Many of our times spent in the Word of God end without fireworks, no great illumination or a life-changing thought that comes at the end of our Bible reading. We read the Bible, but we didn’t feel that our life changed greatly because of it. We had high hopes of learning wonderful things only to have our heart made sick because our hope was deferred. One author said it this way, “It is possible for a person to attentively read the Bible and walk away feeling the time was spectacularly ordinary.” Do you ever struggle with the fact that your devotions are often spectacularly ordinary?
Sometimes we are the problem with our ordinary Bible reading: we come to the Word of God with sin in our hearts, sin that blinds us to the truths of God. Other times we come with a distracted mind that is so filled with the things of this world that the Word is choked out. Or we read the Word so quickly that we don’t give it much attention and don’t take the time to meditate on what we read. It is important that we stop and give thought to our own life before we read the Bible. We need to search our hearts and settle our minds and then slowly read God’s Word. We do have a responsibility to approach God’s Word the right way.
But sometimes the problem with our ordinary Bible reading is not with us. The Bible teaches that illumination is the responsibility of the Holy Spirit. He is the one who “turns the light on” to passages of Scripture and shows us wonderful things. It is possible for a person to have approached the Word of God the right way with the right heart only to leave the Word of God without fireworks simply because the Holy Spirit chose not to illuminate spectacular things at that particular time. Our challenge is to not give up when that happens. We can’t stop reading our Bible simply because there were no fireworks.
The following three things help me when I have a season of spectacularly ordinary devotions:
1. Ordinary devotions are still beneficial even without the fireworks. God’s Word doesn’t return void. It has an effect on us even when we don’t feel it or see it in a spectacular way. Just as a person can eat an ordinary meal and still be nourished, so we can experience ordinary Bible reading and be nourished.
2. Ordinary devotions force me to trust God and that’s a good thing. There are times when we will close our Bibles and then simply trust God to do something we can’t feel or see. That trust is part of God’s process of drawing us to Himself, and it is that closeness to God that allows us to get to know Him in some pretty spectacular ways.
3. Ordinary devotions are necessary for us to be saturated to the point that we can experience extraordinary times in the Word of God. A roaring fire is the result of many small sticks of kindling. A fantastic meal is the result of many ordinary ingredients mixed together. A deep meaningful friendship is the result of many small and normal life experiences connected over time. Don’t think of ordinary devotions as a waste of time. Over time, God slowly saturates our soul and mind with Scripture in preparation for special times of illumination.
Time in the Word of God is one of the most critical things right now in this season we are experiencing. Don’t give up on your Bible reading just because it has felt spectacularly ordinary lately.