Ray of Sunshine. art

What are Bible Lights? I call the verses and passages I highlight in my Bible Bible Lights because we are illuminating the word of God and pointing to His light when we are highLIGHTing His words. Highlighting in your Bible is beneficial as it serves as a quick way to identify key concepts. When we highlight things we are able to easily find them again when we look through our Bibles. We may need to reference a verse quickly when discussing a Biblical topic with a friend and having it highlighted helps illuminate the scripture from the black and white page. But if we highlight everything in the same color we are not able to distinguish between the different highlights, this can make it frustrating as it turns a black and white image into a black, white, and yellow image with no real distinction.

One of the hardest things, I believe to do, when starting a Bible Study is to decide on a color coding system. I personally get overwhelmed at the start and want to highlight everything in my Bible in the same color scheme. The problem with that is often I find verses that overlap and fit multiple of my color codes or as I read I find phrases that are specific to that book of the Bible. With all that being said, don’t pressure yourself to get it right and don’t think you have to have a color coded system right off the bat. Get yourself a big box of highlighters, a general idea, and code as you go! I’ll continue to outline each of these three key steps below.

Highlighters

The highlighters that I bough are the Zebra Pen Mildliners. A lot of Bible journalers love these markers because they have minimum bleed through on those thin Bible Pages. These are easy to use and are water-based which means they will only leave ghosting on your page instead of bleed through. They have a chiseled tip for broad strokes and a fine point tip for smaller text. They are the same size as most pens which make them easy to store in a bag so that you can carry them with you. I bought the pack of 30 as I figured that would give me enough markers to cover all the things I want to track in my Bible studies. If you are interested in the ones I bought there is an Amazon Associate link below*.

Color Code System

There are a million different color coding systems already floating around the internet for “the best way to color code your Bible.” Are they really the best? They may be for some, however the best color code system is one that you are going to follow and highlights the important words or verses that the Spirit leads you to study. Don’t mindlessly highlight just because you saw someone else highlight that verse. Start with the themes you already know you want to track. Some reoccurring themes that could be helpful to monitor are What God says/ does, things that point to Jesus, application, and prophecy. These phrases are easily identified in scripture as they often start off by saying, “God said or as it was spoken by the prophet _______.” As you can see these are themes rather than single words. Single words to look out for can be helpful too but often times we get too caught up just looking for that word and end up with a jumble of highlights that don’t really illuminate anything. Stick to themes and words that you know have an impact on the overall message of the Bible such as, truth, resurrection, redemption, and love.

Code As You Go

If looking at the whole Bible and deciding on a 30 color system seems daunting, well one you’re right and two, code as you go! Pick two or three things you want to highlight as you study a certain chapter in the Bible. I often find that I will read the passage first and then pick up on keywords or phrases. Then on my second time through I mark the phrases that I had chosen. Below is an example from time spend in Zachariah. I chose 4 themes to track:

1. What God will do
2. In that day
3. God’s chosen people
4. Return to Me

These were key themes of Zachariah and I kept my categories loose enough that I did not get tripped up over specific wording. The picture below is what that looks like in action. You can see here where I completed this study in two different Bibles (The Complete Jewish Study Bible and an ESV) and was able to use the same categories.

Some other concepts to look for that can be helpful when deciding themes to highlight are recurring motifs, important theological concepts, or specific instructions from God. You can see some other category ideas in the Highlighter Guide section below.

Highlighter Guide

Here is an example of the highlighter guide that I created. I used the Mildliners mentioned above and as you can see there is room to grow! I placed the colors on the chart first and then added the things I know I often track. I then left space to add categories as I went. For example if you are reading Genesis you may want to make a special mark for each day of the creation story. You can also add symbols to your chart as well. With this format the possibilities are endless and you are able to customize the sheet in a way that works for you. As we discussed earlier the perfect highlighting system is the one that you will use! It is also important to note that you do not have to have 30 things to track. I use the 30 pack of highlighters as it gives lots of options, but that does not mean I need to find things just to be highlighting and using all the colors.

If you like this guide and would like to print a blank one for yourself, click to download below. Did i mention it is FREE!?

Thank you for taking the time to read this post! If you found it helpful please leave a comment below. Remember it is important to find a study system that works for you and one to keep you in the word. I hope this post encourages you to read your Bible and discover the LIGHTS that God shines for you in His perfect word.

*Please note the use of Amazon Associate Links. This means that if you make the purchase through my link I will receive some compensation.

In the comments tell me what your favorite highlighter is or what things you highlight.