The following is a guest post from my sister-in-law Amy. From the first day I met her I knew we were going to be great friends and we seem to grow closer every year.
I find that days that begin with SOAP are the best days for me… And the mornings I miss it, just don’t seem to go nearly as well.
No, I’m not talking about a shower. I’m talking about a simple acrostic which has changed my Bible study technique and drastically improved my relationship with my heavenly Father. And as a result, I can say it has also improved my life immeasurably.
It helps me to start the day focused on Him and it helps me break down the Bible and find a message just for me almost every day.
It is so super easy, that I can do it anywhere, and apply it to any study and jump right back in if I miss a day.
And really, the days I skip it are the days I am much more scattered. The mornings I wake 30 minutes earlier and spend time with Him I am much more focused and ready to tackle the other items on my To-Do list for the day.
I typically use it with a Bible in one year reading plan, but you could use it with any reading plan or adapt it to fit in a study.
Here’s how it works:
You need your Bible, a notebook, pen and about 20 minutes, depending on the length of your passage.
Pray, asking God to guide you through His Word and clear your mind of distractions.
Read your passage for the day and find the one thing you believe God is telling you that morning. Then write about it using the acrostic SOAP as a guide. (Leave the first few pages of your notebook blank for a Table of Contents.)
- S: Scripture—Write the ONE scripture you feel is especially speaking to you.
- O: Observation—Rewrite the verse in your own words and determine what He might be telling you with that scripture.
- A: Application—How can you apply it to your life?
- P: Prayer—Write out your prayer to God asking for His help in making that application.
When you are finished, look back over the entry and come up with a short title, write it on the top of the page and take that and list it on the first page of your notebook along with the date, so you’ll have a Table of Contents listing each SOAP observation in bite-size morsels. This way, you can easily look back and find the messages God has sent you.
The idea of getting up an extra 30 minutes or so each morning may not appeal to you. But for me, on those mornings I have found that God not only gives that time and rest back to me, he multiplies it. And for some, you may find your SOAP time to be better at night. Whenever is best for you, set the time and keep to it. You will be rewarded greatly.
If you would like to see an example of SOAP in action, please swing by MomsToolbox.com where I post almost daily SOAP observations, among a few other things.
And let me know what you think if you give it a try.
If you would like to receive a bookmark with this quarter’s part of the Bible in a year reading schedule I use, send me an email at amy at momstoolbox dot com with your address and I’ll drop one in the mail to you. I find that keeping the bookmark in my Bible makes it super easy to keep up to date.
When Amy isn’t working on her SOAP devotional, she serves as a wife, mom to three small children and one foreign exchange student, cyclist, scrapbooker, traveler, online missionary, kitchen explorer and blogger at Moms Toolbox and Moms Travel Tales.