Q/A Friday: What Should I Do When I Don’t Want to Read My Bible?

Know that Satan wants you to feel defeat. He wants you to be complacent. No one wakes every day and says, “I can’t wait to read God’s Word.” We need encouragement to excel still more.

Reading God’s Word takes thought, time, and a commitment, and all 3 of those things aren’t always present at 7:00am.

Let me give you some suggestions for how to counter-attack feelings of apathy or complacency towards reading God’s Word. These are re-worded or re-stated principles from John Piper’s book When I Don’t Desire God and I would commend his book to you as a good resource for any lack of joy in any part of your life.

First, pray that God will give you the right words to say to yourself. Yes, that’s right! Talk to yourself! In Psalm 42:5, the psalmist talks to himself – “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”

When we struggle to study our Bibles – whatever the reason (e.g., too tired, too lazy, other distractions) – we are listening to ourselves. We need to learn to talk to ourselves. We listen to ourselves and our own excuses too often. Say, “Now, Charles, you listen to me. The Bible is a necessary part of your walk with the Lord. Stop listening to yourself or others and get in it.” Pray that God will give you the right words to say to yourself.

Second, pray that God would uncover any sin in your life. Often a reason we don’t want to study the Bible is because there is an unconfessed sin dwelling in our heart. And, if we have sin our heart, we won’t want to read the Bible, because the Bible might address it, the Bible might turn on the conscience, and the Bible might make us feel guilty about the sin.

This is what David models for us in Psalm 139 – “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (vs. 23-24). If there is a sin in our heart, we need to know about it, so we can address it, with repentance.

Third, pray God would remind you where hope is established. The world can’t offer real hope. It cannot promise its resources will answer your deepest questions. The world cannot guarantee that its smartest people will design dependable remedies for your strongest struggles.

Only the Word of God provides real hope. Jesus said that everything He preached was to bring life and hope (John 6:63).

Paul rote in Romans 15:4, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” That means everything from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 is a story about hope realized and restored.

And even the best of Christians need reminders of hope.

Fourth, pray that God would help you remember the past joys of communing with Him in His Word. Rehearse how God has used your time in His Word to stimulate your thinking, help solve a problem or decide, deepen your praise of Him, etc.

Here is a good reason to journal. Journaling is a tangible record of God’s use of His Word in our lives. By reminding ourselves of the way God has used His Word in the past, we will be encouraged to open it again to see what He is going to do next.

Invest time putting into practice Psalm 145:6 – “They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness.”

Fifth, pray that God would recall needed memorized Scriptures. Our primary weapon in the battle against apathy, lack of motivation, laziness, and forgetfulness is God’s Word. And we can only wield that weapon if we have memorized its contents. Psalm 119:11 says, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

Pray, pray, pray. There is no better remedy to the lack of desire to get into God’s Word, than talking to the author about it.

If you have a question you would like to submit to our blog to be answered in the future, please email it to charlesheck@cox.net or post your question in the comments section.