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Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.  (Proverbs 4:23)

Summary of the Inductive Method of Bible Study
From How to Study the Bible by Kay Arthur

• Step One:  Overview

  • Begin and continue with an attitude of prayer.

  • Read and re-read the book to be studied.

  • Identify the type of literature with which you are dealing.

  • Deal with the book objectively.

  • As you continually read, be sure that you are reading with a purpose by asking the 5 W's and an H (Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How) kinds of questions.

  • To discover the context of any book, begin by identifying the facts about any people and events mentioned.

  • Read and re-read the text until you discover those words and phrases that are repeated.  Mark these key words and phrases.  Then make brief lists in the margin of the text from the key words and phrases.

  • Identify the main theme that best summarizes the book (the summary statement).

  • Construct an "At a Glance Chart."

  • Discover a theme (summary statement) for each chapter which both supports the book theme and encompasses the theme or message in each chapter.

  • Identify segment divisions.

• Step Two:  Chapter Study

  • Begin with prayer.

  • Read through the Observation Worksheet of the chapter looking for those things that are obvious.

  • Deal with the chapter objectively.

  • Read with a purpose by asking the 5 W's and an H (Who, What, When, Where, Why and How) kinds of questions.

  • Look for the obvious.

  • Look for and mark key words and/or key phrases.

  • Make lists from the key words.

  • God reveals truth in many ways in His Word.  Read through the text again looking for each of the following:  Contrasts, Comparisons, Terms of Conclusion, and Expressions of Time.

  • Determine the chapter theme (summary statement).

  • Determine the paragraph themes (summary statements).

• Step Three:  Word Studies  [My personal favorite form of Bible Study!  Click here for more on Word Studies)

  • The purpose of doing word studies is to understand the meaning of a word or words in the context you are studying.

  • The essential word study tools are an exhaustive concordance and an expository dictionary of Biblical words.

  • Further word study skills--discovering the meaning of the original Greek or Hebrew words--can be helpful to correct interpretation and application of Scripture.

• Step Four:  Cross-References

  • A cross-reference is a reference to another Scripture that supports, illumines, or amplifies the Scripture you are studying.

  • The best interpretation of Scripture is other Scripture.

  • Helpful tools are a concordance, a topical Bible, or the reference system in your own Bible.

"How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!  Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.  Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."  Ps 119:103-105