All the important questions of life are answered in the Bible, but how can we find the relevant passages? Here are five resources that can really help!
Life is full of questions, such as:
- How can we deal with a difficult person?
- Whom can we trust?
- How can we teach our children to make good choices?
- How can we overcome a bad habit or a temptation to do something wrong?
In severe trials and in quiet times, we can face even deeper questions:
- What is the meaning of my life?
- What happens after this life?
- When will injustice be righted and evil be removed?
- Why am I going through this trial, and when will it end?
God tells us to cast all our care upon Him because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7), and He has not left us adrift and answerless. He has given us the Holy Bible as an instruction manual for life—both physical life in this world and eternal life in the world to come.
So how do we mine the riches of the Bible to find the answers we need? Here are five effective ways to find the answers to your Bible questions.
1. Pray for guidance.
The Bible is a weighty resource library with 66 books, 1,189 chapters and more than three quarters of a million words! Most of it is not written topically, so it can be very challenging for new readers to find what they are looking for. But thankfully, we can contact the Author and ask for His help!
God gave us the Bible as a gift, and He wants us to find the help we need.
But He wants us to truly recognize the source of this information by asking for His help. As Jesus Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount:
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).
God wants us to be able to rightly understand the Bible and to receive the inspiration, teaching, reproof, correction and instruction in right living that He has infused it with (2 Timothy 2:15; 3:16-17).
God is pleased when we trust in Him and seek His help in understanding His Word—the Bible (Proverbs 3:5-6; 1 Kings 3:9).
But just asking isn’t enough. We have to do our part. God wants us to read His Bible all the days of our lives and to “search the Scriptures daily” (Deuteronomy 17:19; Acts 17:11).
So, after praying for God’s guidance, how do we begin to find the answers to specific questions in the Bible?
2. Use a concordance, topical Bible or electronic word search.
To find the sections of the Bible that discuss a specific topic, it can help to use reference books or computer software. A concordance is a book that lists the words used in the Bible and tells which verses have that word. If you want to know what the Bible says about praying to God, you could look up words like “pray,” “prayed,” “prayer” and “praying.” Some computer software will allow you to broaden your search more easily by using an asterisk (*). For instance, to find all of the different words that begin with “pray” (those mentioned above and more), you can type “pray*” in the search box.
Electronic and online Bibles have the advantage of allowing you to type in searches for phrases as well as words. Useful sites with many online Bible translations include BibleHub.com, BlueLetterBible.org and BibleGateway.com.
Topical Bibles can be helpful for subjects that might be described by many different words in the Bible. For example, if you want to read what the Bible says about family, a topical Bible would be easier to check than to look for many words such as “family,” “marriage,” “husband,” “wife,” “parent,” “father,” “mother,” “son,” “daughter,” “child,” “children,” etc. (If you don’t have access to a printed topical Bible, some of the websites mentioned above also allow topical searches.)
Our personal correspondence staff is very happy to help those who want to understand the Bible and how to apply it in their lives.
For more details about these types of resources, see our helpful articles on “Bible Study Tools” and “Bible Software.”
3. Use the search box on LifeHopeandTruth.com.
We have recently enhanced our search capabilities, and searching our site will give you immediate access to more than 500 articles and 1,000 blog posts on a vast array of biblical subjects. We have tried to gather the most relevant and helpful material to answer the most frequently asked questions.
4. Use the All Topics page on LifeHopeandTruth.com.
In addition to search, our All Topics page provides an index you can use to browse through the titles of the hundreds of articles we have in seven broad topic areas.
5. Ask a question.
If you can’t find the answer to your question in your Bible or on our website, we welcome you to ask us. It can be nice to ask a person! Our personal correspondence staff is very happy to help those who want to understand the Bible and how to apply it in their lives. Just use the “Ask a Question” form on our website or send an email to [email protected].
The Church of God, a Worldwide Association, which sponsors this website, also has trained pastors around the world if you would like to talk to someone in your area. Our personal correspondence ministers can help you contact the pastor who serves your area.
Key Conclusions:
- God is eager to help us find answers if we ask.
- Concordances, topical Bibles and electronic word searches are good ways to find what the Bible says on a topic.
- Searching on Life, Hope & Truth can be an effective way to find relevant Bible passages about a subject.
- Browsing the “All Topics” page is another way to locate helpful answers.
- Trained ministers are available to help answer your Bible questions.
Recommendations:
For more information about how to find answers to your Bible questions, see these helpful resources:
It is universally understood that Christians should pray. But what should we say to God? Do we know how to pray? How does God want us to pray?
What is the best way to study the Bible? This article offers some tips on how to study the Bible and gain deeper insights and understanding.
The Bible addresses so many topics that can answer our questions and help us now and in the future. What are some of the most important Bible study topics?
Bible Study Tools: Where to Start
There are more Bible study tools available to us today than ever before. But did you know that the Bible itself can be the most important study tool?
Bible Software: Tools to Maximize Your Study
What can Bible software do that I can’t already do? Why bother learning to use new software? Bible software can be worth the time—and some of it is free!
Search on LifeHopeandTruth.com
Use the search function to find relevant biblical material in more than 500 articles and 1,000 blog posts.
Browse the more than 500 Bible-based articles in seven categories.
Send your question to our trained and caring personal correspondence ministers to request a personal answer.
Church of God, a Worldwide Association
The Church that sponsors the Life, Hope & Truth website has trained pastors around the world. Their contact information is listed on this website.
About the Author
Mike Bennett
Mike Bennett is editorial content manager for the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, in the Dallas, Texas, area. He coordinates the Life, Hope & Truth website, Discern magazine, the Daily Bible Verse Blog and the Life, Hope & Truth Weekly Newsletter (including World Watch Weekly). He is also part of the Personal Correspondence team of ministers who have the privilege of answering questions sent to Life, Hope & Truth.
