I use the SOAP format to engage God as I read the Bible. Simple yet powerful. Simply read a chapter or two. Start with Proverbs or the book of Luke. Reflect then write using S [scripture; what 1 verse caught your attention], O [observation; what is it about the verse or chapter that grabbed you], A [application; what it means to you, P [pray, talk to God about it]. Oh yeah, I typically give it a title to fire me up. Here’s my SOAP for today.
Title: Like water like wine.
S “Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in Me.” ~ Jesus. John 14:1
O Jesus cuts right to the heart my life. My heart is often troubled by fears which keep me tied to the dock, by dread of the unknown going forward, or by regret rooted in moral failures, poor follow through, and lost opportunities.
A Yet, my trailblazing Friend, Mentor, and Lord Jesus says to me today Be courageous, don’t remain stuck, see God as bigger and lean into and follow Me. Attack hills. Kill giants. You were meant for a time such as this.
“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. “He that will lose his life, the same shall save it,” is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors and mountaineers. The paradox of this whole principle of courage is…[we] cam only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it, he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine.” G.K.Chesterson quoted in Wild at Heart by John Eldridge