Help! I do not have the motivation to read my Bible and pray. It has been so long now and I have been waiting to feel like it again but that has not happened yet. What do I do? Because I feel like I’m drifting further and further away from intimacy with God.
Well, my dear, you have come to the right place! When you lack the drive and self-motivation to open up your Bible or spend some time in prayer every day, it is time to use some practical tools to help get you back to where you need to be: at the feet of our Lord and Savior.
Here are some steps to take to revive and restore your time in God’s presence, in His Word and in prayer :
1. Find a great Bible devotional and use it.
One that has stood the test of time and most importantly one that teaches the unadulterated, sound word of God. This kind will have Bible verses and reference them as a way of teaching from the Bible.
My suggestion to you is to read the Bible verse first yourself from your own physical Bible, even though the devotional has typed it out. Reading from your own physical Bible makes a big difference in this process of retraining your mind, body and spirit into these vital disciplines of spending time with God in prayer and His word. Open up your physical Bible and read the quoted scripture out loud. It is usually just a verse or a few verses, so this is not an impossible task.
Next, take a few minutes to meditate on the Bible reading for yourself before reading what the devotional has to say about it. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you in your spirit. Some questions to guide your thinking can be: how does this verse apply to my life right now? Am I living the way this verse says children of God should live? What real life steps can I take to bring this to life in me? Should I stop doing this or should I start doing this and how?
And lastly, pray. Say: Holy Spirit please help me understand what God is saying to me through this Bible reading today, In Jesus; Name, amen. Then be quiet for a few minutes. It helps to close your eyes and just be still and breathe. You should be in a quiet place with no distractions. On many occasions, that has been in my bathroom with the door closed. Allow God some time to answer your prayer and speak to you. Even if you do not hear anything today, try again tomorrow and continue to do so until you hear because you surely will. God does not and can not lie. And He has promised in Jeremiah 33:3 to answer us when we call on Him.
‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and tell you [and even show you] great and mighty things, [things which have been confined and hidden], which you do not know and understand and cannot distinguish.’ Jeremiah 33:3
All this will only take a few minutes of your time and then go ahead and read the devotional and prayer at the end.
It is good to praise the LORD, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High, / to proclaim Your loving devotion in the morning and Your faithfulness at night. Psalm 92:1-2
2. Print off some hymns and worship songs and sing one at the start of your time with God.
Enter His gates with a song of thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, bless and praise His name. Psalm 100:4
Singing praise and thanksgiving usher us into the presence of God. We need His presence and to be in His presence. Being in the presence of God is so important because in His presence there is fulness of joy and at His right hand there are treasure for evermore. Treasures of wisdom and answers to life’s question, fulfillment and peace. I don’t know about you but that is exactly where I want to be.
You reveal the path of life to me; in your presence is abundant joy; at your right hand are eternal pleasures. Psalm 16:11
Lastly, pray. And specifically, pray God’s word. We can not pray amiss when we pray God’s word because God watches over His word to perform it. We are blessed with so many tools that the early Church did not have. Use them wisely to help bring you back to intimacy with God. Do a search on Bible verses that speak to your specific situation and use those to pray.
And that is it. Three practical steps: 1. Sing praises to God. 2. Use a Bible devotional. 3. Pray using Bible verses. Follow this routine daily even when you do not feel like it and the Spirit of God will begin to work on your spirit man because you have given Him access through praise, prayer and the Word. It makes it easier because you are just following what is already in existence and for now, you do not have to come up with what to read, sing or pray, because the tools available set those out for you. But you must actually use them. That part no one can do for you. So please use these steps and may God bless you, revive and restore you. Have faith in God and trust God because He has promised in His word that when we seek Him, we shall find Him. When we draw near to Him, He draws near to us. Amen.
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. James 4:8
You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13
So tell the people that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts.’ Zechariah 1:3
PIN THIS!
Read more of Rachel’s contributions to AllMomDoes here.
