Bible Study Partners

This was originally a companion article to Featured Senior – Alice Abernathy published in our Church’s first newsletter, September 2018.

Having read sister Alice’s Featured Senior article in advance, I wanted to share a few thoughts on the subject.

A good Bible study partner is someone who:

• Doesn’t mind if you call them when you’re at a place in your Bible study that you just don’t “get”.
• If they don’t know the answer off the top of their head they’ll find it and call you back.
• If they can’t find it they’ll call me or someone else, and then call you back.
• When something goes wrong in your life you can call them and know that they will lift you up in prayer, and they’ll be there for you to support and encourage you.
• Will meet with you once a week either in person or over the phone, whichever works best for the two of you.

Their reasons for wanting to meet with you once a week are:

• They care. They want to get to know you better. They want to hear about how your Bible study and memorization is going. But, they also want to hear about how your life is going. They will be praying for you every day and the better they know you the better they know how, specifically, to pray for you.
• Being asked to be a study partner is an honor and a privilege. However, it’s also a responsibility that they don’t take lightly. Meeting with you once a week gives them the opportunity to encourage you by sharing their life experiences relevant to what you’re studying and whatever you may be dealing with in life. Even though they probably have never walked in your shoes, the principles that guided them and the ways the Lord has worked in their life are relevant to you, too.

Your reasons for wanting to meet with them once a week are:

• It will help you take your commitment to daily Bible study seriously. It’s never easy to develop a new habit, especially one that will affect your life as dramatically as learning to walk closer to God. Knowing that your study partner cares, is praying for you, and is looking forward to that time with you each week gives you a sense of accountability. You don’t want to show up and say, “I didn’t have much time to study this week”. So, you find ways to make time.
• When your study is going well or something especially nice happened in your life that week, you want to share it with someone who really cares. They do.
• As your study partner is getting to know you better, you’ll be getting to know them better. You’ll see that, like you, they’re not perfect; but their example of commitment to living for and serving the Lord will help you stay committed when you’re going through tough times.
• The time you spend with your study partner will prepare you to be someone else’s study partner later on.

See My Testimony on Bible Study.