I’m Bored with the Bible
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:05.000 | A podcast listener named Caleb writes in to ask this, "Pastor John, what do you do when
00:00:09.300 | you find yourself bored of reading the Bible?"
00:00:13.160 | I pray my little acronym or acrostic, whatever you call it, I-O-U-S, I-O-U's, and I say this,
00:00:22.320 | only because I take unbelievably strong encouragement from the fact that the psalmist had to pray
00:00:32.240 | this way.
00:00:33.740 | It isn't just the person who asked that question, Caleb, or me, who struggled with feeling excited
00:00:41.840 | about the Bible, but the psalmist did.
00:00:44.740 | So here's my I-O-U-S, I incline my heart to your testimonies and not to getting gained.
00:00:50.800 | Psalm 119, verse 36, isn't that amazing?
00:00:53.680 | That's amazing that the psalmist would ask God to incline his heart to the Word.
00:00:59.080 | What?
00:01:00.080 | You're not inclined to the Bible sometimes, Mr. Psalmist?
00:01:03.400 | Or O, open my eyes that I may see wonderful things out of your Word.
00:01:10.040 | Psalm 119, verse 18.
00:01:12.180 | So the psalmist can go to the Word and not see anything?
00:01:16.760 | It's like we can stare at a page and some days the pages are blank and we feel horrible
00:01:21.360 | because of how insensitive we are.
00:01:23.880 | So we join the psalmist in praying, O God, open my eyes, and then you, I-O-U, unite my
00:01:31.440 | heart to fear your name.
00:01:34.400 | Psalm 86, 11, where my heart is all fragmented, it's going in every direction.
00:01:40.600 | I'm looking at a fly on the wall or hearing something in my driveway and I get distracted
00:01:46.140 | in a hundred ways and the psalmist does too and he's pleading, O God, get my heart together
00:01:50.720 | so it can focus.
00:01:52.800 | I-O-U, and then maybe the most important one of all, satisfy me in the morning with your
00:01:58.960 | steadfast love.
00:02:00.880 | Psalm 94, verse 11.
00:02:03.540 | So that's what I do, Caleb.
00:02:05.920 | I join the psalmist in pleading, incline my heart, open my eyes, unite my heart, satisfy
00:02:13.200 | my heart, O God, don't leave me in this season of boredom or blankness or deadness.
00:02:21.600 | And then I got a long list of other things I do, but let me just tick them off.
00:02:29.560 | I won't linger over them long because I think that right there is probably the most important
00:02:35.000 | thing.
00:02:36.000 | I look at things that the Bible says about the Bible to rekindle my love for the Bible.
00:02:45.760 | Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies.
00:02:48.280 | Good, I want that.
00:02:50.040 | And your words are inspired and profitable for every good work and I want that.
00:02:55.880 | And your word awakens faith.
00:02:58.440 | Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word and I want that.
00:03:00.920 | And your word gives life.
00:03:02.640 | You're born through the word and your words are life.
00:03:06.000 | To whom shall we go?
00:03:07.080 | I want life and your words make me holy.
00:03:10.200 | Sanctify them in the truth.
00:03:11.200 | Your word is truth.
00:03:12.200 | I want to be holy.
00:03:13.420 | Your word gives freedom.
00:03:14.720 | You will know the truth.
00:03:15.720 | The truth will make you free.
00:03:16.720 | Don't you want all those things, Caleb?
00:03:18.520 | Well, they're only found in the word of God.
00:03:20.600 | That's the way I preach to myself.
00:03:22.000 | So I'm preaching that way to Caleb.
00:03:24.940 | So I look to see what the Bible says about the Bible.
00:03:28.700 | And then when I'm really in need, I read sermons by those who are not bored by the Bible.
00:03:38.700 | For me, that's often Jonathan Edwards.
00:03:40.460 | I come away from a sermon by Jonathan Edwards loving the Bible, wanting to see what he saw,
00:03:45.540 | wanting to feel what he felt.
00:03:47.160 | So let that happen.
00:03:48.160 | Or go to church and listen to pastors who are gifted in opening the word by exalting
00:03:55.300 | over the word so that what they love in the word and see in the word kindles you.
00:04:01.620 | And oh my, the list goes on and on.
00:04:03.300 | But I'll probably stop there and say, "Caleb, you're not alone.
00:04:08.500 | We all are up and down in the degree to which we love to read the Bible."
00:04:15.860 | And maybe the last thing I should say is, even when you don't feel like it, keep tending
00:04:23.260 | the garden like a farmer who has to get out there every day and pull the weeds and till
00:04:28.860 | the soil, not because that day the fruit is going to grow up, but sooner or later, in
00:04:36.460 | God's sovereign timing, it'll grow if you tend your garden.
00:04:39.860 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:04:41.900 | And for more on the IOUs, see chapter 9 of Pastor John's book, "When I Don't Desire
00:04:45.900 | God, How to Fight for Joy," which you can download free of charge at DesiringGod.org.
00:04:50.260 | Go to the homepage, click on "Books," and you will find it by its title, "When
00:04:53.540 | I Don't Desire God."
00:04:54.820 | And it's there free of charge because we have generous financial donors like you.
00:04:59.500 | Thank you.
00:05:00.500 | Tomorrow, we'll look at the ageless question, "How do I change?"
00:05:04.020 | There's a myriad of things I'd like to change about myself, but how does change happen?
00:05:08.660 | That's tomorrow.
00:05:09.660 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:05:10.660 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John Podcast.
00:05:12.340 | [end]
00:05:13.340 | 1
00:05:13.340 | The IOUs of the IOUs of the last two weeks have been a challenge.
00:05:14.340 | The IOUs of the last two weeks have been a challenge.
00:05:15.340 | The IOUs of the last two weeks have been a challenge.
00:05:16.340 | The IOUs of the last two weeks have been a challenge.
00:05:17.340 | The IOUs of the last two weeks have been a challenge.
00:05:18.340 | The IOUs of the last two weeks have been a challenge.
00:05:19.340 | The IOUs of the last two weeks have been a challenge.
00:05:20.340 | The IOUs of the last two weeks have been a challenge.
00:05:21.340 | The IOUs of the last two weeks have been a challenge.