Three Angles for Bible Reading

Here are three things I'm looking / listening for as I read my Bible:

• Listening for God's voice of encouragement, direction, or correction for my own life. This will probably always top the list for me. Sometimes I catch myself just going through the motions rather than really approaching Scripture as an opportunity to connect with the Lord. When I'm in this mode, I do my best to try to connect with what's written and find application in my life. For instance, with the story of David and Goliath, I try to put myself into David's shoes and learn from his example of faith and courage.
  
• Learning about Jesus and how He works. The stories in the Bible are not random. On each page, something is revealed about how Jesus thinks, feels, and acts. The whole book is one grand Story of the world that created by and for Jesus. The goal of every word and phrase on each page is for us to *know* Him, to understand Him, to be able to anticipate what He would do in a given situation. For example, from the same story of David and Goliath, I would see in David a picture of Jesus (the Son of David), who stands and fights against the enemies who are too great for me. Just like the Israelites who stood behind David that day, I get in on a victory that I had nothing to do with fighting! In a similar way, every person who is used by Jesus throughout the Bible somehow reveals His heart for us. We can also learn from the negative examples in Scripture (i.e. Saul, Ahab, Korah, etc.) about who Jesus isn't.
  
• Listening for verses to give to others. It's so exciting when God alerts me to a verse for another person! This doesn't happen very often, nor do I approach the Bible with this goal in mind. However, I always want to be open to it!