SPACE PETS

Posted On June 20, 2021

“Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.”

Joshua 1:8 NLT

“God urges us to apply his Word . . . , but too often we stop at accumulating Bible knowledge. . . . Application begins by knowing and understanding God’s Word and goes further. It focuses on the truth of the particular Scripture text, shows us what to do about what we’re reading, and motivates us to repsond to what God is teaching. All three are essential.”

Chronological Life Application Study Bible

We are instructed to meditate on God’s Word “day and night” so that we will be sure to obey everything written in it. In my blog post titled Christian Meditation I briefly mentioned a method I learned from Rick Warren’s Bible Study Methods for applying Scripture: it’s an acrostic called SPACE PETS. This week I thought we could look at it again. It’s a fun way to remember how to meditate on Scripture so that we can implement what God is saying to us. Changing our way of living begins with changing our way of thinking.

“He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does,
the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.”

Ephesians 2:10 MSG

Rockets aren’t made to just sit idly. They’re made to be launched! So are we. God’s got plans for us. We need to study His instruction manual, the Bible, but He doesn’t want us to just stop there. He wants us to apply what we’ve learned and do the work He wants us to do. Astronauts train hard so that they can launch into an adventure in outer space. God has adventures in mind for each one of us. But we won’t get anywhere just sitting on the launch pad. We’ve got to be willing to fire up our engines and blast off!

“Application is unique for each individual. It is making a relevant truth a personal truth, and it involves developing a strategy and action plan to live our lives in harmony with the Bible. It is the biblical ‘how to’ of life.”

Chronological Life Application Study Bible

It’s hard to read and study the Bible if we don’t make it personal. Thankfully, we don’t have to figure out how to do this on our own. It’s the job of the Holy Spirit to make Scripture come alive and speak to each of us individually. It takes practice and dedication, but as we come to God’s Word ready to listen and obey, we learn to hear what He’s saying to us about whatever circumstances we are facing. Our faith grows as we learn to listen and respond to God’s instructions.

Rick Warren begins his Bible Study Methods book with what he calls the devotional method of Bible study. It forms the foundation for all the other study methods he discusses because it teaches us to apply what we learn. It can be used on any Scipture passage, whether long or short, and is a great method to use in daily quiet time with God. It consists of the following four steps:

1. Prayer – Pray for insight on how to apply the passage. This is a great time to tell God what concerns are on our mind and prepare to hear His answer. It’s amazing how often I have gotten insights that speak to my personal situation from a seemingly unrelated passage of Scripture. The Holy Spirit can help us see things we never would have noticed before.
2. Meditation – Meditate on the verse(s) we have chosen to study. This is the key step and it cannot be rushed. We need to read slowly and digest everything God is saying. We also need to keep thinking about it throughout the day, giving the Holy Spirit ample opportunity to reveal truths that relate to our circumstances.
3. Application – Write out an application that’s personal, practical, possible, and provable. Once we know what God is saying to us we need to do something about it. We need to be specific about how we can apply this truth in our lives today.
4. Memorization – Memorize a key verse from our study. I’m bad at memorization, so I don’t make this the main goal when I am studying Scripture. But I have found that the more I meditate on the verses I am studying, letting God speak to me through the words, I naturally remember them later. The more Scripture we store up in our hearts, the easier it becomes to hear the Holy Spirit speaking to us through them. He will often bring a certain Scripture verse to mind just when we need it.

“Meditation is the key to discovering how to apply Scripture to your life. Meditation is essentially thought digestion. You take a thought God gives you, put it in your mind, and think on it over and over again.”

Rick Warren’s Bible Study Methods

“How I love your teachings! I think about them all day long.”

Psalm 119:97 NCV

Rick Warren gives practical methods for Scriptural meditation, including visualizing the scene, emphasizing different words in the passage, rewriting the passage in our own words, and personalizing the passage with our name. He also suggests using the SPACE PETS acrostic to apply it to our lives. I have used it in my own Bible study and found it really helpful. Some of the questions may not apply to certain passages of Scripture, but it’s a good guide to help us dig out the truths the Holy Spirit is revealing to us. Here are the questions that the letters in SPACE PETS represent:
Is there any . . .

• Sin to confess?
• Promise to claim?
• Attitude to change?
• Command to obey?
• Example to follow?
• Prayer to pray?
• Error to avoid?
• Truth to believe?
• Something to praise God for?

Here is an example of SPACE PETS in action from my own notes on Genesis 12-25, which covers the life of Abraham:

• Sin to confess? Lot felt the pull of the worldly, immoral ways of Sodom and it led to his downfall. I think we’ve all felt too drawn to the world and its ways at times. Abraham and Sarah didn’t wait patiently for God to fulfill His promise of a son. They took matters into their own hands, leading to the birth of Ishmael and resulting in many problems and hurt feelings. I think we’ve all struggled with trusting God to work things out according to His perfect timing. We try to take matters into our own hands, leading to second-rate results.
• Promise to claim? All people on earth will be blessed through Abraham.
• Attitude to change? Believe the Lord. Have faith in Him. This leads to righteousness.
• Command to obey? Be willing to sacrifice everything for the Lord, even if it doesn’t make sense to you.
• Example to follow? Abraham’s faith and his love for his family
• Prayer to pray? Lord, help me to choose faith in You instead of the immoral ways of the world. Use me to bless others.
• Error to avoid? Don’t be so attached to the world that it leads to your destruction (like Lot and his wife).
• Truth to believe? Because of God’s work through Abraham and later through Jesus Christ, we are all blessed.
• Something to praise God for? God looks for faith, not moral perfection. He can use all of us if we just believe in Him and trust His ways.

My personal application for this passage was: choose faith. I tend to be a worrier, so I made this application personal and practical by making a conscious effort to change my anxious thoughts into prayers instead. This was a small change that was possible to do every day. It was also provable; I learned to check in with myself throughout the day to make sure I’m not just talking to myself when I’m worried about something. If so, I immediately redirect those thoughts to God in the form of a prayer.

The verse I memorized was Genesis 15:6 (NIV): “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” Whenever I start to face doubts, worries, or fears about the future, this verse often comes to mind. I remember that God commended Abraham not for his moral perfection, but for his faith. It reminds me that even when I make mistakes or face uncertainties, I can still choose faith every day. I can choose to believe that God will forgive me when I mess up and that He has a good plan for my life. He doesn’t expect me to be perfect. He just wants me to keep trying. He wants me to keep trusting in Him. He wants me to keep believing!

“A man saw his neighbor coming out of a church one Sunday morning. He asked the churchgoer, ‘Is the sermon done?’ The neighbor wisely replied, ‘No. It was preached, but it has yet to be done.’ If we do not apply the biblical insights God gives us, we become spiritually hardened and callous. We become dull to the convicting work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Application of God’s Word is vitally necessary to our spiritual health and our growth in Christian maturity.”

Rick Warren’s Bible Study Methods

“So, let your light shine to all people. Then they will see the good things you do.
And they will praise your Father in heaven.”

Matthew 5:16 WE

This week’s Scripture writing passages (listed first for each day) focus on meditation, reflection, and application of God’s Word. This week’s Scripture readings (listed second for each day) feature the passages Rick Warren suggests for practicing the devotional method of Bible study: pray, meditate, apply, memorize. Try using SPACE PETS to guide your meditation. Then apply what you’ve learned and let God launch you into the adventure He has in store for you!

“Put into practice what you learned and received from me,
both from my words and from my actions.
And the God who gives us peace will be with you.”

Philippians 4:9 GNT

References:

• Chronological Life Application Study Bible, New Living Translation. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2012.
• Warren, Rick. Rick Warren’s Bible Study Methods: Twelve Ways You Can Unlock God’s Word. Zondervan, 2006.

Images:

• Space Pets featured image by pencil parker from Pixabay
• Mercury image by Paulo Cesar Ventura from Pixabay
• Rocket image by Can Karakaya from Pixabay
• Astronaut Dog image by Piyapong Saydaung from Pixabay
• Mars image by Paulo Cesar Ventura from Pixabay
• Saturn image by Paulo Cesar Ventura from Pixabay