Move from Bible Reading to Bible Application

Many of you have recently started a new Bible reading plan for the new year. You may be looking for a way to do more than just read the Bible and want to dig in a bit more but aren't certain how to do so or maybe don't have time to do a full-fledged Bible study each day. There are two easy and very similar ways you can use to engage with your Bible reading a bit more. They are H.E.A.R. and S.O.A.P. These methods are not unique to me by any means but are resources that I have encountered through other sources. So, instead of giving all of the details here and copying someone else's work, I've linked to the fuller explanations for you to check out.

H.E.A.R. stands for Highlight, Explain, Apply, and Respond. Robby Gallaty who developed the F260 Bible reading plan our church is using this year also promotes this Bible journaling method.

S.O.A.P. stands for Scripture, Observe, Apply, and Prayer. While this particular link is to a women's ministry blog, I first became familiar with this acronym through the Zume Project course which adds an S for Sharing to the steps.

As you see H.E.A.R. and S.O.A.P. are quite similar in their four step process. Grab a notebook and then choose the acronym and explanation that you prefer or try both to see which you like best to move from Bible reading to Bible application.