When Bible Study Is Hard & How To Get Out of a Dry Spiritual Season
If you follow me on Instagram, I’ve gotten really honest about how hard it’s been for me to read the Bible and pray lately. At first, I was just exhausted because I was working a lot, but then that turned into a lack of desire for spiritual things. I wanted things to be different, but my heart had grown hard and I just couldn’t seem to fix it.
In seasons like this, it’s tempting to give up and simply stop reading the Bible and praying entirely. Because you’re just not feeling it, so what’s the point? You try to pray, but your mind just wanders anyways. You try to read the Bible but get nothing out of it - it’s just words on a page. Maybe it will fix itself tomorrow.
But it is exactly in dry and hard seasons like this when we need God’s word and presence the most. So, here’s what’s been helping me work through my own dry spiritual spell:
Repent and clear your heart from the things of this world
I’ve been asking God how I got to this state - why my heart was hard towards Him and His word. The other day, I ended up in John. In John 8, Jesus tells the Pharisees why they couldn’t accept His teaching: “…because My word has no place in you (8:37); He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God (8:47).” You are either a child of the devil or a child of God. The determinant of that is if you hear God’s word and it has a place in your heart.
Ouch. Turns out the Bible wasn’t holding my attention because I was so full of the world that there was no room for spiritual things. In the words of S. Wilberforce, “Any allowed habit of sin is whether we know it at the time or not, really hardens our will against the will of Christ, and so making true filial trust impossible.”
“No man understands the Word of God unless he lays aside all affections to sin. ‘Wickedness,’ said Aristotle, ‘corrupts a man’s reasoning,’ it gives him false principles and evil measures of things...We understand so little of religion because we are in love with that which destroys it; and as a man does not care to hear what does not please him, so neither does he believe it. He that means to understand the will of God must lay aside all inordinate affections to the world. No man, however learned, can understand God’s word, or be at peace on religious questions unless he be a master over his passions.”
I can’t fill my days, mind and heart work, social media, television, hobbies and then open my Bible expecting for the things of the Spirit to be desirable, not when I’m already so full with the things of this world. I can’t keep watching the news 24/7, filling my mind with fear, sickness and failing economies and then expect to keep my peace.
If God’s spirit is going to be our teacher, He needs a heart that is empty of this world, clean of sin and still. For He teaches us to know and love God, to become like Him and to enjoy Him forever above all other things.
This process doesn’t happen overnight. You didn’t spend one hour filling your heart with this world. For some, it’s been days, weeks, months or years of making more time for worldly things and little to no time for spiritual things, so one hour a day in the Word or in prayer will help chip away at the hardness of the heart, but it will take day after day of showing up to read your Bible and pray to make eternal things more desirable than this world. This is a lifestyle of walking with Jesus daily, not a quick fix once in awhile.
Above all, remember you cannot do it on your own. Lately, I’ve been praying Psalm 119:37 over my own life:
“Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in Your ways.”
Ask God to soften your heart, to give you a desire for Him and for the self-control to choose the things that please Him. He is the giver of new hearts; the One who makes all things new.
Take notes as you read
I bought a Give Me Jesus Journal from the Well Watered Women Company over a year ago. It’s a 90-day Bible study journal, but I so rarely use it that it’s still mostly blank. Lately, I’ve been forcing myself to fill in one day of the journal (about 3 pages) with Bible study notes before I can walk away from my daily reading. I do this a couple times a week.
Because I was finding that I’d sit down, read the Bible for a bit, get nothing, so I’d give up or finish my daily scheduled reading and walk away. I’d claim nothing stuck out to me, but the truth was, I read with either a distracted mind (stopping to check my phone or just stare out the window) and/or a hard heart that just wasn’t interested in spiritual things.
But forcing myself to take notes on what I read helps me focus on my mind at the task and to actually think about what I’m reading. I pick a verse or a passage to paraphrase, and as I do so, I start to think about what it means. Sometimes, I reach a “dead end” quick and only have a few notes for the day. But other times, one thought leads to another, which leads to another, which leads me into a deeper study.
Set a goal for yourself of how much notes you’ll take. You don’t need a fancy journal - any paper will do and then make a vow to not get up or walk away until you’ve filled that space with Bible study notes, even if it is paraphrasing and summarizing what you just read. When you take the time to actually let the word soak into your mind and to prayerfully meditate on what you read, you can’t walk away unchanged. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, throughly equipped for every good work.” -2 Timothy 3:16-17
Journal your prayers
Similarly to taking notes of what I’m reading in the Bible, I find it helpful to write out my prayers when I find that I can’t focus my mind to pray. Praying aloud also helps with focus. As you pray - and as you go throughout your day - focus on gratitude. Even in this uncertain time, we have so much to be grateful for!
“The Lord is my strength and my shield; in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to Him.” -Psalm 28:7
In this uncertain time, anxiety and fear abound, and for us believers, the best weapon to combat those anxious thoughts and fears is through prayers of thanksgiving. Philippians 4:6-7 gives us the recipe: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” We all feel all the feelings right now, so let’s take our hearts, anxieties and fears to Him.
Show up to church
In light of this global pandemic, many of us are now attending church virtually due to social distancing guidelines in place to keep the coronavirus from spreading. Here’s the thing about “virtual church” though: no one likely holds you accountable to show up, especially not on week days (if your church continues to have service on week nights). No one will know if you skip every online service during this quarantine or if you only watch the worship parts and skip the sermons.
There was one night when I really didn’t want to “go” to the Friday service at my church. It was a hard week that ended with a wicked headache, so it was tempting to just turn on the television and tune out before bed. Even as I watched the live stream of the service, there was an inner struggle to turn it off — no one would know; I’d listened “enough.”
But I stayed until the end of the service and I’m so glad I did. The battle was real in me to spend my time elsewhere and to fill my mind with something else, but minute by minute the Light gained ground over the darkness until my heart settled into knowing there was nowhere else I’d rather be. Every word of the service that night seemed like it was meant just for me. It was everything I didn’t know my heart needed; the answer to my confused prayers lately; and a drink of fresh water that my parched soul so desperately needed.
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” -Hebrews 10:24-25
Show up even when no one sees. Show up even when no one else does. Go where Jesus is. Go to His word Get on your knees. This matters, especially when the struggle is real. Because God sees. He knows the ones who show up — no matter how weak you are or how bruised and exhausted your soul is or even maybe how little you want to be there - and He works in the hearts that come to Him; the Ones who come to the house of the Lord, even if it’s virtual attendance right now.
“For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.” -Psalm 84:10
Our Heavenly Father is rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6). You can’t leave His presence unchanged. Somewhere a seed is planted; a heart is softened; an answer is given; hope is renewed. You may not “feel it,” but He is present in His word; in prayer; where two or three are gathered in His name. Time in His word always yields fruit. Church is always worth it. Prayer changes you. But it only works in those who show up.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Yelena is the founder and editor in chief Tirzah. Yelena works as an attorney in tax and in her spare time, she is working on her first book for unmarried twenty-something women in extended waiting seasons and running Tirzah. She has a passion for pointing young women to Christ, and enjoys reading, writing, traveling, and spending time with her family.