Lord, Give Me New Desire For Your Word

A strong indication of spiritual declension is a decreased appetite in Bible reading. How is your appetite for the Word of God?

Years ago, 2002, I was real inconsistent with my Bible reading. I would go a day. I’d miss three. And I was struggling. I went to Canada to Bill McLeod’s house for a week. I was helping him try to write his biography. I was in his house, 20 below zero, in Winnipeg, and I saw these 20 black King James Oxford or Cambridge Bibles lined up on his desk. He would wear one out. He’d get another one. Bill McLeod probably read the Bible through 300 times in his life I imagine. And I was with him for a week. I knew his consistency and I knew my inconsistency.

So I didn’t say: Lord, I’m going to be like Bill McLeod. I can just pull this off. I left Winnipeg and I said, Lord, I know how he reads, and I know the Spirit of God has been on him to read 12 chapters every day and meditate in them. For sixty-something years he did that, devotionally reading the Bible. I went back to Texas and I said, Lord, I can’t change myself, so here’s what I’m going to pray. I’m going to pray every day this prayer: Lord, give me new desire for Your Word. When you like to eat, you’ll eat, won’t you? When you like the Bible and you desire it, you’ll read. And God began to do that. I began to read and it would be like a buffet spread. I’d get something. It would encourage my heart. I’d pray it. The next morning, I was looking forward to reading the Bible.

And it’s changed since then. This morning, I read a psalm and I got something from it. Fresh manna from Heaven. Read the Bible, not intellectually, read it devotionally like a child is reading your Father’s words, and commune with the Lord.