(upbeat music) - Well, happy new year. As we enter 2019 on this podcast, our seventh year now of Pastor John, you're about to head off to the cross conference in Louisville, which begins a Wednesday night. Over 7,000 are registered, which is super encouraging, and I just pray that God would bless the conference and he would use it to raise up hundreds of missionaries that will give their lives to the nations.

Which is what the conference is about. There, Pastor John, you're going to deliver a missionary biography and a plenary session. But before you head off to the airport, we're talking about Bible reading in 2019. And here's today's question. Hello, Pastor John, I am Kennedy from Uganda. I have been listening to your sermons and I thank God for using you to impact our lives through the word that you preach.

My question, whenever I'm reading the Bible, I find it hard to understand what the author intended for me to understand when he wrote it. Currently, I'm doing my devotions in the book of Genesis, but I so often find myself totally blank after I've read a text. What's the first basic skill in Bible reading to find meaning for myself?

- Now, I know that our friend from Uganda is asking about the first basic skill to use his language in Bible reading. But based on the description of what's happening when he reads, I want to come at his question a little differently. Instead of giving just one basic skill, since I don't think that's the key when in our devotions we find ourselves blank, which he says he does, he's not the only one, by the way.

It's not just a problem for beginners, but for me as well at times. So let me point to three things that are essential to ongoing fruitful encounter with God and his intended truth through the Bible. And I can describe these three things that I hope will be helpful in three ways.

I could call them motivation, skill, and illumination, or I could call them the want to, and the able to, and the see-through. Or I could call them the desire, and the act, and the reward of Bible reading. So let me suggest a brief word about each one in the hope that God will create them in us, even as I speak.

First, a word about motivation. If we lose motivation, we will not read the Bible, and if we don't read the Bible, we miss everything God has for us through the Word. And I was just reading yesterday in John 17, which is Jesus' prayer for the disciples, and I saw a cluster of precious things that are owing directly to hearing the Word of Jesus, which motivated me tremendously to want to read the Bible.

So in verse 13, Jesus said, "These things I speak "in the world that you might have my joy "fulfilled in yourselves." So there is a fullness of joy that we will miss if we don't continually listen to what Jesus speaks, that is, listen to the Bible. And I think that principle holds for the whole Bible, not just the words of Jesus in the Gospels.

Second, Jesus prays in John 17, "Father, sanctify them in the truth. "Your Word is truth." So the second thing we're gonna miss if we don't feed on the truth of the Word is sanctification. God has designed that we be made more holy, more sanctified by the truth. And then he says, "God, your Word is truth." And third motivation was in verse 20, where he says, "I don't ask for these only, "but for those who will believe in me through their Word." So how do we come to believe?

How do we keep on believing? We believe through the Word, through the Word of the apostles. And where's that found? It's found in the Bible. So three powerful motivations to read our Bibles, if you want faith, if you want holiness, if you want joy, they all, Jesus says, come through encountering God in his Word.

That's how we get motivated. We want these things and therefore we want the Word. So that's the first of my three essentials, which I know our friend didn't even ask about, but I think it's just absolutely crucial that we see how to motivate ourselves because if we go blank when we're reading the Bible, we quickly lose motivation.

Now, just a sentence about each of the other two. So the first is motivation. The second is skill, the ability to read. Here's my single suggestion, and there's lots more in my book, "Reading the Bible Supernaturally." Lots and lots of practical things about how to beef up your natural skill in getting meaning from the Bible.

But here's the one thing I wanna say here. Something mysterious happens when we pick up a pen or a pencil, not a keyboard, but a pen or a pencil, and we either write out the text, or if it's too long, write down questions you have or observations you make about the things that you're reading in the text.

And you may think, our friend in Uganda may think, well, good grief, that's just gonna record my ignorance. I'm asking for help to see. And I say, no, no, no, that's not true. No, it won't just record your ignorance. Writing down the text causes you to have thoughts you wouldn't have otherwise had.

Asking questions which you write down causes your brain to have thoughts you wouldn't have otherwise had. So that's my one single suggestion for him to make progress in the skill category. And here's the last one. The third of these essentials is illumination. That's a gift of the Holy Spirit.

He causes God himself, his character, his will, his ways to shine through the scriptures. And the key to having this illumination is prayer. And I say that because in Ephesians 1:18, Paul prays for it. He prays that the eyes of their heart would be illumined. So pray for illumined reading.

So whether it's our friend in Uganda or anywhere else in the world, my prayer is, may God grant strong motivation, increasing skill, and bright, transforming illumination in all of our Bible reading in 2019. - Amen, thank you, Pastor John, for preparing us for the year ahead. And we need to let you go to the airport.

We'll be praying for the cross conference and for your time there as well. You know, in the history of this podcast, we've now surpassed 1,300 total episodes. Thank you for your interest and for your questions over the past years. You can search all those episodes, read full transcripts, and send us your own questions, all at our online home, DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

Friday, we return with another great Bible question. Here it is. If I have 60 minutes each day for reading, how much of that time should be Bible reading? Spoiler alert, Pastor John is gonna say, "Not 60 minutes." He'll explain why on Friday. I'm your host, Tony Reiki, and we'll see you then.

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