When I’m Bored of the Bible — What Can I Do?
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:05.000 | Caleb writes in to ask this, "Pastor John, what do you do when you're bored of reading the Bible?"
00:00:11.000 | I pray my little acronym or acrostic, whatever you call it, I-O-U-S, I-O-U's,
00:00:20.000 | and I say this, Tony, because I take unbelievably strong encouragement
00:00:28.000 | from the fact that the psalmist had to pray this way.
00:00:31.000 | It isn't just the person who asked that question, Caleb, or me,
00:00:36.000 | who struggled with feeling excited about the Bible, but the psalmist did.
00:00:43.000 | So here's my I-O-U-S, I, incline my heart to your testimonies and not to getting gain.
00:00:49.000 | Psalm 119, verse 36. Isn't that amazing?
00:00:52.000 | That's amazing that the psalmist would ask God to incline his heart to the Word.
00:00:57.000 | What? You're not inclined to the Bible sometimes, Mr. Psalmist?
00:01:01.000 | Or, "O, open my eyes that I may see wonderful things out of your Word."
00:01:08.000 | Psalm 119, verse 18. So the psalmist can go to the Word and not see anything?
00:01:15.000 | Just like we can stare at a page and some days the pages are blank and we feel horrible
00:01:20.000 | because of how insensitive we are, so we join the psalmist in praying,
00:01:24.000 | "O God, open my eyes and then you, I-O-U, unite my heart to fear your name."
00:01:32.000 | Psalm 86, 11, where my heart is all fragmented. It's going in every direction.
00:01:39.000 | I'm looking at a fly on the wall or hearing something in my driveway,
00:01:44.000 | and I get distracted in a hundred ways. And the psalmist does too, and he's pleading,
00:01:47.000 | "O God, get my heart together so it can focus. I-O-U."
00:01:52.000 | And then maybe the most important one of all, "Satisfy me in the morning with your steadfast love."
00:01:59.000 | Psalm 94, verse 11. So that's what I do, Caleb.
00:02:03.000 | I join the psalmist in pleading, "Incline my heart, open my eyes, unite my heart, satisfy my heart.
00:02:12.000 | O God, don't leave me in this season of boredom or blankness or deadness."
00:02:19.000 | And then I got a long list of other things I do, but let me just tick them off.
00:02:27.000 | I won't linger over them long because I think that right there is probably the most important thing.
00:02:33.000 | But I look at things that the Bible says about the Bible to rekindle my love for the Bible.
00:02:43.000 | "Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies." Good, I want that.
00:02:48.000 | "And your words are inspired and profitable for every good work." And I want that.
00:02:54.000 | "And your word awakens faith." Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word. And I want that.
00:02:59.000 | "And your word gives life." We're born through the word.
00:03:03.000 | "And your words are life. To whom shall we go?" I want life.
00:03:06.000 | "And your words make me holy. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth." I want to be holy.
00:03:11.000 | "Your word gives freedom. You'll know the truth, and the truth will make you free."
00:03:15.000 | Don't you want all those things, Caleb? Well, they're only found in the word of God.
00:03:19.000 | That's the way I preach to myself, so I'm preaching that way to Caleb.
00:03:23.000 | So I look to see what the Bible says about the Bible.
00:03:27.000 | And then when I'm really in need, I read sermons by those who are not bored by the Bible.
00:03:37.000 | For me, that's often Jonathan Edwards.
00:03:39.000 | I come away from a sermon by Jonathan Edwards loving the Bible, wanting to see what he saw,
00:03:44.000 | wanting to feel what he felt. So let that happen.
00:03:46.000 | Or go to church and listen to pastors who are gifted in opening the word by exalting over the word
00:03:55.000 | so that what they love in the word and see in the word kindles you.
00:04:00.000 | And oh my, the list goes on and on. But I'll probably stop there and say,
00:04:04.000 | "Caleb, you're not alone. We all are up and down in the degree to which we love to read the Bible."
00:04:14.000 | And maybe the last thing I should say is, even when you don't feel like it,
00:04:20.000 | keep tending the garden like a farmer who has to get out there every day and pull the weeds and till the soil,
00:04:28.000 | not because that day the fruit is going to grow up, but sooner or later, in God's sovereign timing,
00:04:36.000 | it'll grow if you tend your garden.
00:04:38.000 | Thank you, Pastor John. And for more on the IOUs, see chapter 9 of Pastor John's book,
00:04:44.000 | "When I Don't Desire God, How to Fight for Joy," which is a book you can download for free at DesiringGod.org.
00:04:50.000 | I'm your host, Tony Ranke. Thanks for listening.
00:04:52.000 | (end)
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