Anselm of Canterbury was not opposed to critical thinking, but he believed and taught the inconvenient truth that belief often precedes full understanding. If you struggle to understand all facets of your faith, don’t fret. You’re in good company.

“I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but I believe in order that I may understand . . . if I did not believe, I would not understand. ”

—Anselm of Canterbury

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Visit Blog.Faithlife.com every Tuesday for an inspirational, though-provoking quote from a Christian leader, historical figure, or scholar.

Despite all this, most believers seldom pray honestly. Most of us pray regularly, at least bowing our heads while the pastor prays, but it becomes much more difficult to speak honestly with God when no one else is listening.

A. W. Tozer puts it like this: “We cannot seem to get our minds into good working order, and the first thing we have to fight is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is overcoming this problem of our idle and wandering thinking. We have to learn to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful, deliberate prayer.”

Here are three steps you can take to cultivate a habit of prayer that is both consistent and genuine.

Keep a list

A prayer list will help you stay organized. If you have an affinity for lists, chances are you’re already doing this; if you don’t self-identify as a “list person,” consider keeping just this one. A written list, whether physical or digital, will keep you from making a flippant “I’ll pray for you” promise with intention of following through. We created the prayer widget to help you keep track of your prayer requests. Here’s an explanation of how to use it.

Avoid mimicking what you hear

If you grew up in church, you may be familiar with a particular style or cadence of prayer. There is nothing wrong with this kind of style, but it does miss the point. Prayer is one half of a conversation. It’s your chance to speak directly to God. Speak as yourself, not as someone else. Mimic what you hear others praying and you’ll quickly find yourself making rote prayers, built with snap-together phrases that, though they have a pious ring, have become devoid of meaning. If you hear the prayer of another whom you admire, mimic its spirit, but use your own words. Use words that you would use in conversation.

Write prayers out

This might also feel funny if you’ve never done it before, but writing (or typing) a prayer to God can help overcome many of the challenge that Tozer pointed out. Silent, private prayer can often degrade from prayer to thought, and thinking is not the same as praying. (Click to tweet) Let’s be honest: it’s also easy to get distracted or doze off. A pen or keyboard keeps your mind focused.

Beyond these three suggestions, how do you keep your prayer life vibrant and strong?

“Most of the trouble in this world is caused by people wanting to be important”

T.S. Eliot

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Famed poet, Nobel laureate and sometimes social critic, T.S. Eliot had a unique way of cutting through to the heart of any issue. This particular quote reminds me of another by a different double-initialed author (who’s books are available on Faithlife’s sister site, Logos.com.)

The servant is nothing; God is everything.

H.A. Ironsides

Visit Blog.Faithlife.com every Tuesday for an inspirational quote from a Christian leader, historical figure or scholar that’s sure to make you think.

Buying a Bible dictionary is usually like buying a computer. As soon as you get it home, it’s already out of date. Words printed on physical paper are locked in place. As new scholarship, new resources, and new discoveries emerge, your Bible dictionary remains unchanging—static.

But not the Lexham Bible Dictionary.

We’re excited to announce the addition of 58 new articles from scholars like:

• Alan J. Hauser
• Chet Roden
• Douglas Stuart
• And many others.

The Lexham Bible Dictionary and Faithlife Study Bible are constantly being updated to ensure that you have the most up-to-date information possible.

This new update adds over 150,000 words, making the Lexham Bible Dictionary over 1.7 million words total. The update includes entries covering topics like:

• Why the New Testament is called the “New Testament”—covered in “New Testament, Title of”
• The Qumran Community, which many scholars claim penned many of the Dead Sea Scrolls
• The Rule of the Community—an important sectarian manuscript from the Dead Sea Scrolls
• Gnosticism, an early heretical movement
• A brief history of biblical interpretation
• The books once contained in the Bible that no longer are
• The time between the Old and New Testaments, covered in “Intertestamental Period”
• The ancient book known as Testament of Abraham

How can I find Lexham Bible Dictionary articles?

Here’s one easy way. As you’re reading Scripture in your Faithlife Study Bible app, you may see an icon in line with the study notes, like the one below next to the word “Parousia” at 2 Peter 3:4.

That icon indicates that a Lexham Bible Dictionary article on this topic is available. The article happens to be one of the new ones. When you click it, the article shows up over the notes pane, on the bottom half of your screen.

And, of course, the Lexham Bible Dictionary currently comes completely free with the Faithlife Study Bible. Whether you’re downloading the Faithlife Study Bible for the first time or getting the update, you’re not paying a dime for this tool. The work of the world’s leading scholars is at your fingertips.

Learn more | Get it now

All Scripture is important. All Scripture is true, but not all Scripture is meant to be read in the same way. Different kinds of literature have different expectations.

You wouldn’t read The Raven and angrily reply, “No, the Raven did NOT say that!” You understand that certain literary devices, like personification, are widely used in poetry.

In the same way that you would read Edgar Allan Poe differently than you read Jeff Shaara, you should expected different things from a Psalm than from Acts. Here are the four most common types of biblical literature and what you should expect from them.

Narrative | Story

Narrative tells a story. Sometimes that story is intended to be true, sometimes not, sometimes a little of both. Biblical narrative is the intended-to-be-true kind. You’ll see some redundancy, as certain books cover the same events from different perspectives for different audiences. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, for example, all tell the same story, but have subtly different points of emphasis. The book of Luke, written by a physician, gives a lot of technical detail, while Mark, heavily influenced by Peter’s type-A personality, is action-packed. When you read narrative, it’s important to remember who was writing and for what purpose.

When people read through the Bible from cover to cover for the first time, one of the biggest hangups they face happens in Genesis 5. The story has been humming along nicely and then all of a sudden: a genealogy, a whole chapter comprising nothing but name after name after name. Don’t be discouraged by these passages; instead, let them act as a reminder of the authors’ attention to detail.

Found in: Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Easter, Job, Daniel, Jonah (and in smaller sections throughout most of the prophets), Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts.

Secular equivalents: Iliad, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and Flag of Our Fathers

Epistle | Letter

Some of the most well-read portions of Scripture are letters written from the early church fathers to believers in other cities. Just like letters that you or I would write today, these ancient letters tend to meander casually from topic to topic without hard-and-fast chapter breaks. The chapter/verse divisions were added later, so these books are best read as single streams of thought. There are exceptions, of course. Romans and Hebrews are quite a bit more systematic than the others.

The books of Luke and Acts are crossovers. They are written both as narratives, to tell a story, and as letters, addressed specifically to a Greek man called Theophilus.

Found in: Ecclesiastes, Luke, Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1, 2 & 3 John, and Jude.

Secular equivalents: There aren’t many. While historians use original sources, journals, and personal correspondence to study history, there are not many examples of correspondence written with intent to share broadly.

Poetry | Art

Poetry is emotion in print. While there is still an element of sharing the truth with a reader, poetry is highly introspective. Especially in biblical poetry, you may see a writer work his way from a carnal mindset at the beginning of a passage, exhibiting emotions like jealousy, anger, bitterness and pride, to a more spiritual point of view at the end. Let these passages be permission for you to struggle with your faith a little—or a lot, like many of them did.

Poetry makes use of many literary devices that you’ll rarely find in other forms of literature. A literary device like parallelism can help you understand an idea by comparing it or contrasting it with another idea. Psalm 1:3–4 is an excellent example of parallelism.

Found in: Psalms and Ecclesiastes

Secular equivalents: The sonnets of Shakespeare, The Iliad, Where the Sidewalk Ends

Wisdom Literature | Advice

Wisdom literature is full of very helpful but very general advice. Many people can become confused when treating wisdom literature like a dogmatic promise. A classic example would be Proverbs 22:6. While often claimed as a divine promise, this verse is only intended to be a piece of conventional wisdom. Practically all wisdom literature is intended to be read in this way—generalized truth to which exceptions may occur.

Ecclesiastes, the ultimate crossover, is written as an addressed letter, in metered poetic style, while offering wisdom advice. This book could arguably be included in all three categories.

Found in: Proverbs and Ecclesiastes

Secular equivalents: The Art of War, The Works of Confucius, and Think and Grow Rich

So next time you’re reading the Faithlife Study Bible, stop for a moment before you start the work of interpretation. Ask yourself what sort of literature you’re dealing with. What expectations should you bring to the text?”

I didn’t have an answer, so I took a pull of my styrofoam-flavored coffee and avoided eye contact. We were on week two of an eight-week study through Genesis and Exodus. Some churches call it Sunday school; we called it adult education (because we’re hip like that). The New Testament girl and her husband were new additions to the class. They may have been new additions to the church and Christianity, for all I knew. We were in Genesis 16, and she was asking good questions, honest questions, insightful questions that made me somewhat ashamed I hadn’t asked myself.

How could God bless Abraham? Look at how sinful he is!

What did Ishmael ever do wrong? He’s cursed before was born! How is that fair?

Having grown up with an ambient knowledge of the New Testament God of love, I struggle with the some of the starker portraits of Yahweh painted across the Old Testament. Of course we know that Old Testament Yahweh and New Testament Jesus are one and the same in spirit, yet distinctly different persons. Jesus was present for all the the wanderings of Israel, and Yahweh is still very active throughout the ministry of Paul. God’s nature is unchanging. He did not get a personality transplant in the last chapter of Malachi, though sometimes it seems that way.

Reconciling the two sides of God is difficult work, made somewhat easier by Connect the Testaments, the daily devotional that we’ve built into the Faithlife app. Written by our own John Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments comments on a different passage of Scripture each day, alternating between the Old and New Testaments.

If you’ve grown up fearing the God of Abraham, this devotional can help you come to know his love.

If you have trouble making sense of the Old Testament narrative, this tool can help you see its harmony.

Had I known about Connect the Testaments that day in my adult-ed class, I would have shared with New Testament girl the passage from January 9.

When God’s promises are lavished on Abram in Genesis, we can’t help but feel a bit surprised. It seems undeserved . . . The greater context of the Genesis narrative shows that God’s blessing is certainly not just about Abram . . . He presents Abram with a promise and a gift—a plan of salvation for humanity. God re-establishes relationship on His terms.

Where can I find it?

Great question.

On the home screen of your Faithlife Bible Study app, click the gray “plus” sign in the Daily Readings pane, and find it in the list of Daily Devotionals.

I think you’re going to love it.

You’ve experienced Scripture with the Faithlife Study Bible. Now you can upgrade to Logos Bible Software’ best Bible study tool, Logos 5, for 15% off through May 20. Just use coupon code SPRINGSALE at checkout.

What’s the difference between the Faithlife Study Bible and Logos 5?

The FSB, designed as an introductory Bible study tool, gives you the ability to follow reading plans, do predefined word studies, and view photos, videos, and infographics.  But there comes a point where the basic tools and resources just aren’t enough.  Logos 5 will take your Bible study deeper.

You’ll get a massive digital library, and smart tools that will help you connect to the Word.

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You’ve experienced the FSB. Now take your Bible study deeper with Logos 5.

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See the Scripture come alive

Mary: Devoted to God’s Plan includes infographics to help you see how Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. The resource combines text and visuals to give you a better understanding of the Bible as a whole.

Walk in her shoes

The story of Christ is literally all over the map, and sometimes it can be difficult to visualize where in Israel and the surrounding areas the stories took place. With maps and diagrams, you’ll be able to see the physical location of Scripture as you read it.

Grow in faith

At the end of each of the eight chapters in Mary: Devoted to God’s Plan are questions to help you reflect on the devotional and apply it to your own life. Answer the questions directly in the resource in your Faithlife Study Bible, and share your thoughts on your Faithlife newsfeed.

Use code FSBMARY and get Mary: Devoted to God’s Plan for 20% off the regular price. But hurry—this offer ends May 13, so what are you waiting for? Get this resource today.

May your life preach more loudly than your lips.

—William Ellery Channing

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As a signer of the Declaration of Independence, William Ellery Channing was not shy about bold statements, but he loved bold actions even more. What can you do this week to demonstrate the things you believe?

Visit Blog.Faithlife.com every Tuesday for an inspirational, thought-provoking quote from a Christian leader, historical figure, or scholar.

Q: Is it true you have a formula in Red-Hot Monogamy that calculates how much time it takes for a couple to create a love that lasts a lifetime?

Yes, we explain how much T.I.M.E. investment it takes to keep a red-hot love life with a simple acrostic:

1. Ten to twenty minutes a day of talk time to stay emotionally connected.
2. Invest in a weekly date night to keep fanning the flame.
3. Monthly all-day getaway to be sure that your needs for romance and sex are met.
4. Escape yearly—or better yet, twice a year: once for a marriage conference, and once for some rest and romance, like on your anniversary.

Q: What are a few ways couples can keep the Bible central to their relationship?

Bill and I see Bible study like one wonderful adventure! Anytime we learn something about biblical history, context, or words, we run and share it with the other! We also encourage couples to do the simple basics so they can feel successful with the Bible:

• Attend a Bible-teaching church together weekly.
• Be involved in a Bible study group together.

Have a five-minute time in the Word, like we encourage in A Couple’s Journey with God.

30% off the Marriage, Sex, and Questions Kids Ask book bundle:

Save 30% on three of Bill and Pam’s most popular books on Vyrso.com. The book bundle includes the authors’ latest release: 10 Questions Kids Ask about Sex. Sale ends May 14.

1. Red-Hot Monogamy: Making Your Marriage Sizzle

With their trademark insight, humor, and candid personal perspectives, Bill and Pam reveal the truth about sexual relationships in marriage and what husbands and wives need to know to keep the embers burning.

• Sex is like fireworks!—why a little skill turns marriage into red-hot monogamy
• How sex works best emotionally, physically, and physiologically
• How to avoid the pleasure thieves that steal your chance for fulfillment
2. 52 Ways to Wow Your Husband: How to Put a Smile on His Face

With humor and creativity, Pam delivers humor and wisdom in a fun woman-to-woman style through inspirational stories, godly advice, and easy-to-read offerings that include:

• Wow assignments: simple ways to support, love, and encourage husbands
• Wow wisdom: Bible verses and wisdom to help women cover their spouse with prayer
• Wow dates: creative ideas for everything from shared meals to weekend getaways
3. 10 Questions Kids Ask about Sex

Every parent wants to help their children make wise choices. Now Bill and Pam bring their trademark humor and characteristic wisdom to one of the scariest topics of all: teaching kids about sex.

• Lay a foundation for healthy conversation.
• Articulate God’s view of sex.
• Protect your children by giving them the right information at the right time.

Sale ends May 14.

Want more from Bill and Pam? Check out the Vyrso blog for more posts by the Farrels, or join the Faithlife book group!