Exploring Faith Through Psychological Bible Study and the Challenge of Slow Days

I’ve been trying something different lately with my Bible study. Instead of just reading and praying and hoping something sticks, I’ve started looking at the stories from a psychological perspective. Trying to understand the people in the pages... what they might have been feeling, how their minds and hearts were tangled up in the struggles they faced.

It started as a suggestion from a friend at church who’s been taking some counseling classes. She told me that approaching Scripture with an eye for human emotion and psychology could help deepen my understanding... not just of the stories, but of myself, too.

I’ve been reading about Naomi and Ruth again. Not just the loyalty and the redemption... but the bitterness, the grief, the fear. Naomi’s emptiness. Ruth’s resilience. They were real people with real pain, and I think I’ve spent too many years reading their stories like they were perfect saints instead of hurting, struggling women.

It’s changing the way I read the Bible. I’m starting to see the humanity in the words... the anger, the confusion, the doubt. And somehow, that makes the faith feel more real. More approachable.

But the truth is, I’m still struggling with my own faith. Trying to understand it... trying to connect to it in ways that feel genuine instead of just habitual. I’ve been spending more time alone with my Bible and my notebooks, writing things down... tracing the emotional threads I find in the stories and trying to connect them to my own life.

And I think that’s why days like today feel important. Slow days, quiet days... the kind where nothing is planned and the house feels still. Today was one of those days. I spent the morning rearranging bookshelves and dusting off journals... the old ones where I used to scribble prayers and hopes and half-finished thoughts.

Reading those old entries makes me realize how much I’ve changed... but also how much I’m still wrestling with the same things. Fear, doubt, longing for clarity. The desire to believe that God is present even when I can’t feel Him.

The psychological approach to Bible study is helping me to see how much of faith is wrapped up in the mind... in perception, in understanding, in the messy emotions we try to hide. It’s giving me something to hold on to, even when everything else feels shaky.

But still... I feel like I’m only scratching the surface. Like I’m uncovering questions faster than I’m finding answers. Maybe that’s alright. Maybe this whole process is less about finding the right answers and more about being willing to ask the hard questions.

Slow days like this feel like a gift... even if they leave me with more questions than answers. And I’m starting to see that the questions matter, too.