by Rayola Kelley
Q: I want you to pray for me that God would give me the desire to study his word. I love the Lord with all of my heart, but when I start to study, I just seem to drift away, and then I quit reading. My heart feels sad and empty and I feel bad about it. Please pray that God will hear me and give me that desire. Please! Thank you and may the Lord bless you and yours.
A: We will keep you in our prayers. We understand the struggle you are having. For those of us who are Christians, it must be our desire that the Word penetrates our hearts with its priceless truths. After all, its doctrines serve as our milk, it righteous ways our meat, and its truths can cleanse and transform us. Clearly, Satan hates it and has done everything to destroy the power and influence that it can have in the lives of God’s people.
Due to the importance of God’s Word, I want to give you a few things to consider. Keep in mind it is a spiritual book. As believers, we have the Spirit in us that moved upon men to record the truths, prophecies, Law, instructions, and examples found in the Word. Clearly, the Holy Spirit in us would cause us to hunger after His very words. Therefore, you must discern what is happening with the Spirit. There are reasons why the Holy Spirit is not able to bring such a hunger in us for the Word.
1) Translation: Some translations are contrary to the character of the Spirit and the intent of God’s Word. If your translation is contrary to God’s Spirit and truth, there will be no anointing on it or agreement with it causing the Holy Spirit to withdraw from it instead of creating a hunger for it.
2) Wrong Laying on of Hands: The Bible speaks of the wrong laying on of hands. It seems that Christians do not understand this doctrine (Hebrews 6:1-2). Laying on of hands points to some type of impartation, whether it be for anointing (setting apart), and/or in receiving personal callings, gifts and/or the Holy Spirit. Sadly, many Christians have innocently subjected themselves to the wrong laying on of hands. In other words, they have had people with another spirit lay hands on them. This causes another spirit to serve as a covering over the person (Isaiah 25:7; 30:1). Wrong spirits hinder a person from connecting with the Holy Spirit in matters of revelation, inspiration, motivation, and agreement.
3) Motivation: The final reason people seem to “hit a ceiling” of confusion or apathy towards the Word of God is because their motivation is not correct. Believers either incorrectly see reading the Bible as a duty, or they correctly understand it as a banquet table at which the Holy Spirit imparts the very life of Jesus to them. They can see it as something they do to impress God, instead of realizing it is their spiritual food. Reading the Bible is a privilege and studying it is a responsibility, but the reason we do it should be purely for selfish reasons. We do it to benefit our lives in order to ensure spiritual fitness to stand steadfast in faith, obediently run the course set before us, and faithfully endure to the end.
Through the years, I have asked the Lord to give me a love for the truth of His Word, the eyes to behold Him in Scripture, the heart to trust Him in what He says, and the resolve to obey His Word. I have realized that if I do not love His truth, I will not be attracted to His Word. If I am not seeking to see and know Jesus, His Scripture will lack life. If I am not set in my heart to trust His Word, I will not believe it is vital to my well-being. If I do not resolve to approach His Word to obey it, it will never become real, living and vital to my life.
I encourage you to pray about these possible hindrances to see if any of them might shed some light on your struggle. If there is any further help we can be to you, please feel free to contact us.
God bless you in your endeavors to know His Word.