“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” – Ellen Parr
#4 Personalize
The fourth and final way to beat boredom and cultivate curiosity for your Quiet Time is to personalize the Word by choosing a verse that stands out to you. Often, when time is spent in a passage, there will be a verse that leaps off the page. It keeps returning to our thoughts throughout the day nudging, bothering, inviting us to take a closer look. From personal experience, I know the Spirit seemingly highlights specific portions of what I am reading for me to take notice of. Sometimes there is a whispered promise and other times a loud warning. Lately, I have noticed it is words of endearment and love. When we feel this rustle in our spirit, do not ignore it. Embrace this opportunity as an invitation to take more time and explore the message being spoken to your soul.
Four Nuggets of Gold
The verse that captured my attention in this passage was Genesis 5:24 “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” And I have collected four nuggets of gold to think about and ponder.
First of all, this little passage is packed with stuff that makes me wonder. Questions like, how do you walk with God? Can I actually walk with God like Enoch? How did Enoch die? How was his death different than the others listed here? Is this because he was walking with God? So, I allow myself to wonder and think about these things.
Secondly, this verse is small enough for me to not only meditate on but to memorize. It is blissfully short! I can handle memorizing this verse because I am so curious about it. And as I work on it, it begins to stick in my mind, and I remember it!
Third, could there be any better epitaph? An epitaph is a phrase or short sentence written in memory of a person who has died. They are usually inscribed upon a tombstone. Can I just say, to have this as a description of a life, where one walks with God, would be a high honor? Enoch walked with God. What an epitaph…I would like that on my gravestone.
And finally, let me point us back to God. Who is He?
He is IN-COMP-RE-HEN-SIBLE.
In other words, we are not capable of fully understanding Him…but we can capture a glimpse when we seek Him. Jerimiah 29:13 says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” The God of the Universe wants to be found and lovingly wove into His living Word the beautiful truth of salvation. He wanted us to find Him!
Hungry Humility
The passages that make us yawn are not inconsequential, we just do not understand them yet. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55: 9 Let this lack of understanding cause a hungry humility rather than dullness. We can echo the cry of the Psalmist who said in Psalm 119: 18 “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” When our eyes are opened by Him, even a list of unknown people with unpronounceable names becomes fascinating!
If you are interested in more about putting to practice the four principles of curiosity read here to learn more about the Selah Method. Or, you can read about it on my blog. Maybe you would like to take the plunge and start your own study of the Word using Selah? Amazon has our books!
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