“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” – Ellen Parr

#2 Inquire

In-quire is an adjective that describes the act of being curious, inquiring, or inquisitive.

What happens if we are by nature not inquisitive? Well friend, we just might miss something the Lord has for us. How do we nurture our curiosity?  First, ask the Lord to stir up that holy hunger in you and then read. As a passage is read and reread, questions will start to emerge, queries like ‘what is happening in this verse’ or ‘why is this important’.

How To Inquire

To cultivate inquisitiveness and allow the Holy Spirit to work, we must allow ourselves time to pause and reflect, moments to wonder, to think deeply, and ask the questions that pop into our minds. These questions matter so jot them down! Scan over the discovered definitions you gather and cultivate the seeds of curiosity. Write down each question and plant it with prayer. As the study continues, ask the Lord for answers. Sometimes the answer is clear, other times we only get a portion of understanding, and still others, there seems to be none.

Let’s go back to the Genesis 5 genealogy.  When I allowed myself time to ponder this list of names, I asked the question ‘could the names of these men point to something more?’ and my mind was blown. When we string their names together we read:

Man appointed a mortal dwelling place, the light of God will come down dedicated, his death will bring the despairing rest.  

Is the good news I hinted at coming into focus?

This is the gospel!

Man (is) appointed mortality; (but) the Light of God shall come down

teaching (that) His death shall bring (the) despairing rest.

Read that sentence over again and let it sink in.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is written in the genealogy of Genesis 5. There have been many who have found the gospel in this genealogy and all because they were curious.

Curiosity Reveals Supernatural Construction

How sad it would have been for me to not been curious! If I had skipped it or hurried through it, I would have not had an opportunity to marvel at this example of the beautiful promise hidden within the names of the men in this ‘boring’ list. Consider the Bible for a moment. There are 66 books, written by 40 authors, and written over thousands of years we see the evidence of God’s supernatural construction in even the seemingly mundane details.

In conclusion, I hope that this has illustrated why inquiry is so important as we study the Word. If you would like more information about the Selah Method I used in my study of Genesis 5 we now sell our books on Amazon.

The next blog post in this series will give a third tool to Cultivate Curiosity in Your Quiet Time…cross-references.