Our problem is that we are in the Word but not under the Word.

Woodrow Kroll is dead-on in his assessment of the church's lack of engagement with the Word.

Nothing is more common than unfulfilled potential.

Don't put eggs under dead chickens.

Never do anything for a student that he he is capable of doing for himself. If you do you, you'll make him an educational cripple...a pedagogical paraplegic.

So the first reason for studying Scripture is that it is a means of spiritual growth. There is none apart from the Word. It is God's primary tool to develop you as an individual.

The Bible is the divine means of developing spiritual maturity. There is no other way.