I’ve been working on building the habit of reading scripture every day for some time now. Sometimes I’m pretty good at it, while other times I get off track or get busy.

But I have noticed that I have two very different mindsets that I can bring with me to the Word of God.

One says, “I’m looking for more information/facts,” and the other says, “I’m hungry for God and everything He wants to teach me.”

The second mindset I would also call “looking intently into the Word of God,” and I’ve noticed it makes a huge difference in how I respond while I read the Word.

For a while, reading the Word was… well… boring! I either “knew it all” already or was drudging through boring stories in the Old Tastement.

Eventually I realized that my attitude was effecting what I was reading. I spent some time praying about it and I felt like the Lord showed me something very specific. He seemed to point out a mindset I had: Reading scripture was just about acquiring new facts and filing them away in my head somewhere.

I had forgotten that the Word of God is living and active, sharper than a double-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12), and that it was inspired and written by God Himself (2 Timothy 3:16)!

At that point, I saw the Bible as just a “good book,” and I got bored!

Just these last few days, I’ve purposed in my heart to run after God and be hungry for every Word of scripture I might read. And the Lord has been teaching me so much from verses I’ve read 100 times already!

Just this morning I read 1 Timonthy 6, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” I know I’ve seen that verse dozens of times before. I’ve even skimmed over it without giving a passing thought.

But this morning I was determined to “look intently into the Word of God,” and this verse jumped out at me and spoke to a number of issues I’m facing right now.

My encouragement and challenge for you today is to do the same. Look intently in the the Word of God. Don’t just look for some new facts to tuck away into your Christianese lifestyle. Long for and search for the deep truths of scripture, and ask the Lord to be your guide, both while you read and all day long.

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