going to share with you a Bible reading activity that we have done now at two of our retreats that has elicited an amazing response from the women.
Let me begin by saying: It may be wrong to assume that your women know how to read their Bibles for meaning and personal application. Retreats bring out women who do not regularly attend women’s Bible studies. In addition, your retreat may include other churches and guests. The response we have received from the exercise I am going to share today highlights the fact that many women do not really know how to read the Bible for themselves.
In preparation, we choose about 25 different scripture passages (each a minimum of 10 verses to a chapter long) and pray that God will sovereignly determine which passage each woman will receive. These are distributed to the women (randomly) in various ways. This past year, the scriptures were given as a “message in a bottle.”
We did this activity with all the women together as a leader-led activity. After getting their scripture, we gave the women about 10 minutes to read (and re-read) their passage. Then the leader gave the following instructions, giving the women time to complete each task. Pages were given in their retreat booklets to record their answers.
- Read your passage, and write down any insights you glean about God or Jesus (His character, His works).
- Read the passage again, and write down any instructions or commands to obey.
- Look again. Are there any warnings or wise advice to consider?
- Read your passage again. Has God made any promises? Write them down.
- Ask God what He is saying specifically to you through the passage and write it down.
To some of you reading this, this method of reading the Bible may be very familiar; however, to many women, this was revolutionary!
Our prayer is that this is something that they would take from the retreat and put into practice in their personal devotions.
