Nothing will satisfy you the way God’s Word can, because nothing else can feed your soul the way God’s Word will.
When my kids were young, I’d regularly find them digging holes or pretending to be shipwrecked at the edge of our property for hours at a time. But no matter how engaged they were in play, as soon as I called out, “Lunch is ready!” they’d inevitably come running. They knew to listen for my voice, but more than that, they knew what good and nourishing things awaited them on the other side of my invitation.
I’ve been chewing on these memories and how they apply to the times I don’t really want to read my Bible. I’ve confronted my heart, asking, Why don’t you come running to your Father?
I know his voice, and I know there are all kinds of good and nourishing things awaiting on the other side of his invitation. So why don’t I run to him?
A lack of desire to avail ourselves to God’s Word and his voice likely stems from many places in our hearts, but here are a few common ones that come to mind:
DISTRACTION: a lack of focus because other things seem more satisfying in the moment.
PERCEIVED LACK OF TIME: believing that the time we do have is needed for more critical, more important things that must get done.
TRANSACTIONAL POSTURE: wanting to see results or immediate change in return. SHAME: believing God is disappointed in us and meeting us with arms crossed. OVERWHELM: feeling so behind and lacking so much knowledge that starting seems daunting.
FEAR: a fear of the unknown, a fear of being laid bare, or perhaps even unnamed fears we can’t quite put our fingers on.
I’m sure other factors dampen our desire for God’s Word, but do you see a common denominator in the ones I just listed? They’re all based on a faulty view of why we come to Jesus or how we come to him.
At the heart of each of these reasons we don’t want to engage with God is a belief that the purpose of God’s Word is to get us further along or make us better. You see, a lack of desire for God’s Word and believing we have better solutions, with better return on investment for our time, is our natural disposition—it is the default state of our fallen nature. We forget that we are utterly without the ability to see true transformation in our own lives without God’s grace. His grace—that is the reason we have the invitation to come home in the first place!
But you were ultimately made to respond to God’s heart. You were made to know the voice of the Good Shepherd, to lean on his care, to depend on his provisions, to trust in his protection. You were made to come running when your Father calls you home to sit at his table!
C.S. Lewis, in The Weight of Glory, pointed to our willingness to settle for far less than God has designed us for. Lewis wrote:
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half- hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
What Jesus offers is far better than what we think. If we fully understood the greatness of his transforming grace and the satisfaction he brings, we would be eager for more. How often I spin and toil in my daily life, looking for satisfaction through work and circumstances, when Jesus is offering all that my soul truly seeks. In John chapter 4, when the woman at the well discovered that Jesus was the Messiah, her urgency to drink of the Living Water and to run to tell her community was unmatched. Why do I lack her urgency and passion?
With conviction, when I take an honest look at my own life, I come to this conclusion: I either don’t know his voice, don’t trust his character, or don’t grasp how much better Jesus is than anything else I could turn to. These are, ultimately, the reasons I don’t desire to be in his Word.
Friend, what keeps you from sitting with Jesus today? What misbelieving is causing you to hide instead of coming
running when he calls you to the table? Don’t be discouraged; I want to remind us both that our God already knew we’d choose everything but him and provided the remedy for our lack of desire to do what we should: He sent Jesus.
Because of Jesus, redeeming grace is our invitation every day, not just on days when we have our priorities straight.
Because of Jesus, we can come to God’s Word in any condition and receive welcome on account of his sinless life.
Because of Jesus, we meet him in his Word as beloved children, not as fearful, distrusting strangers.
Because of Jesus, we will never be more satisfied than when we are filled up by the table set before us by our Father.
Because of Jesus, my friend. Jesus is the Living Water, the all- satisfying Bread of Life, and the lover of our souls.
Don’t be satisfied with lesser things when what your soul desires is found in the invitation from Jesus—to redeem you, change you, satisfy you, make you whole through his Word.
Father, help us to trust the psalmist’s testimony and adopt his posture:
“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands” (Psalm 63:1–4).
Excerpt taken from The Way of the Wildflower by Ruth Chou Simons. Copyright Ruth Chou Simons (October 2025) by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, www.thomasnelson.com.