A few thoughts   Individual Study   What does it mean to study the Word?   Individual study may well work best along with Group Study.  All of this section is just a little something to whet your appetite for the Word.  It is my prayer you will develop a real hunger for the Word.  As you read the Old Testament, remember the whole Bible is about Jesus.  Keep in mind that Jesus is predicted and anticipated (but concealed) throughout the Old Testament.  It is only in the New Testament that Jesus is revealed.  Also, keep in mind that every writing in the Bible was set in a particular historical time and place, and that the meaning must be understood within that context.  Then the meaning behind the text, with transcends time and place, can be understood.   It isn't how much you read or how fast you go.  But what you recieve from your study.  You could read 20 chapters in a single day and learn almost nothing.  Take your time.  Enjoy your study.  Read, Study, Understand & Live the Word in your life.   Study is both a verb and a noun.  To study (verb) means to learn about something.  Or to investigate and to look and consider.  As a noun, it is the process of learning, in-dept investigation and the process of learning.  Study is a process and should be ongoing.  It includes meditation.  Think you don’t know how to meditate?  I suspect you do.  Have you ever really worried about anything?  If you have, you are already an expert on meditation.  Meditation is really just thinking in-dept on something and going over and over it in your mind.  You need to do this to get the Word from your brain into your heart.  And having learned the Word, you bring it into your life by living the Word.  In time, your life becomes the Word.  From James 1:22, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”  (NIV)   How often and how long?   When I eat, I eat until I am full.  There is no set of amount of time required.  Study the Word until you are full.  Close the book and study further another day.  I believe it is better to study the Word a little each day, until you are full, than to set up some unlikely amount of study that you don’t follow.  If you are new to the Word, a mere 10 minutes a day may make you full.  Other days you may really be hungry and want to study for an hour or more.  But do devote some time each day for the Word.  Make it a priority in your life.  I like to begin my day in the Word and read the Bible for 45 minutes to an hour.  While this works well for me, you may wish to study less, or more.    You may wish to study the Bible one day and read a devotional or two, and contemplate them, on another day.  Or read the Bible each day and read devotionals only a couple days a week.  Which ever way you choose, it’s all good.  Read many devotionals right on this site.  Click   Ways to Study on an individual basis   There are many ways and they will all work.  Here are a few suggestions.   Book by Book   Begin with Genesis and read your Bible chapter by chapter.  Or start with Matthew and read the New Testament.  And then go back to the Old Testament.  Or read Genesis, read Matthew, and go back and forth between the new and old Testament.   Topical   Maybe you want to strengthen your faith.  Use a concordance and find all the verses in the Bible on Faith.  Write them down on a notebook.  Then read them through one after the other.  This works really well with a Bible computer program.  One of my friends reads her Bible ten minutes a day and then journals another ten minutes a day on what she read.  I have never tried journaling but it is intriguing.  If you lack patience, study the Word on patience.   Love is something that is always good for Christian to study.  For more on Christian Love, click Christian Love  Study areas where you believe you need improvement.    Maybe you are concerned about your eternal salvation.  It is the most important thing you could possibly be concerned about.  Study the Word and get to know God through Jesus and become acquainted with Him.  Here is a good verse to begin with:  “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”  Romans 10:9-10 NIV   Biographical Study   Many women’s studies focus on the book of Ruth.   Ruth was faithful..  Read the Word and see what happened.   A study on Abraham could teach anyone a lot about faith.  Think you can’t change?  Well study Paul and see how God changed him.  God even changed his name from Saul to Paul.  God wants to do a work in you also.  The life of Joseph is a wonderful study.  Or Moses.  Never forget the life of Jesus.  The whole Bible is about Him.   Pray before or during your individual study.  Get to know God through prayer.   I just don't understand what I'm reading   There are several parts of the Word that I just don't understand either.  More parts than I'd like to admit.  I read through them, sometimes again and again, and their meaning just goes over my head.  I don't think there is anyone who truly understands everything in the Bible.  It is just too complex.  I believe, with many of the scriptures I don't really understand, that I'm just not to the point or place where their real and true meaning is understandable to me.  I believe I will learn more as I go.  And that my inability to understand all of it does not mean I shouldn't read and understand those parts that are so meaningful to me.   More will be coming, along with revision, as time allows.