In a fit of sleep-deprived stubbornness, one day I just stopped reading the Bible. I certainly still believed in God, because I told him quite directly that I had no intention of reading his recycled words. It seemed to me that the prophets and apostles had no idea what it was like to bear and breastfeed four babies in eight years, to spend afternoons wondering if there was a different way to prepare forty-nine-cent-per-pound chicken thighs, or to entertain a baby and a toddler while teaching their big brothers to read.
Ironically, just as there are few atheists in foxholes, there are few scripture stand-offs during back injury recovery. I turned to the sacred text, mostly out of habit, as I was lying on the floor looking for relief. The words of an Old Testament prophet to an entire nation of stubborn people caught my attention:
The Lord will guide you continually,
And satisfy your soul in drought,
And strengthen your bones;
You shall be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” (Isaiah 58:11)
If ever there was a weak-boned, dessicated garden, if ever there was a dried-up spring, it was me. There was no fanfare or flash of light, but in that moment, I simply acknowledged that I had been wrong. Little by little the words of scripture became living words as I learned to pray them for my sons and my husband and teach their truth to the women of my church.
In a dry season, God poured down life that created motivation and excitement around his living word. Thankfully, you don’t have to injure your back or have a temper tantrum like I did in order to get out of your reading slump. You can stay motivated and excited about reading your Bible in every season of life.
Get Out of Your Reading Doldrums by Reading a Beloved Book
For me it was Isaiah, but maybe you love Philippians or the riveting storyline of Exodus. Get out of your slump by reading words that remind you of who you are in Christ. Read it in different translations. Read it aloud.
Turn to the beloved book whose words will take you back in memory to a time of stronger faith. Borrow hope from that memory and simply enjoy the reassurance that God has promised to meet you through his words. Every rustling page carries truth that has changed lives over centuries and around the world.
Overcome Discouragement by Focusing on Today’s Reading
We’ve painted ourselves into a corner with rigid rules about DQT’s (daily quiet times) and Morning Devos. Yes, we need the Word of God more than we need our morning coffee or the egg salad sandwich we wolf down while standing at the kitchen counter. However, there are times when young children, sick bodies, or simple exhaustion make a 6:00 a.m. appointment with God a legalistic and Pharisaical box-check and not a spiritual discipline.
On this day on the calendar, today’s reading is all that’s required. Today, you need not be concerned that you didn’t read yesterday. Today, you don’t have to promise to read the Bible every day for the rest of your life. Sufficient for today is today’s reading—even if it’s only one verse.
Write that verse on a 3×5 card and carry it around in your pocket. Scribble it on a Post-it note and stick it to the bathroom mirror. Feast on the truth that’s given, your daily bread, “a day’s portion every day.”
On this day, today’s reading is all that’s required. Today, do not worry that you didn’t read yesterday. Today, you needn’t promise to read the Bible everyday forever. Sufficient for today is today’s reading—even if it’s only one verse
Tweet
Become Excited by Becoming Curious
Answering my sons’ questions about the Bible and the ways of God made theology suddenly very practical. As life happens to us, the questions that bubble to the surface can send us searching for answers in God’s Word.
Put words around a question or consider a problem that keeps demanding your attention like a pebble in your shoe. Do some research on the topic using a concordance, Bible dictionary, or a commentary written by someone you trust, and let the words of scripture wrap themselves around your understanding. Bring to your reading and study of scripture the same curiosity that has made you good at your career or your relationships.
Borrow the Bible’s Living Words in Your Prayers
Whether you’re praying for the kids and husband you live with or the missionary friend you haven’t seen in three years, prayer can be hard work. I’ve had seasons of not trusting myself to pray for my kids according to God’s will, so I turned to scriptural prayers, prayed out loud in a blue mini-van during the years of sports practices and band rehearsals.
Paul brings the heart of a spiritual father to his prayers for believers in Ephesus and Philippi. Jesus prayed in John 17 for believers throughout all the ages. I’m in the habit of writing my kids’ and grandkids’ initials in the margin of my Bible whenever I find words that I want to remember to pray for them and some of them have made it into the pages of a journal.
Stay Motivated by Changing your Theology
Christianity is definitely defined by believing and by doing. We obey God’s Word because we believe it’s true. We live our lives in accordance with scriptural principles because we believe what God says more than we believe the cultural narrative or the screaming banshees inside our heads.
Unfortunately, this can lead to a performance model of the faith in which I begin to believe that I am accepted by God because I obey. Jonathan Edwards described this as depending on our sanctification for our justification. However, rightly understood, every act of righteousness flows from our new life in Christ because we are already “accepted in the beloved.”
We make the commitment to read the Word of God and to obey what we have read because we are a child of God, not because we fear that we will lose his love, jeopardize our eternal security, or fall out of favor. Habits of holiness do not make us any more beloved to God—and the days when we just can’t get it together do not diminish his love for us in any way.
Staying motivated and excited about reading and studying the Bible is our best defense against the spiritual desert. Because it is the Word of God, we know him and love him through our immersion in the truth he has revealed. The more you come to know him, the more you will desire to know him better.
What’s working for you?
Do you ever find yourself in the doldrums of reading?
How do you jump-start your motivation and excitement over reading God’s Word?
Holding You in the Light,
Staying motivated and excited about reading and studying the Bible is our best defense against the spiritual desert.
Tweet
Free Encouragement in Your Inbox!
On the third Thursday of every month, I send a newsletter with biblical encouragement straight to my subscribers’ email inboxes. Frequently, I share free resources, and the newsletter is where everything lands first. I’m committed to the truth that women can become confident followers of God and students of his Word, and I want to help you along that path.
To add this free resource to your pursuit of biblical literacy, simply CLICK HERE. There, on Substack’s website, you’ll find a prompt that looks just like this image for Living Our Days with Michele Morin. Over on that site, simply enter your email and then click on the purple “SUBSCRIBE” button.
You’ll receive a welcome letter to confirm your subscription and monthly encouragement in your email inbox.
Looking for Challenging Devotional Reading that Encourages You to Seek Intimacy with God Every Day?
I’ve created a new devotional plan for you! Whether you suffer from anxiety yourself or live alongside someone who struggles, you know the challenges. Management of our anxiety sometimes requires help outside ourselves and always requires the intervention of a loving and all-knowing God. Jesus himself comes to us as a companion in anxiety, keeping company with us in everything that’s hard as we wait for shades of light to break through. Read more HERE!
As you know, I’m committed to the truth that women can become confident followers of God and students of his Word, and it’s my goal to help you along that path. At Living Our Days, I provide biblical content and resources to encourage biblical literacy and faithful living, and now I’m sharing devotional content on the YouVersion app. Visit my profile page to get free access to the reading plans!
I participate in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees. If you should decide to purchase any of the books or products I’ve shared, simply click on the image, and you’ll be taken directly to the seller. If you decide to buy, I’ll receive a few pennies at no extra cost to you.
Photo by Chad Stembridge on Unsplash
Living Our Days 
This is such an encouraging and challenging post Michelle, thank you so much! God bless you today sister 🙏
LikeLiked by 1 person
I sure appreciate your encouragement!
LikeLiked by 1 person
[…] Our Days / Posted on July 21, 2024 by Michele […]
LikeLike
We do go through seasons when staying in the Word is more of a challenge. I certainly agree with the doing just one verse, today’s reading, and really thinking on that throughout the day. God can work with that! I’ve found Bible podcasts to be so helpful during times when it’s hard to sit down and crack open my Bible. Podcasts that read Scripture and discuss it really get me thinking and I can hear the Word as I’m driving or doing something and ponder it as I continue on my day. Switching up and reading from a different translation from my usual or favorite also helps me think about the words and meaning from a slightly different angle.
LikeLiked by 1 person
These are terrific suggestions, Kim! Thank you for being such an engaged reader!
LikeLike
The church where I became a Christian had a strong emphasis on reading the Bible through in a year. I am thankful, because I think that grounded me spiritually more than anything else. But I did eventually fall into just checking off boxes, or getting discouraged if I fell behind, or thinking everything was right spiritually if I did my reading for the day. I still like reading the whole Bible, but I do it at my own pace these days–I don’t even know how long it takes me.
It’s so important, when we get discouraged or feel dry spiritually, that we not forsake the very thing that will refresh us and encourage us. I love the suggestion to read only a verse, if that’s all we have time for, and carry it with us through the day, or to go back to passages that have ministered to us in the past. I have many such passages, but the psalms are probably what I turn to most often at those times.
LikeLike
I’m experiencing a renewed interest in and appreciation for the psalms this year. I’ve been reading one every day and then also ending the day with a verse from a psalm and a short meditation on the psalm by Eugene Peterson.
There are so many ways for us to wake up our pursuit of God through his Word!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I appreciate Bible study workbooks that stretch my thinking and help me dig deeper than I might on my own. Delightful that you should mention Isaiah, Michele. I’ve just completed a quick review of the passages I’ve previously highlighted in Isaiah, and realized how much encouragement and how many promises are included. Yes, there are prophecies against a number of nations, but also hope for those who reverence God (33:6).
LikeLike
It’s always such a treat to take the time to go back over lessons and blessings. I’m so glad you got to do that, Nancy.
And I just got Jen Wilkin’s new workbook for Revelation in the mail, and I’ve practically had to hide it from myself until fall when I hope to have time to do it justice!
LikeLike
I’ve recently begun Leviticus in my reading plan and have already complained it (groan). Sometimes, I have to remind myself that those daily readings are like the physical therapy exercises I’m supposed to do for my knee–good for me even when tedious. I love your practical suggestions, including the idea of writing initials in the margins when you come across something you want to pray for someone. And it’s comforting to remember that our heavenly Father is never deterred when, as a former professor once described it, we reach a point where we “have a fit on God” and then dust ourselves off and continue forward.
LikeLike
That’s a picturesque way of describing it, and it’s the “dusting off” process that keeps us trusting.
Always so good to hear from you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I remember once while complaining while reading through Numbers all the names of so and so begat so and so. The Lord impressed on me that I may not know these people, but The Lord knew each one intimately and they matter to Him. Then He added that if your name was listed in Numbers you would love it. So that has motivated me to read every name since even if I can’t pronounce them correctly.
As far as motivation to read? I’ve always felt that The Lord is anticipating time with me and can’t wait for me to wake up and spend time with Him. I rarely miss my quiet time as a result. Thanks for asking, Michele.
LikeLike
I had a similar experience with the lists of names, Debi, only for me it was in Nehemiah with all the lists of workers and residents of Jerusalem. I remembered how we scan yearbook and newspaper photos for the faces that are important to us, and then realized that, of course, every face, every name matters to God.
And thank you for sharing that motivation thought. May we meet him faithfully because he is so faithful to us!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Curiosity when reading the Bible is so important! It helps us push through the parts that seem boring and irrelevant by asking questions of the text.
LikeLike
Oh, what a great observation! Thanks for reading!
LikeLike