Today’s Dwelling Richly interview is with Wendy Alsup. Wendy is the mother of two boys, a math teacher, blogger, and author of several books. I was drawn to interview Wendy because of her book, Is the Bible Good for Women?

I learned so much from Wendy and I know the following interview will be an encouragement as you pursue God through His Word!

How do you personally cultivate a desire to be in the Word?

The older I get, the more I realize that being in the Word is a necessity for me. I’ve passed the point of trying to cultivate a desire (often out of guilt) based on others telling me I need to have daily devotions. Circumstances in my life have revealed to me I simply won’t survive emotionally without daily time in the Word, and that truth has changed my focus on Bible study dramatically.

A dear friend once told me, “You don’t want to be around me if I haven’t been in the Scriptures that morning.” I’ve found I don’t want to be around myself either! Understanding for myself that I need daily time in the Word to function at the most basic level has been life-changing.

What’s your regular routine for Bible study?

When I’m not studying to teach or write on a particular passage (or a part of a church study group), I open to whatever book of the Bible I am reading through (currently Acts) and read the next section. I aim for fewer than 15 verses daily. I tend to get overwhelmed with ideas if I read much more in a single sitting. I pray similarly to Paul in Ephesians 1 and the psalmist in Psalm 119 that God would enlighten me through His Word, opening my eyes to the beauty and truth of Scripture. I read the passage slowly several times, stopping and praying between each reading. My goal is to empty myself of the preconceived notions I bring to the passage and allow the Holy Spirit to direct me through the Scripture I read. When I do so, I find that God often emphasizes to me something in a passage I have not noted before. At the end, I pray through my specific burdens and meditate on how the principles I have read that day apply to my day’s burdens and tasks.

Are there any non-essentials that you love to have during your study time?

I am currently using a yearly daytimer to record my prayer requests, the Scripture I am reading, and any insights the Spirit gives through the Word. The dated format is working better for me than traditional journals, and the spacing is just right. I can clearly see when I miss a day, and that helps me stay accountable to study the Scriptures regularly.

Do you have ways to make your time in church more personally enriching?

I am a wiggling, fidgety person, unable to focus without moving (which has gotten worse the older I’ve gotten). I have a different Bible I like to take on Sundays to church, my Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible. When my pastor preaches or an elder teaches Sunday School, I find I am much more engaged when I have that resource with me, allowing me to look up things during the lesson. It satisfies my need to move or fidget as I listen to the lesson and keeps me engaged with the passage at hand through the resources it gives in the text.

Is there a favorite Bible study method you use?

When I want to dig into a passage in an expositional way, I use Bible Gateway and Bible Study Tools as my springboards. Bible Gateway helps me easily find cross-references, while Bible Study Tools helps me search the Hebrew and Greek meaning of words, as well as other places those words are used. Those two usually open some rich rabbit hole of which I then follow to its conclusion.

What resources have influenced you the most in giving you a desire and tools for dwelling in the Word?

When studying particular books of the Bible, I have benefitted again and again from The Bible Speaks Today series of commentaries, edited by the late John Stott. I do not have seminary-level training and well recognize my limited understanding when reading seminary level commentaries. Stott’s series is concise and at a level that I can follow. Those of us without seminary degrees still need to understand deep theological truths! Stott’s series is a big help to that end.

But far and away, I have learned the most sitting at the feet of my pastors, which is as I think it should be. In my twenties, I sat under a pastor who taught through Jonah and Judges, and his teaching finally opened my eyes to the long connected story of Jesus throughout the Old Testament that culminates in the New. My current pastor preached a series through Joshua this year (and our ladies Bible study supplemented with Kathleen Nielsen’s study of the same). Those sermons, reinforced by our weekly Bible studies, helped me understand Joshua’s place in the long story of Scripture in a way I had never fully gotten before. Over the years, it has been the slow methodical preaching of the Word week in and week out that has most influenced me.

Connect with Wendy Alsup

Blog: Practical Theology for Women
Twitter: @WendyAlsup
Books:
Is the Bible Good for Women?
Practical Theology for Women
By His Wounds You Are Healed
And most recently published, The Journey (A Walk through Scripture geared toward teens and tweens)

Are you part of the Read Think Learn newsletter?
Click here for more info & to join!