A Simple Word Search | From the Archives

One of the studies that God has led me to do most often is a topical study. A topical study is when you take one word (and all of its tenses) and research every verse with that word. One can do an in depth topical study or a brief topical study.

Choose Your Word

Perhaps the Lord leads you to do a word study on "Forgiveness." With this word in mind, write down all of the tenses and synonyms: forgive, forgiven, forgave, forgiveness, forgiveth, forgiving, pardon, and pardoned. Choose one word with which to start.

Look Up Your Word

Using a concordance (I recommend Strong's Exhaustive Concordance), look up the verses for the first word.

Read Thoroughly

Do not skim through the verses, but read them. Remember that you are not studying to "get it checked off the list today," but you are studying to learn.

Copy Verses

If you want only the briefest overview of the word, merely read the verses. If you want to glean more from this study, then copy the verses down. Often, as I am writing out the verses, the Lord will help me to learn something from the verse. I write this down as well. Sometimes, a verse will make me ponder a question, which I write down to study (either in this specific study or in my general list of studies).

Repeat

When you have finished going through all of the verses from your first word, look up the second word, using the same process, continuing through your list until you have covered all of the tenses.

Pulling it All Together

In studying a topic like forgiveness, it is easy to see that there are different applications of the word. Forgiveness covers God's forgiveness towards us, our need for God's forgiveness, how forgiveness affects our relationship with God, how we should forgive others, and specifics about what forgiveness entails. It is a good idea to take the time to categorize the verses you study. Some people categorize as they read the verses the first time. Others prefer to categorize them later.

To help you categorize verses, ask a few questions. Some general questions you could ask are:

            ~What does God's Word say about this subject?

            ~What should we do about this subject?

            ~What should we not do about this subject?

            ~Is this speaking of God?
            ~Is this speaking of me?

            ~Does this apply specifically to me?

Applying It

James 1:22 says, "But be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." (emphasis added) 

We can study God's Word every day, but if we do not apply it to our lives, we still miss the mark. As you study, be sure to ask, "What did I learn from this study? What should I apply?" Do not just read. DO.

Previously published on January 9, 2014