pla·teau /plaˈtō noun 2. a state of little or no change following a period of activity or progress.

I’ve often encouraged people to develop the habit of daily Bible reading, as I have found it a means of grace that I’ve come to cherish and sincerely desire others to experience. I once read that if you do something 23 times it becomes a habit. So, read a chapter in the Bible everyday for 23 days and you’ve established a godly habit. Or have you?

Oftentimes, our habits cause us to do certain things mindlessly or do them out of a sense of duty. There’s nothing lively about a spiritual life that has been reduced to merely going through the motions.

Have You Plateaued?

Often when we develop a positive new habit, like daily Bible reading, we initially reap benefits and make spiritual gains. Yet, over time, those gains can appear less and less until we’re no longer accomplishing what we originally set out to achieve: a closer walk with the Lord. This is referred to as “hitting a plateau.” It’s here that the power of the habit may lead us to overlook the stagnation that’s taken place. Even worse, the practice can descend into a burdensome chore that you do simply because feel you must.

There’s nothing lively about a spiritual life that has been reduced to merely going through the motions.

To test your own attitude, ask yourself: “Do I get convicted about something and then read the Bible, or do I read the Bible and then get convicted about something?” I’ll admit that I used to get more convicted about not reading the Bible than I did by reading the Bible itself.

But the answer to the question is yes on both accounts. We should read it when convicted of sin, and we should read it to be convicted of sin. D.L. Moody’s mother was right when she wrote in his Bible: “This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.”

If your Bible reading habit has degenerated into fruitless labor and you don’t seem to be getting much out of your devotions, I urge you to do the following steps.

1. Determine the Root Cause.

A lack of motivation is often due to a lack of curiosity. Have any of these curiosity-killers taken hold of you?

A) Being overly familiar with the Bible

The old saying, “familiarity breeds contempt” applies to most things, even our Bibles. For example, have you ever caught yourself skipping a verse or chapter because you’ve already memorized it or have read it so much that you know what it says? What could you possibly get out of it that you haven’t already learned? This is especially true of those who have the responsibility of teaching the Bible and is why many pastors spend more time in commentaries and reference works than they do their Bibles.

Author Peter Krol reminds us that “unexamined familiarity will prevent you from looking at the Book. Because such familiarity crowds out curiosity, it imperceptibly stiffens necks, hardens hearts, and deafens ears. Familiarity may lead us to assume things that are not in the text, and it may blind us to things that are.”

B) Shaping the Bible to fit your views

Do you approach the Bible seeking to confirm a view you already hold? It’s a problem when our theological persuasion shapes the way we view the Scriptures. One result of that is proof texting: pulling verses out of context to prove a point. This is also known as confirmation bias.

When confronted with an issue you’re passionate about, do you begin quoting verses without regard to context or history? Ironically, people who do this appear to know a lot of scripture when the truth is they’ve not learned it correctly. Knowing a lot of things wrongly is as bad as (and perhaps worse than) not knowing anything at all.

Another sign is ignoring or suppressing biblical texts that you find hard to understand or downright objectionable. The Bible is God’s revelation to us. It’s one big story about His plan to redeem His fallen creation. As Tim Keller says, “you don’t know the meaning of any story, or any scene in a story, until you’ve reached the end.”

Whether you find a text problematic or confident in your theological views, hit the pause button in your mind. It could be that you’ve made assumptions about the text that aren’t there, or you’re reading it in isolation and distorting its meaning, or you have some unexamined blind spots in your own thinking.

C) Equating Bible knowledge with knowing God.

People who have acquired much Bible knowledge often mistake it for spirituality. In their pride, they think they’re good Christians because they can quote verse after verse, or can easily find any passage under discussion, or because they’ve garnered a reputation for biblical literacy.

The Pharisees were experts in the Old Testament law yet completely missed the spirit of the law. Jesus described their approach to scripture as “straining out gnats while swallowing camels.” Scripture knowledge doth not a Christian make.

2. Don’t Stop Reading.

If your time in the Bible has become dull or ritualistic, the cure is never to stop reading it, but to persist with an open heart. The Bible is the only book you can read where the Author is present each time you open it. Persevere until the Holy Spirit begins to shine the light on those hidden places of the heart. There might be a surrender you need to make, a sin to confess, or a change in a relationship.

Perhaps you should consider changing the format of your time in the Word. Share ideas with a spouse or a friend as to how you could improve your method of reading Scripture. But whatever you do, don’t stop reading! I share the same experience as Ted Olson of Christianity Today: “It’s not that reading it always (or usually) floods me with a light of relief and certitude. But I’ve found that I’m hungriest to read Scripture when I’m reading Scripture. Part of this, no doubt, is simply the psychology driving any habit. But part of it is that the Word of God really is alive and active. (Hebrews 4:12)”

3. Pray Through.

Prayer is an essential part of Bible reading. Think of it as beginning a conversation with Jesus. After all, the goal of spending time in the Word and in prayer is to know Him better. Often, before reading my Bible, I whisper Psalm 119:18 “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” Life’s hectic pace has a way of distracting our quiet time. The Psalmist tells us, “Be still and know that I am God.”

The old-time revivalists used the phrase “praying through” to refer to persevering in prayer until the answer came. I’m not being overly simplistic in saying this, but I truly believe that the answer to dull and lifeless devotions is persistence. The Lord may be testing your faith. Something could be wrong that needs to be reconciled and you haven’t been quiet enough to hear that still, small voice. Or you may have allowed your spirit to be distracted by busyness.

Nothing worthwhile ever comes easy. If you want to recover a deeper, more meaningful devotional life, it will only happen on purpose. So, keep seeking, keep asking, and keep knocking until the door opens. Tozer reminds us that “the Bible was written in tears and to tears it yields its best treasures.”