Step 1: Prepare to do a Topical Bible Study
Choose some topic that just interests you or something that’s troubling or a topic on your current stage or need in life to study.
Step 2: Brainstorm related words
After choosing a topic, brainstorm related words you might want to research. For example, when studying ‘joy’ you might want to include “rejoice”. Make as long a list as you can. Later you can decide which words or phrases to include and which to not pursue at this time.
Step 3: References
Use an exhaustive concordance or an online concordance, not just the concordance in the back of your Bible. An exhaustive or online concordance will give you every occurrence of the word (in the Bible version you’re using).
Step 4: Choose verses to study
iterate down from your long list of verses down to the most important, the most appropriate, the most helpful for the topic. These are the verses you will spend time studying closely, reading the context, and using to guide your thinking.
Step 5: Ask Questions
This step involves time to have an impact on your study, so take your time. Try to come up with a list questions to ask about each verse on your trimmed down list. The questions need to be focused on what you want to know.
Step 6: Read the verses and answer the questions
This step is a tedious work step and it will take time to do. It will also be the most interesting and rewarding step because you will be in the Word. You can list the answers underneath each verse, like an outline.
Step 7: Conclude
There is no one right way to do this. You might want to make a list of answers to each question. You might want to write a paragraph for each question. You might want to synthesize an answer that combines elements from several questions. The main point is to look at your answers all together to the complete view of what the Word teaches on the topic you chose.
Step 8: Write an Application
It is easy to skip this step with satisfying your curiosity about a topic. To be a life changing experience you need to jot down what the Lord has speaking to you and speak He will.
