Knowable Word

Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible

Copyright © 2012–2024 DiscipleMakers, except guest articles (copyright author). Used by permission.

You are here: Home / Archives for Heart

Applying a Bible Text Generally to the Human Heart

By

Over the last few months, I’ve written a sequence of posts connecting Christian doctrine to Bible application. In particular, I’ve explored eight things the Bible teaches about the human experience, in order to highlight how that doctrine can improve your ability to apply the Bible.

My purpose has been to demonstrate that a firm grasp on what the Bible says generally enables you to apply the Bible far more specifically than you may have expected. As my co-blogger Ryan has written, we really want to help you move beyond the “Big Three” (read the Bible more, pray more, share the gospel more) in your regular application.

man s hand in shallow focus and grayscale photography
Photo by lalesh aldarwish on Pexels.com

Here are the eight points of doctrine I covered:

  1. Creation: Humans were created to be different from every other creature.
  2. Fall: Humans tried (and therefore still try) to replace God.
  3. God’s Law: We need God’s law to show how great our sin is, and to show how life in God’s world works best.
  4. The Law’s Purpose: We need God’s law to help us find Jesus.
  5. The Law’s Misuse: People tend to misuse God’s law in one of two ways.
  6. Substitutionary Atonement: We have seen a perfect man, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
  7. Kingdom of God: We live in the tension of overlapping ages.
  8. New Heaven and Earth: We long for a better world.

These are not the only eight doctrines we could cover. They are merely the ones that I find most directly beneficial when studying nearly any text. If you master these doctrines, you may be surprised by how rich and penetrating your application questions become, in both personal and small group study.

I don’t cover all eight areas with every text. Usually one of these doctrines will be more closely aligned than the others with the passage’s main point.

But if you feel your ability to apply the Bible has become stuck, dry, or rote, consider taking a deeper dive into the Bible’s teachings about humanity and the human experience. When you grasp how a text might apply to human hearts broadly, you’ll be able to suggest ways it might penetrate any specific human heart, including your own.

The Antidote to a Hard Heart

By

National Cancer Institute (2020), public domain

In the Bible, having a “hard heart” puts a person in dangerous company. At various places, authors in Scripture use this phrase to indicate a lack of compassion (Mark 3:5), a refusal to repent (2 Chronicles 36:13), and a destiny full of the wrath of God (Romans 2:5). One of the characters in Scripture most often described as hardening his heart is the Egyptian Pharaoh who faced off with Moses (Exodus 8:32).

So, when an epistle tells us how to avoid or prevent a hard heart, we should take notice!

Beware of a Hard Heart

The subject of Hebrews 3:7–19 must be related to obedience, hearts, and hardening. The word “hard” or “harden” occurs three times, “heart” occurs four times, and there are four references to sin, disobedience, or unbelief.

The author of this letter uses as an example the generation of Israelites who exited Egypt with Moses. But this is not a positive example! Christians are NOT to be like them (Hebrews 3:8,15).

A hard heart is not just unacceptable in polite society. It has dire, terrible consequences, including the wrath of God.

Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
    they have not known my ways.’
As I swore in my wrath,
    ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ (Hebrews 3:10–11)

A hard, unbelieving heart will lead people to “fall away from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12). God will deny them access to his rest. There are eternal consequences to a hard heart.

Hard Hearts and Sin

A hard heart is dangerous because it leads to sin. It may indicate blindness to or apathy about obeying and loving the Lord.

In this passage, the author quotes Psalm 95:7–11, which refers to Exodus 17:1–7. The Israelites, despite having just seen God deliver them miraculously from the Egyptians, “quarreled” with Moses and complained about a lack of water. They accused Moses of taking them out of Egypt only to kill them in the wilderness. Moses thought the people might stone him, and the people questioned God’s promise to go with them, asking “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Hebrews 3:16–19 emphasizes that hard hearts lead to sin. Those Israelites “rebelled,” “sinned,” and were “disobedient.” They were unable to enter God’s rest because of unbelief.

A Powerful Antidote

The author of Hebrews does not want this end for those reading his words.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (Hebrews 3:12–14)

How do we prevent an evil, unbelieving heart? How do we avoid falling away from the living God? How do we prevent a hardening by the deceitfulness of sin? We exhort one another, every day.

A person filled with a certain kind of zeal might seize on the word “exhort” and go hunting for sin in other Christians’ lives. But exhort is not quite the same as rebuke, though an exhortation might include rebuke. This command is written to communities of Christians, and these brotherly and sisterly exhortations are to be grounded in knowledge of one another. The best exhortation contains exactly the timely encouragement, challenge, chastisement, and pointers to the promises of God that the other person needs. An obvious but challenging implication of this is that we must get to know each other well enough to know what exhortation is fitting.

Every Day

A person might be able to get behind the idea of occasional exhortation of their Christian friends. But the author of Hebrews is insistent that this happen frequently—”every day,” and “as long as it is called ‘today.'”

Why do we need such regular exhortation? Because we forget! As we have seen above, the same people who crossed on dry ground through the Red Sea accused God of abandoning them a short time later. We are fallible and finite and prone to forgetfulness, so we need to be spurred on by our brothers and sisters.

We Share in Christ

As we remind each other who God is and what he has done, we help to prevent the evil, unbelieving hearts that are ready to sprout within us. This is a vital community effort.

We “have come to share in Christ,” after all. He is not just the Savior and Lord and Redeemer of individuals, but of a collective people. As we share in Christ, we belong to one another. We have this privilege and vital responsibility to speak life-giving truths to our brothers and sisters.

The Sluggard in Every One of Us

By

Scott Hubbard wants you to know four things about the Bible’s portrait of a sluggard:

  1. ‘A little’ adds up.
  2. Neglect grows weeds.
  3. Our desires often deceive us.
  4. Hard work flows from the heart.

Hubbard does a great job correlating the teaching of Proverbs on the character of the sluggard. In the process, Hubbard models terrific head and heart application.

Check it out!

Two Opponents of Heart Application

By

If my experience is symptomatic of a broader reality, and heart application is the most difficult of the three spheres, then it behooves us to understand potential hindrances. And the New Testament leads us to expect two primary opponents.

anonymous boxer punching in face of young ethnic sportsman
Photo by Julia Larson on Pexels.com

Legalism

The first opponent of heart application is legalism. Legalism is when we add to God’s word rules and behaviors he does not require of us. Even when such things used to be required under the old covenant, we are still “adding” them to God’s current ethical expectations (Gal 6:15-16).

Legalism was an issue when the Galatian trouble-makers taught that converts had to be circumcised and become Jews before they could become Christians. Legalism was an issue when Pharisees erected voluminous regulations for Sabbath-keeping (Luke 13:10-17) and ritual purity (Mark 7:1-5). Legalism was an issue when the Colossians and Ephesians were attracted to ascetic practices that removed them from tangible pleasures and blessings (Col 2:20-23, 1 Tim 4:1-5).

How does legalism oppose application to the heart? By producing the sort of person who does the right things without becoming the right person who believes the gospel. Legalism does not require any change on the inside, such that you become the kind of person the Lord wants you to be.

…this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men

Isaiah 29:13

License

The second opponent of heart application is license. License is when we subtract from God’s word and minimize or ignore kingdom ethics. Even when the motivating factor is God’s grace to needy sinners, we are still subtracting from God’s word if we suppose grace does anything but train us to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age (Titus 2:11-14).

License was an issue when Philippian citizens worshiped their belly and set their minds on earthly things (Phil 3:18-21). License was an issue when Ephesian believers were tempted to live like unbelievers, allowing hardness of heart to darken their understanding and live for what they could see, hear, feel, and touch (Eph 4:17-20). License was an issue when teachers would arise who employed the doctrine of grace to promote “anything goes” and thereby lead people away from loyalty to Christ (Jude 3-4).

How does license oppose application to the heart? By producing the sort of person who may even believe the right things but without becoming the right person who does the right things. License does not require any change on the inside, such that you become the kind of person the Lord wants you to be.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5

The Commonality

Both opponents of heart application—legalism and license—prevent people from becoming the right people on the inside. Both are concerned with outward behavior. Both are harsh masters, demanding far too much of their victims.

The best tactics for resisting both opponents is to properly grasp the main points of Scripture, and then to allow those truths to shape you from the inside out. To make you into not only a person who does the right things but also a person who loves and desires the right things.

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

Hebrews 12:15-16

The Most Difficult Kind of Bible Application

By

Of the three spheres of application, I believe the most difficult one for most people is the heart sphere. For that reason, my series of posts on leading small groups has one specifically on how to encourage heart-oriented application. Most people tend to find head and hands application more natural.

Why do you think that is?

medical stethoscope with red paper heart on white surface
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

Unless they have an extraordinary aversion to theological debate, most people have no resistance to head application. What we must believe about God, the world, ourselves, sin, and redemption—these things are glorious truths, and clarity on such things from the Scripture is precious.

And as I wrote last week, we tend to have such an affinity for “doing” (hands application) that the concept of application itself is often reduced to little more than what we do in light of the Bible’s teachings. The challenge is to help folks understand that application involves more than doing.

But when it comes to heart application—what we love, value and cherish; what sort of people we are to become—those who don’t balk at such personal intrusion can sometimes feel like ignorant babes.

How do we do it? How do we not simply guilt people into obedience, but motivate and inspire them to want to obey God? How do we become the sort of people who turn away from sin not only because it’s our duty but also because we are personally repulsed by the idea of committing it? How do we find in Christ a greater and more secure treasure than anything we can see, smell, taste, or touch here and now?

The thing is: Heart application requires a grasp of both human nature and the Lord’s process for rebooting that nature in Christ. That takes hard work. If you want your Bible application to be quick and dirty, the sphere of the heart will nearly always become a neglected stepchild.

Hebrews 4:14-16 provides an interesting study in the spheres of application:

  • “Let us hold fast our confession” – that’s head application.
  • “Let us draw near to the throne of grace” – that’s hands application.
  • “…with confidence…” – there’s the heart of the matter.

Does the confession of Christ as great high priest lead you not only to approach the Lord, but to do so as a person with full confidence in his mercy and grace? Is your first instinct to turn to the Lord in prayer when you need help?

Is heart application difficult for you? If so, why do you think that is?

More Than Doing

By

How do you know when you’ve successfully applied the Bible to your life?

Of course, obedience is a life-long practice, which we’ll never be finished with. But when you are studying a passage of Scripture, how do you know when you have arrived at appropriate application? At what point can you say you’ve done enough study? You now know what you must go and do, and you’re ready to go and do it.

I think it depends on your definition of “doing.”

Photo by Eden Constantino on Unsplash

The Definition of “Doing”

In my experience leading Bible studies, one of the most common conceptions I find people have is that application = doing. As in, until you have something concrete and particular to add to your schedule or task list, you haven’t yet done application. And if a teacher doesn’t give you specific actions for your schedule or task list, that teacher hasn’t yet helped you with application.

So I find it crucial to remind people that application involves more than doing. Yes, the Bible often calls us to do something. But sometimes it calls us believe something. And sometimes it calls us to love or value something. All such calls could be properly labeled “application.”

To put it another way, application is not only about the hands but also about the head and the heart. All three spheres can be considered legitimate ways to apply the Scripture. One of them (hands) involves doing. But that’s not the only thing application involves.

Examples

We cannot improve on the sorts of applications the apostles themselves sought from their readers.

Of course, the apostles sometimes proposed hands (doing) applications:

Outdo one another in showing honor … contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Romans 12:10-13

Yet sometimes, the primary application they’re after is head application:

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

1 Cor 3:16-18

And yet other times, they go for the heart. They want Christians to become people of character who receive and rest upon Jesus Christ and nothing else.

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John 20:30-31

Have At It

Of course, doing is one of the spheres, so I would never encourage you not to get applications on your schedule or task list.

But if a particular text lends itself more to believing or loving, have at it. Don’t feel guilty. Don’t conclude that you haven’t yet “applied” the Scripture.

We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

1 Thess 1:2-5

You Have Enough Time to Study the Bible

By

In the West, busyness is the norm. Businessmen value themselves and others based on their calendars. Students turn the bags under their eyes into badges of competition and honor.

But busyness isn’t just out there. We’re all on the same bus. With demanding jobs, family obligations, and duties at home, time feels scarce.

Alexandra (2015), public domain

Alexandra (2015), public domain

Busyness Is Not the Problem

Among Christians, I suspect busyness is the top excuse for not studying the Bible. It seems we don’t have enough time for God’s word. I’ve made this excuse many times myself.

But we must confront this Biblical truth: We always do what we want to do.

Our actions spring from and reveal our hearts; we can trace this truth throughout the Bible. As part of his confession, David asks God to create a clean heart within him (Ps 51.10). Solomon warns his son that the springs of life flow from the heart (Prov 4.23). Ezekiel’s prophecy about the new covenant focuses on new hearts, not new behaviors (Ezekiel 36:26).

Jesus also teaches clearly on this matter; he says the words we speak flow from our hearts (Matt 15:18). We cannot say of our sinful words, “I didn’t mean that.” Jesus doesn’t stop with our speech—our sinful thoughts and actions also reveal our true desires (Matt 15:19).

This brief survey hands us a difficult conclusion. When we don’t study the Bible, it’s not because we’re too busy. It’s because we don’t want to.

(There are exceptional life situations that leave us too busy to study the Bible. Illness, intense family duties, and extraordinary job demands come up. For most of us, these are the exception and not the rule.)

A Divided Heart

There is a battle within every maturing Christian. The growing, vibrant, new man longs to glorify God, while the putrid, rotting, old man resists God and craves sinful pleasures. These fights are contested among our values and desires.

We skip Bible study because we don’t think it’s important. Studying the Bible takes time and energy, and we doubt it will make a difference. We list scores of activities more worthy of our attention.

Deep Repentance

If the problem lies in our hearts, repentance must extend to these same depths.

We’ve all tried to address sin through a change in behavior. We set an early alarm, make a strict schedule, or enlist an accountability partner. Though these strategies can be helpful, they don’t address the core problem. Without deep repentance, new behavior efforts amount to tying a top hat on a pig. He might look respectable for a time, but he’s still headed back to the slop.

We need to confess our sin specifically. We must admit that we have not believed God when he declares the value of his word (Psalm 19:7–11). We have not loved or acted as we should.

But don’t forget the gospel! The punishment we deserve for our apathy, our tepid hearts, our indifference to the glorious truths of God—this punishment was given to Jesus. He took our place!

This news is thrilling, but we’re only halfway done. Because of Jesus’s perfect life—including his undivided heart—we are God’s children. We are embraced in the family. Neglecting Bible study doesn’t make God love us less, and studying the Bible doesn’t make him love us more.

And we must pray for God’s work within us. Pray for a change of heart and a love for God and his word. Ask God to help you treasure what is most valuable and organize your time accordingly.

How to Begin

How can we learn the value of studying God’s word? Taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8)!

Study the Bible, on your own or with friends, and enjoy the food God brings to your table. See how God repays your effort with his wisdom, his presence, and his transforming power. As you apply the Bible, God will convict you of your sin and encourage you with his faithfulness.

When you see the glory of God and the beauty of his word, making time for Bible study will be easy.

Thanks for visiting Knowable Word! If you like this article, you might be interested in receiving regular updates from us. You can sign up for our email list (enter your address in the box on the upper right of this page), follow us on Facebook or Twitter, or subscribe to our RSS feed. 

Context Matters: The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things

By

Jr Korpa (2018), public domain

Perhaps you’ve heard that our hearts are deceitful, wicked, and sick beyond all cure. You’ve been taught that our desires should always be questioned and our impulses should always be doubted. Anything we want—because that want blooms in our heart—should be suspect.

This is no inspirational teaching, so you won’t spot it on posters or mugs. But I see this verse dashed into arguments like salt in soup. Are we using using this verse properly? When we learn to read the Bible like a book and not as isolated bullet points, we’ll see that some familiar phrases don’t mean all that we’ve always assumed.

The Immediate Context

The verse in question is found in Jeremiah 17:9. Here it is with some surrounding context.

Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the Lord.
He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.


Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.”


The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
“I the Lord search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.” (Jeremiah 17:5–10)

We first observe the connection between a man’s heart and his trust. A “man who trusts in man” is one whose “heart turns away from the Lord” (Jer 17:5). This man is cursed. In contrast, the man is blessed who “trusts in the Lord,” and from the structure we infer that his heart does not turn from the Lord.

This connection is essential to a proper understanding of this passage, and it is evident throughout Jeremiah’s prophecy as well. (More on this later.) This is also true in the larger context of the Bible—the heart is not primarily the origin of feelings; it is the control center for trust and worship.

We further see that the question asked in verse 9 (“who can understand it?”) is answered in verse 10 (“I the Lord”). Even if man cannot know his own heart, the Lord understands it well enough to treat everyone “according to the fruit of [their] deeds” (Jer 17:10).

Before moving on, we should examine the paragraph just prior to this passage. God is speaking, and he says that “the sin of Judah” is “written on the tablet of their heart” (Jer 17:1). The children of Judah have altars and Asherim (wooden idol-worship poles) “beside every green tree and on the high hills, on the mountains in the open country” (Jer 17:2–3). Turning away from God involves both turning to other people and turning to idols.

The Broader Context

In Jeremiah 16, the Lord tells Jeremiah what he should say when others ask what sin the people have committed against God.

Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. (Jeremiah 16:11–12)

The primary way that God’s people rebelled against him in Jeremiah’s day was to forsake him, turning to and serving other gods. As we can see from earlier in this prophetic book, it is the people’s hearts that lead them astray.

  • The “people [have] a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away.” They do not fear the Lord (Jer 5:23–24).
  • The people “stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them” (Jer 9:14).
  • “This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them” (Jer 13:10).

There are numerous other examples in the first 16 chapters of Jeremiah which mention Israel’s idolatry and turning away from God. (Most of Jeremiah 10:1–16 is a contrast between the Lord and idols, showing just how ridiculous it is to prefer idols over God.)

Conclusion

Modern Christians like to seize upon the word “heart” in Jeremiah 17:9; they point it as an accusing finger and waive it as a grand caution flag. But this verse was written to a particularly idolatrous people in a specific time. Jeremiah had exhorted them repeatedly about the tendency of their hearts to prefer other gods to the Lord.

This does not mean that 21st century Christians are exempt from warning in this passage. God’s people were led by their hearts away from him before, and the same can (and does!) happen to us. We also must watch our desires, our trust, and our security. But this verse does not teach that we must be suspicious of our every thought or emotion.

Context matters.

For more examples of why context matters, click here.

Don’t Apply the Bible?

By

Crossway’s blog has a provocative article by David Mathis, who argues that practical application can sometimes be a red herring that distracts us from careful Bible study.

So then, is it right to think of “application” as an everyday means of God’s grace? Is this a spiritual discipline to be pursued with every Bible encounter? The answer is yes and no, depending on what we mean by application.

Good teachers have claimed that every encounter with God’s Word should include at least one specific application to our lives—some particular addition, however small, to our daily to-do list. There is a wise intention in this: pressing ourselves not just to be hearers of God’s Word, but doers. But such a simplistic approach to application overlooks the more complex nature of the Christian life—and how true and lasting change happens in a less straightforward way than we may be prone to think.

Mathis goes on to argue that Bible study doesn’t always produce specific additions to our daily to-do list. Often, it should produce astonishment at who God is, and worship. Such astonishment and worship change us on the inside. And we will see specific change on the outside after only long periods of reflective astonishment.

Mathis makes some important points, and I don’t disagree with him. However, terminology can trip us up. Mathis argues against daily “application,” which he considers a red herring, but he narrowly defines “application” to include only detailed behavioral changes. He offers the substitute of astonishment and worship as a better daily practice.

But in the process he almost replaces one kind of application (hands) for another (heart). He argues against overly ethical application (too much focus on the hands), but seems to suggest an overly pietistic application (too much focus on the heart). I humbly suggest both approaches are imbalanced; we should regularly do both. In addition, let’s not forget also to apply the Bible to our heads. Remember the application matrix, which enables us to stretch our application into every category.

So I’m happy to recommend Mathis’s article to you. But when he writes of “the red herring of Bible application,” hear him describing, not application itself, but “the problem with focusing exclusively on hands application.” Don’t ever remove “application” (hands, head, and heart) from your Bible study. And with this clarification, the article is right on target.

Check it out!

3 Tips for Bad Bible Study, Part 3

By

Today we conclude our series helping you avoid the troublesome effects of good Bible study. If you’ve been following along, you may have already observed first-hand how assuming you already know what the text says shields you from unsettling new ideas. Hopefully you’ve also understood how dangerously exposed you are to the life-changing truths of the Word if you fail to find your own meaning.

Having mastered these tips, you’re ready to complete the trifecta of biblical impotency:

3. Protect Your Heart

If your aim is to stay in control of your life and not have to change course every time some pesky fact or bothersome truth comes along, this tip is the ace you can always keep up your sleeve. After all, human nature is what it is and occasionally you’ll let down your guard against learning something from the Bible. Sometimes, despite your best efforts, you’ll find yourself having clearly understood a truth from God’s Word which you had never understood before.

When you find yourself in this situation, don’t give up. It’s not too late to render harmless even the most disruptive truth. All you need to do is prevent it from penetrating your heart. Protect your heart, and you’ll never have to worry about your life being shaken up by the Bible. I don’t care how profound the truth is. If you can keep it segregated from your motivations, hopes, and treasures, you’ll be no more affected by it than if you’d never understood it at all.

To accomplish this, work from the inside out. Identify the things that are most important to you, the things closest to your heart. These might be achievements you want to attain, affections you want to win, or objects you’d like to own. If you’re not sure, try completing this sentence: “I would be satisfied with my life if only _________.”

Now here’s the key step: once you’ve identified the desires of your heart, build a wall around them. Never allow what you read in the Bible to question their intrinsic value or their ability to satisfy you. If you want to be secure in your plans and preferences, your heart’s desires need a wall to protect them from examination. Think of it as granting them a certificate of exemption from scrutiny. This is how you protect your heart.

It’s hard to overstate the power of this technique. People who diligently apply themselves to protecting their hearts can build up a shield that is all but impenetrable. In fact, some people’s hearts are so well-armored that they can flagrantly disregard my first two tips for bad Bible study yet still be in no danger of having their plans disrupted by the Word.

As strong a defense as this is, though, remember that it is your last defense. If you’ve allowed yourself to open your mind to the Bible, and if you’ve acknowledged that it speaks an objectively true message to you, then the wall around your heart is all that’s left between your comfortable status quo and the earth-shaking effects of God’s Word. If one well-placed arrow finds a single gap in your wall, your heart will be pierced and your plans will go out the window. The comfort of empty ritual will be gone, replaced by whatever it is that God intends for your life.

If that happens to you, don’t say I didn’t warn you.