3 Benefits of a Year-Long Bible Study
What are you eagerly anticipating right now? It’s October, so maybe you’re excited about the approaching holidays. Maybe winter is your favorite season, and you’re looking forward to sipping hot cocoa or bundling up in a warm coat. You might even have a birthday coming up or an end-of-the-year trip on the books.
At the Daily Grace Co., we’re excited about the release of our next year-long Bible study: Christ in All of Scripture. It’s unlike any year-long study we’ve done before. We love releasing year-long Bible studies, and we hope you take advantage of our newest one! But you may find yourself thinking, Why should I do a year-long Bible study? What’s the difference between a year-long Bible study versus a different one? While there are many benefits to a year-long Bible study, here are three to consider.
Getting in the Word daily
Do you want to form a regular habit of Bible study? Do you desire to read Scripture daily?
One of the best benefits of a year-long Bible study is that it allows you to spend time in God’s Word every day. In fact, this is the heart behind year-long studies. While a year-long study might allow you to read the whole Bible in a year, that is not what a year-long study is ultimately about, although that is a plus. Doing a year-long study is less about checking off a reading plan and more about getting in God’s Word daily. As you go through a year-long study, you form a habit and rhythm of regular Bible study. This is something that we should desire as followers of Christ, because being in God’s Word daily is what grows us in our knowledge of who God is, teaches us how to live as believers, and shapes us in our faith. So if you’ve been wanting to form a regular habit of Bible study or read your Bible every day, a year-long study can be just what you need to form those habits and meet those desires.
Growing your Bible literacy
As believers, it’s important that we not only read God’s Word but understand it and live it out. Biblical literacy involves the ability to know God’s Word and grasp its meaning so we can apply it rightly to our everyday life. Year-long Bible studies help you grow in your Bible literacy not only because they allow you to read God’s Word daily but also because they often take you through the whole Bible. In reading the Bible cover to cover, you are able to understand and grow in your knowledge of the story of Scripture. Year-long bible studies are like doing a puzzle—they help you slowly put the pieces of God’s Word together. You see more clearly God’s plan of redemption and how He has accomplished that plan through Christ. Year-long studies help you to learn biblical facts, places, and people. And they allow you to read parts of the Bible that you might not usually read or find yourself shying away from. And one of the best things about reading God’s Word over the course of a year is that you’re absorbing more than you think! Your Bible literacy is growing every time you open up your Bible, and you see the fruit of that literacy when you are able to recall and understand different stories, truths, and verses of the Bible.
Deepening your relationship with God
One of the sweetest benefits of a year-long Bible study is that it deepens your relationship with God. As you read your Bible over the course of a year, you learn more about who God is and what He does. You grow in your understanding of God’s character and actions throughout the course of biblical history, seeing that He never changes. You see the ways in which God has been faithful to His promises and are encouraged to hope in the promises He has yet to fulfill. As you grow in your knowledge of who God is and what He does, you will witness your affections for Him growing. This in turn makes you excited to come back to your Bible each day, because you know you will meet God there and grow closer to Him through reading His Word.
So if these benefits sound great to you, we hope you will consider purchasing one of our year-long Bible studies—perhaps our newest one! Whatever you choose, may you continue to seek being in God’s Word regularly, for God’s Word truly is a gift to us.
