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There are days when God’s word truly comes to life for us. Whatever we read, we can feel it breathing life into our hearts, renewing our joy and giving us strength for whatever this dark world has in store. Then there are days where our time reading the Bible isn’t that at all. It’s frustrating, boring, and over time it starts to feel pointless. Yet God most often doesn’t grow us in leaps and bounds, but through tiny, nearly invisible increments.
Nourishment for our souls
In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following. But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. (1 Timothy 4:6-8)
Before we can find hope in those dry periods of our Bible reading, we need to first believe that reading God’s word has value in the first place. After all, how can we care about something we don’t find valuable?
There’s a reason Christians make such a big deal about reading the Bible. It’s because God makes a big deal about it. Like clean water, we are blessed to have access to a resource that isn’t just nice to have, but is necessary for our lives.
The Bible is our source of truth. It’s not just a rulebook for how to get to Heaven, but the glorious revealing of who God truly is. In knowing who God is, we learn who we are, and when we understanding that important difference we can start truly living a Christ-centered life.
There are a myriad of reasons to read the Bible. However, every reason should always come back to one thing: bringing us closer to Jesus Christ. God’s word teaches us about:
- sin
- Holiness
- dependence on our Savior
- the importance of prayer
- our inability to do good apart from Christ
- various church functions
- how to treat and grow our spouse and children
And so, so much more. Yet always, these things are meant to magnify the glory of Christ. And perhaps, when we don’t experience that awe and joy, we find an even deeper frustration because we want to love Christ more deeply. We want to walk away from the Bible knowing we see Christ more intimately than before.
We are acorns, not dynamite
It’s absolutely frustrating to read our Bibles every day and feel like there’s been no measurable growth. Perhaps God spends months feeling cold and distant, and we may begin to wonder if all this time has been spent pursuing a lie. We want to open our Bibles one day and have an explosive encounter with God that leaves our hair white and our lives forever changed.
Yet we aren’t dynamite, meant to have an immediate reaction. We are acorns. Here’s a video to help explain what I mean:
In less than 3 minutes we see an acorn go from a tiny seed into a tiny tree with a handful of leaves. Over the years that easily-broken sapling will become a mighty oak. However, the video description reveals an important point about this time-lapse video.
“The growth of a tree takes place so slowly that, in real time, it’s impossible to observe. British filmmaker Neil Bromhall decided to speed up the eight-month process of an acorn becoming an oak with timelapse photography.”
That 3-minute video distills the action of an entire 8 months of progress. We get an incredibly sped-up view of what happened when that acorn took in water and nutrients. We see an amazing process.
Yet imagine watching that acorn’s actual growth process. We would spend days at a time seeing no discernible growth. Even noticeable things like the shell splitting or the sapling starting to creep out would happen so subtly we may not even realize exactly when it occurs.
However, imagine being able to zoom in and see the thousands of processes happening every moment. Think about what it would be like to see the nutrients surrounding the acorn get sucked in, moved throughout the seed, and fed to the various growth functions. Imagine clearly seeing, little by little, how the future tree starts to get strengthened as it prepares to face the dangers of the world outside its protective shell.
If we could see absolutely everything happening in a given moment, we likely wouldn’t be able to keep up with all of it. Every area of that seed would have activity, with every little moment being dedicated to growing and strengthening the tiny tree.
Keep reading, little acorn
So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11)
We are that acorn. We look at our time in the Bible and feel like there’s been no growth whatsoever. We feel frustrated and wonder if this thing is even working. Maybe we should walk away, because surely the process is broken and nothing is happening.
But God sees something so much different happening. He sees how our daily discipline is strengthening us. He knows His word doesn’t touch us with no effect. The effect may be small, so much so that we may never even realize it’s done anything at all.
Yet God’s word is our all-sustaining source of life and truth. God Himself says His word will accomplish its purpose. And if we believe the purpose is to draw us closer to Jesus Christ, then what can we believe except that God’s will is going to be done?
And just like the video of the acorn, we may be able to look back at the mighty oak of faith and truth God has grown in our hearts and recognize all the processes God used to develop it. We may see the verses that affected us weeks after we read them. We may see the events in our lives that allowed us to rely fully on Christ, teaching us truths we didn’t even realize we were learning.
Or maybe we won’t notice everything He’s used to grow us. But one thing we always know is that God is always doing a process in us. Through the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit, we are always growing to be more and more like our wonderful Savior. Be patient and trust that God doesn’t let us sit in the dirt and never grow. We may not know what He’s doing, but we have hope that the God of the universe is always doing something with each of His children.
So keep reading, little acorn.
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)
