Getting into what the Bible says

How can I get the best out of what I will be reading? You might find the TUMMY method helpful!

Them
Us
Me
My

Let’s unpack this a bit more to make sense of it!

T = Them

Ask yourself what you think the passage would have said to them – that is, to the people who were there at the time, who were part of the story or who were the receivers of the letter. Try to see yourself there, as if things had only just happened or been said. How would you have felt? What would you have seen or thought?

U = Us

Now let’s bring it up to date, to our times. Ask yourself: what would be the exact equivalent of that for us today, in our modern world? This is not a chance to change the Bible, just to apply it properly. Have a go at doing this with the following:

Read: Ephesians 6 v5-9

What would the exact equivalent of that teaching be in the modern world today?

M = Me

Without this step, reading the Bible remains something very general. God wants it to be personal – it is his love letter to me. So now we need to ask him: “God, out of all the things I have just read, what is the one thing in particular that you are saying to me today?” Often it will be just one word, one phrase, one thought, that stands out.

MY = My

That is, what is my response to all that I have read? After all, reading the Bible is meant to be a means of growing, not acquiring head knowledge. So, having read it, I now need to act on it in some appropriate way. Not to do so, the Bible says, is just plain silly, as the following passage shows.

Read: James 1 v22-25

Once you have got the hang of the TUMMY principle it is so easy. It might seem a little awkward at first (rather like learning to drive a car); but once you have got the hang of it, away you will go and the Bible will come to life!

Let’s have a go at putting this into practice. Try it out with the following passage:

Mark 2 v1-12
Them 
Us
Me
My

To sum up…

The Bible is one of God’s key gifts to us to help us to grow. It helps us –

• touch God’s heart
• know God’s will
• hear God’s voice
• choose God’s ways
• sense God’s leading
• defeat God’s enemies

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