Tuesday, 18 January 2011
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Struggling to Study the Word and Pray
By MattHow important is self discipline when it comes to prayer and study of the Bible?
Is it wrong that, when alone, I don't often pray, and if I do it is mainly one of forgiveness and asking for this or that? I believe in God. In fact I want to be more like Jesus and be a "little Christ". Why do I not make more of an effort to talk to God? What is blocking me from doing so? Surely God knows what I'm feeling, what I'm thinking, what I wish to say even if I don't say it. Is there therefore a certain something missing from relationship with God?
As for Bible-study, alone that is almost non-existent. I was never the most studious of students as a child at school. I left school at 17 and went and joined the working world, so sitting down and trying to read the Bible -- which I have tried on many occasions -- is not only hard but even lacks an interest.
In contrast, when I'm at a core group with the people from my church and we look at the Bible, I always have comments to make and things I notice in whichever passage we are looking at. I enjoy studying it with other people, large group or small.
So why when alone do I not feel the urge to do so? I don't want study and prayer to become a chore, it should be a joyous thing, right? How can I get better at this? I don't want to miss out on a major part of God's world just by being lazy or stupid or whatever.
How do you make time to read the Bible and pray when alone? What advice would you give someone like myself who struggles with it?
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Comments (14)
I think it's better to at least "do a chore" than to do nothing and wonder if you're relationship is still ok with God. You can always learn to love a chore or change your perspective, but it's really difficult to love something that you don't do.
Since our relationship with God is personal, we have to make an effort to love God (rather than only being part of a group that loves God). Perhaps the wisdom you have about the Bible is causing you to feel pride? For me, it helps to know that the Bible is more than a historical text, but a love letter from God. It also helps to know that my wisdom comes from God. Being a follower of Christ doesn't mean we'll always have some sort of euphoric motivation; any relationship requires effort.
I used to read http://www.esvonline.org/devotions/esv-study-bible/ but now I just read based on the plan in the back of the Bible.
This is me - with a few differences. I HATE to demean it by thinking of it as studying because I loathe studying... ugh. The title of this made me cringe, but I know people who are extremely excited to "study" the Bible... and it just disturbs me greatly.
I have YouVersion app on my iPhone and I'm on a one year reading plan. I get under the covers at night and read the parts I'm supposed to for the day and it keeps up with them for me. I really like it.
You can also read on the website
http://www.youversion.com/
I love to start my day off after I wake up, with bible reading and prayer. It sets the tone for the rest of the day. As for encouraging you to do it, I'm not really sure. i guess it's as simple as just making the decision to do it.
You know, I was struggling with this not too long ago, and still a little bit right now. I go to church literally every other day. We have prayer services all week, and regular services Sunday. I guess I'm lucky in that I'm "forced" to pray for like 2 hr during all of those prayer services. But when it's just me at home, I have a problem picking up my Bible and praying. My motivation is a lot lower at home than it is at church. It's fine at church, just like you said. I seem much more responsive in groups. I've always been a person with no discipline when it comes to daily things like that, though. However, I hate that my bad habits spill on to my relationship with God. He deserves so much better than that.
By sliding by with no personal or consistent communication with God through prayer, it's totally like you're his facebook friend, lol. He knows everything about you. Your info, about me, job, interests. But not because you told them to Him personally because you let Him get to "know you," He only knows this stuff because He's God and He knows you inside out. You can read a person's facebook profile and learn a lot about them, but it's just not the same as a real friendship. I thought about that comparison one day and felt like a real jerk.
You've just gotta get past those moments of dread and laziness. It's rough, but NOT impossible. Seriously, God isn't a jerk. He understands how lazy we can be. But if you recognize that God deserves the effort and you push through to put some time aside for Him each day, it won't feel like a "chore" anymore. MAny times, I'm feeling lazy to pray, but when I finally just do it, it's SO rewarding and you actually don't want to stop. You just have to find a way to do it, no matter what. We're so vulnerable when we don't have a solid relationship with God because Satan never ever stops trying to attack. It's a battle, all day every day. By succumbing to the weakness of the flesh, we let Satan win. Just the thought of that irks me enough to find the motivation. I wish you all the luck in the world, because I know how weird and troubling this kind of realization can feel, but you CAN push through. =)
Just like anything else (sports or music, etc) before you can actually enjoy prayer and Bible study, you need to learn certain disciplines.
It's not fun to play basketball if you don't know how to dribble or shoot the ball- similarly, it's not a joyous thing to be in the word or prayer if solitude and quietness are bothersome. So learning to dwell in solitude and quietness will be a starting place for you, perhaps.
Blessings!
i feel the same!!
Our spirit needs to be nurtured just as our body does. We nurture our spirits by feasting upon the word of God, not just by nibbling a little bit here and there. We don’t want to have anorexic spirits. We are also fed when we commune with our Father, which is always better than praying “at” Him. You may not care for Brigham Young, but he said that when you don't feel like praying, to pray until you feel like praying. Sometimes it takes that, and the reward is great. My experience in both prayer and the scriptures has been that when we show our loving Father that we are serious about Him, He in turn responds with His “line upon line” promise. Consistency in both is very important.
It's really hard, but really, schedule a time each day to set apart for praying/reading the bible and try as hard as you can to commit to it. The more you get into it the less it will seem like a chore and more like you are getting to know your best friend.
Your spiritual life is the same. It's tough to start, and for a while doing it regularly is gonna be rough. But over time your spiritual muscles will bulk up til its easy. Increase your time with God by little increments over time. Start off with like 45 min or an hr of prayer and the word. You'llsee how rewarding it is and youll get stronger over time!
I'll just quickly list of some suggestions for everyone:
- listen to the bible
- read a chapter a day with a friend
- get your friend to check up on you
- listen to sermon podcasts instead, like in the car or something
- get different translations of the bible like NLT or something
- our daily bread: http://www.gty.org/Resources/Devotionals
- Other online devotionals: http://www.rbc.org/odb/odb.shtml
- Journal on Xanga frequently as a devotional! (LOL)
- It's ok not to feel like doing it. Just do it and you'll grow to like it.
I used to routine my Bible reading, but it became just a motion with no real progress. What has really helped me is treating it as my studies, by reading chapters and books of the Bible and devoting myself to understanding the whole message, I am more able to keep a constant flow of motivation. Some days I might not read at all, while other days I might read a whole book and take notes on it. Either way, my heart and mind continually meditate on what I read and know and understand.
With me, part of what keeps me from talking to God is guilt. When it's not guilt, and usually it's not, it's just that I haven't been emotionally/intellectually connected to him throughout the day; i'm not as actively thinking about him when I've got school to study for and all.
So throughout the day, I use music to stay plugged into God. I use worship albums so that I can meditate about him, even when I'm not praying or studying the word. I listen to podcasts of sermons once in a long while. This sort of habits help cultivate a desire to get into God's word.
When I was little, my mom would make me read HER Bible as discipline. I can honestly say that it's negatively impacted my life. Every time I read, I automatically feel like I'm in trouble and I HAVE to. I am absolutely terrible at reading my Bible all the time. Really. I've been trying a lot more lately, because I don't really feel THAT close to God, although I know for a fact that He's my best friend, the best thing in my life, and I'm rotten for taking that for granted. :-/