Down the Bible studies for your personal or small group studies, and grow in your knowledge and understanding of the Lord.

New study uploaded September 17, 2025

1. Why I Can’t Seem To Trust God: Quicksand: Lately one of my biggest struggles has been trusting God.  I’ve been a Christian for a number of years, but I find myself struggling to truly trust Him at various times in my life.  Although I’ve trusted Him for salvation, in “practical” or “tangible” matters, I’ve not been as faithful to Him.  During difficult situations I’ve found it so easy to think only on the “bad” that’s happening and lose focus on God and what He’s done in my life.  When I pray about a situation, I find myself begging or praying out of fear and desperation, instead of faith and trust. This lesson focuses on the “quicksand” of doubt and why it seems difficult to trust God at times.  Doubt leads to a damaged relationship with the Lord and missed blessings.  So in this lesson, we’ll discuss how to keep this from happening.
2. Does God Change His Mind?: God has many attributes.  One of which is that He is immutable…He doesn’t change.  Based on this, one could reason: “If God doesn’t change, and He knows everything, then He should never change His mind.”  But there are instances illustrated in the Bible where changes His mind.  In this study we’ll take a closer look at these examples, understand the context and see how similar situations can apply to our lives.
3. The Character of God Revealed through the 12 Minor Prophets: Are you ready to lead a small group Bible study? Are you ready to deepen your understanding of the God we serve? Then download the study The Character of God Revealed through the 12 Minor Prophets. As you study their lives, you’ll learn about the times in which they lived. Discuss how similar or different they are to our times. Then see how God responded or revealed Himself. At the end, you’ll be able to gain a more complete understanding of the nature and character of God.
4. I Just Suffered A Loss: Now What God?: Loss is a part of life.  Everyone suffers losses in their lives – a favorite pet, a job, our health, our belongings, a parent, a child.  These losses can cause us deep emotional and physical pain.  And it is in these times that our relationship with God is tested.  Some people come out of their trial with a stronger relationship with Him.  Others walk away from God.  What’s the difference? This study focuses on the emotional states we experience during a loss and how we can keep our relationship with God intact. 
5. Challenging The Lord’s Goodness: Have you ever been in an uncomfortable or undesirable situation for a long time, maybe a demanding job, living on a tight budget, dealing with health issues or stressful relationships? And you’ve seen the hand of God in your life in the past, but the current situation makes you wonder, “Where is God in all this?” Doesn’t He care?” You may find yourself “grumbling and complaining” throughout the day and even questioning His goodness. “If the Lord was really good, He’d do something to get me out of this…now!” The Israelites, under the leadership of Moses, had left Egypt and spent about 11 months in the desert. Their time to enter the Promised Land was near. All this time, God had fed the people with manna. With all the wandering, eating the same food every day, and a longing to be settled in their own land, Israel began to complain. Their attitude eventually caused them to miss out on the very blessing of God for which they longed. This lesson will teach us to have a different perspective on our difficult situations and help keep us from losing our “promised land” blessings.
6. The Blessings of God: One of the things Christians need and desire is to be blessed by God. The blessings from God are those things which promote our happiness and welfare. But all too often we fall in a trap of wholeheartedly seeking the “blessings” and end up receiving something far short of what we hoped for. This can lead to disillusionment and a loss of faith. This lesson focuses on the “proper” way to seek blessings from God in a manner that honors Him themost. Our Father is not against blessing us – as a matter of fact, blessing us is an expression of His love. But like a child, we sometimes have to readjust our focus and priority.
7. Overcoming Obstacles: Life is full of obstacles. They seem to multiply especially when you are close to acquiring a goal or blessing God has given you. When you are on a mission from God and the opposition seems insurmountable, press on with God, not on your own strength. God’s word cannot change. If we press on and not give up, we will receive blessings and leave a testimony that will amaze others.
8. How To Make God Mad: During a recent time of personal study, a certain theme kept coming up. Over a period of two weeks as I read and listened to the books of Psalms, Matthew and Mark, I noticed that there were certain things that angered our Heavenly Father. To my surprise (and dismay) I found myself doing those things quite often. It seemed so easy to fall into this particular “sin”. As we go through trials and tribulations, we eventually seek the Lord for help (the sooner the better) – this is a step in the right direction. But as time goes on, we often engage in activities that take us two steps backwards, thus nullifying our petitions to the Lord. This lesson is a study in those activities that so easily entrap us and gets God mad.
9. Psalm 91: No matter who you are or your status in life, you will experience trials and tribulation in this life; some more difficult than others. In John 16:33 Jesus even mentioned this fact to His disciples. But He also offered a word of encouragement, i.e., “Be courageous! I have conquered the world”. Psalm 91 is a psalm of hope and protection that can enrouage us when we are going through the trials of life. Through this lesson I hope to shed some light on this Psalm so believers will see the truths and comfort it presents, understand its power, and apply it as they are “driven to their knees” by the trials of life.
10. How To Get Close To God:Anyone who has been in or around church for any significant amount of time has heard the phrase, “You need to get close to God”. But what does it mean? How do you do it? How do you get close to an invisible, holy, perfect God? Fortunately, God tells us how in His Word. I’ve read Psalm 15 many times in the past. I thought it was “okay”, but I never noticed anything really significant about it…until recently. For some reason the scripture “spoke” to me. It almost seemed like an iceberg, where the bulk of the meaning was just below the surface, and the Lord let me see some of what’s down there. This lesson is designed to help you in your daily walk to get closer to God.
11. Why Do We Worry: One morning, as I was doing my daily reading, I came across a passage in Matthew, where Jesus instructs us not to worry.  I immediately thought, “Is that possible?  Is He serious?  How can He really mean that?”  It appeared that Jesus was telling us not to do something that was impossible.  Everyone worries; it comes so naturally.  Life is full of “stuff” that comes into our lives that causes us to worry. But after reading the passage a second time and thinking about it, I realized that worry was really a matter of choice, priority and relationship.  This lesson discusses the pitfalls associated with worry and how to overcome our “natural” tendency.
12. I Start on Monday: This lesson is designed to help those who are dealing with stressful situations and need words of encouragement.  During tough times we search for the “tangible” solution that will give us peace and “make life better”.  But we can’t control life enough to guarantee “smooth sailing” or “little” bumps on our life’s journey.  Our long term peace has to rest in the “intangible” nature of God.  Just as the rain has the power to make seeds bud and grow that provide food for our bodies, God’s word is the power behind every need we have and is our true source of peace.
13. God of Promise – God of Compassion:Many times in life when we succumb to our short-comings, i.e., we “blow it”, we stand before an all knowing God wondering what happens next. Sometimes the consequences of our actions are not as bad as confessing before our Heavenly Father saying, “Lord, I’m sorry.  I messed up.  It wasn’t a ‘mistake’; I just chose to do wrong.”  Then your mind begins to wonder, “What kind of God is He?  How will He respond to my sin and confession?  I truly regret what I did and will strive to turn around, but what does God feel?” This lesson focuses on the final instructions Moses provides the people of Israel right before they enter the Promised Land.  And through his instructions, we can gain some insight into the character of God.  This will give us a better understanding of our Father when we succumb to our weaknesses and then repent.
14. How To Live The Christian Life (Listen To Audio):One of the fundamental goals of a Christian is to live the “Christian life”.  But for many of us, this goal is elusive and exposes our weaknesses.  Trying to live the “Christian life” can be a source of so much frustration that we are “driven to our knees” in prayer in seeking God on how to “do better”.  We want to do good, but we seem to keep falling into the same traps.  We then begin to feel condemned, guilty, and unworthy to be in His presence.This lesson defines the “Christian life” and provides a perspective that will take the struggle out of this fundamental goal.  It will show how God the Father, through Christ, by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, provided for our every need, including how to live a life that’s pleasing to Him.
15. Jesus, Where Were You When I Needed You: In the life of a Christian there will come times when crises occur and we look to God for help, but we don’t see Him.  We know He has said that He will never leave us nor forsake us, but we don’t see Him intervening like we want.  Over time, our worst fears are realized and we are left to deal with the aftermath of the crisis.  We wonder, “Where was Jesus? If He had been there, I would not have suffered.”These are the questions that faced two sisters in the book of John.  This lesson is designed to help us understand, on a deeper level, the faithfulness of God and His love for us, regardless of the circumstances.
16. Born With A Purpose: Recently in my life, I’ve been struggling with a question that has been posed by mankind since Adam, “Lord, why am I here?  What is my purpose?”.  I have officially reached middle age.  I’ve seen children born and grow up to become young adults.  I’ve seen the passing of “older folks” I thought would be here forever.  So given a sense of my mortality and the shortness of life, I’ve been focusing on my purpose in this world. God does have a purpose for each one of us.  There is a certain time and place when His purpose for us will be fulfilled.  The story of Esther is a story of purpose fulfilled.  God put her in a certain position, at a certain time to fulfill a mighty purpose…saving of the Jewish race from genocide.  Reviewing how God worked in her life can give guidance as to how He is working in our lives and will provide a clearer vision of His purpose for us. 
17. Facing Life’s Challenges: Life is full of challenges.  There are times when crisis after crisis occurs and you wonder, “Where is God in all this?”  He may seem like He’s a million miles away.  But the story of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, shows us that how we respond to the challenges of life are critical to overcoming those challenges, no matter what they are. This lesson is a study of an event in the life of King Jehoshaphat during a time when he was surrounded by enemies.  He did not provoke the attack.  He had nowhere to run; no defense seemed adequate.  So he did the wisest thing any of us can do in a seemingly hopeless situation, and I think there is a lesson in his response for all of us.
18. Chosen To Bear Fruit In The Christian Life: Have you ever made some bad decisions in your life that made you feel that you were almost beyond God’s forgiveness?  You can’t even call what you did “a mistake” to make it sound better; it was just a bad decision on your part.  You may have disappointed and hurt some people very close to you.  You wish you could take it back, but you can’t. Unfortunately, most Christians have had this type of experience.  You may feel “unforgivable” but you’re not.  This study focuses on the life of one of the apostles who felt almost “unforgivable”, but learned through experience, that the power, grace and love of God knows no bounds and that God will accomplish His purposes in spite of our “mistakes”.  Study this lesson and see for yourself.
19. God’s Faithfulness: What Does It Mean?: The book of Joshua is really the culmination of God’s promise to Abraham, as depicted in Genesis 12, 13, 15 and 17.  As I read the book recently, one aspect of God’s character kept speaking to me: “God is faithful”.  As I thought about it, I had some questions: Didn’t Abraham, to whom God made the Promised Land covenant, die hundreds of years before Joshua and the Israelites entered the Promised Land?  Didn’t Israel’s sin cause them to wander in the desert for 40 years and delay the fulfillment of the promise? Didn’t Joshua and the Israelites have to fight for their land once they got there?  Why didn’t God allow Abraham to enjoy “milk and the honey”? I realized that my expectation of how God would keep the promise to Abraham was different than the reality of what happened.  In fact, my expectation of how God will answer my prayers is usually different than what He does.  And I think this point is what causes many Christians to give up their faith in God and doubt Him during troubling times. This lesson is a study in God’s faithfulness and our expectations.  The goal is to better understand the character of God so that our faith does not waver during difficult times.
20. In The Belly – A Study of Job’s Prayer While In The Belly of the Fish: As young children, we have all heard the story of Jonah.   Some know his story as “Jonah and the Big Fish”; others know it as “Jonah and the Whale”.  We are all familiar with the basic storyline that Jonah was told by the Lord to go to Nineveh.  Jonah did not want to go and decided to get on a boat and sail to Tarshish instead.  Along the way, a storm came which endangered the ship, and Jonah was thrown overboard.  He then spent three days in the belly of a fish.  Later he was “vomited on dry land” and eventually went to Nineveh where his preaching caused the people to repent and turn to God. As I read the book of Jonah, chapter 2 caught my attention.  The entire chapter takes place inside the belly of the fish.  As I thought about this scene, I realized that Jonah was at the lowest point in his life.  He was helpless, caught in the grips of death, with no way out.  When we are driven to our knees by life, we can find ourselves in a similar type of situation, where the only option seems to be “to give up”.  Is there hope?  Yes!  As long as there is a God in Heaven, there is hope.  This study focuses on Jonah’s prayer and provides the evidence for our hope in the Lord.
21. God Is With You: Throughout the Bible God comforted many people facing trials by saying, “I am with you.”  As I thought about this I wondered, “What does it mean to have God ‘with you’?  How does it apply to my trials?  What can I expect to happen when He is ‘with me’?” A study of the scriptures reveals that one of the most comforting things a Christian can know when they are facing a trial is that God is with them.  This lesson addresses the questions above and provides assurance for the Christian in the face of any and every trial.
22. Are You Ready To Sing?: There are times in our lives when the trials of life emotionally overcome us, especially when one “bad” thing happens after another.  It seems like “we just can’t get a break.”  Our spiritual vision becomes so clouded that we don’t even feel like looking up to God, much less praying to Him.  We go to church and the songs seem so empty.  We wonder, “Really… where is God?”  This lesson focuses on a series of events in the lives of the apostle Paul and Silas.  As they were preaching, they encountered a number of severe trials that should have had them screaming in agony to the top of their lungs.  But yet they sang, and their deliverance came “rubblin’ in”.  See what we can learn about Paul and Silas so we can bring in our deliverance – “singing our way to victory”. 
23. The Great Puzzle Master: Have you ever been in a seemingly impossible situation with no way out? Where it seemed like the solution you needed was like a big jigsaw puzzle with 1000 pieces ─ and half of them were missing? And even if you had the missing pieces, you still weren’t sure how you could put it all together. Life looked like a big mess. Can you relate? Well this lesson is for you. In it we will see how God can take a seemingly messy situation, move all the right pieces, and put them in place to make the beautiful picture of His perfect will. You will see and be encouraged by how a sovereign God can move the pieces of your life to build a complete picture of His perfect will. 
24. Stay In The Kitchen: There’s an old saying that goes something like this, “If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen”.  It’s been applied to a variety of situations, but basically it means, “If you don’t like the current circumstances, then leave”.  Throughout our lives we will have a number of seasons where we’re in a “hot kitchen”, i.e., circumstances that are difficult, trying, stressful, and not to our liking.  So what are we to do in these situations?  Our natural tendency is to immediately do whatever it takes to get to a more comfortable condition.  But sometimes, doing the obvious is not the best action to take.  This principle is illustrated in the life of Isaac, the promised son of Abraham.  In this study we will see why sometimes it’s best to “stay in the kitchen” and experience the glory of God.  
25. You Too Can Walk On Water: Lately I’ve been reading about Jesus.  I wanted to learn more about how He carried Himself on a daily basis, so I could better pattern my life after Him.  During my reading I came across the passage in Matthew 14 where Jesus walked on water.  It’s a familiar passage that has been the subject of countless sermons.  But this time I thought about the exchange between Peter and Jesus and wondered, “What great things could be accomplished in my life through faith in Christ?” This lesson takes a closer look at this question and provides some insight on how to apply certain principles in your life that allows God to do great things.  Hopefully through this study, you will be able to experience things that you never thought possible, all due to a fixed-focused faith in Christ.
26. Are You Tired of Manna?: There was a time in my life where I had a serious need from the Lord.  The clock was ticking, the need remained unmet, I prayed to God, and nothing changed.  Then I thought, “Don’t seem like God is going to answer this prayer.  I got to do things on my own.  Seems like He just led me to where I am today and just left me.  I’ll just take care of myself.”  I knew God had done a lot for me, but I needed Him to work a certain way right now.  I followed Him before, but where was He now? This lesson is a study of certain events in the history of Israel after Moses led them out of Egypt, the Exodus.  Their responses to their crises can teach us the appropriate way to respond to the crises in our lives and how God views our “typical” response.  Getting totally consumed by the situation at hand can cause us to miss some of God’s greatest blessings in our lives.
27. Don’t Let Your Expectations Steal Your Blessings: When we become Christians we usually come to God with a set of expectations, i.e., things we look forward to, anticipate, things we consider reasonable. When we encounter storms in our lives, we turn to God for help, with our expectations leading the way. To our surprise, sometimes God doesn’t meet our expectations. Oftentimes the associated disappointment leads to anger, disillusionment, and a weakening of our faith. But three of God’s attributes which are demonstrated in this lesson are His faithfulness, His omnipotence (all powerful), and that He is imputable, i.e., He doesn’t change. Therefore we may need to look at our disappointments from a different perspective before we start questioning God. This study focuses around the events of Naaman, a Syrian warrior who almost let his expectations steal what he desired most.