When Bible Study Feels like a Chore: Rediscovering Delight in God’s Word
How many times have you started a new year with good intentions to study God’s Word daily, only for your fervor to fade somewhere between March and Leviticus? It’s not that you don’t value God’s Word or that you don’t truly want to grow; it’s just that Bible study feels like a chore.
In the early 90s, when I was a baby Christian, I learned that daily quiet time was essential to spiritual growth. I still believe that concept to be true, and I practice Bible study, Scripture memory, and prayer regularly to this day.
But I have also discovered along the way that how I approach that time may differ depending on the season of life I am in. And when I value the structure more than the intimacy with God, that time begins to feel more like a duty than a delight.
I often hear women say they struggle to spend time with God consistently for two main reasons: lack of time and lack of focus. I want to address both of these challenges.
The Time Problem: Flexibility over Perfection
First, many women tell me they cannot find the time to study the Bible daily. But here’s the thing: If your time with God doesn’t look like two hours of uninterrupted Bible study, worship, and prayer, do you give up and not attempt it at all?
When we create expectations for how our time with God should look based on curated social media images and compare our own experience with someone else’s, we may begin to approach Bible study more like a chore than a delight.
When my children were babies, I sometimes fed them with one hand and read my Bible with the other. As they got older and we homeschooled, my time in the Word was combined with theirs as we studied together. Our quiet times were anything but quiet then! Later, when I returned to the classroom, I set my alarm early to have quiet time with the Lord before they got up for school.
In every season, I learned to adjust my expectations and my experience of pursuing God. In some seasons, I had an hour to spend, and in some only fifteen minutes. What matters is not the quantity of that time but the quality of the heart that shows up.
Did I engage with the Scripture in a meaningful way? Did I read Scripture in its context, looking for what it reveals to me about God, about myself, and how He wants me to respond? Did I seek to know Him through His Word, searching my own heart, aligning myself to His ways, submitting myself to His authority?
In the hard seasons when responsibilities crowded out time, did I look for God throughout my day, praying often, listening to Scripture during chores, worshiping during errands, keeping my heart and mind focused on Him even as I taught or cleaned or ________ (you fill in the blank)?
When we seek intimacy with God through His Word, which is His revelation of Himself to us, God meets us right where we are in life, no matter how long or how deep that moment with Him is. He knows our limitations and our challenges. He’s looking at our hearts. And a heart that sincerely longs for God and seeks Him will find Him.
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13, NIV)
The Focus Problem: Training Our Distracted Minds
Second, many women say they struggle to focus during Bible study or prayer. As soon as they begin, they feel their minds pulling them away from thoughts of God to other things.
Our social media culture has trained our brains to pay attention for only eight seconds on average. Eight seconds! And we wonder why we can’t focus on God’s Word. I find that when I start my quiet time (yes, I still call it that), I am easily distracted, too. I begin thinking about my responsibilities for the day. So, I keep Post-it notes with my Bible so I can jot things down and then refocus my mind on Him. I may have to do that several times, but eventually I will be able to pull my heart towards God and His Word.
Many believe they actually suffer from ADD or ADHD, but research shows that what is often described as an attention deficit is, in fact, an interest deficit. When we are engaged in activities we enjoy, such as an interesting movie or conversation, we can pay attention for much longer periods.
The good news is that focus, like any muscle, can be trained. Start small. Give God five focused minutes before checking your phone. Read one passage slowly rather than racing through a chapter. The Psalmist modeled this for us—he didn’t just read God’s Word; he meditated on it, turning it over and over until it shaped his heart.
“I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways” (Psalm 119:15, NIV).
The Real Culprit: A Heart Issue, Not a Time Issue
I have found over the years that when Bible study begins to feel more like a chore than a delight, I will use time or focus as excuses, when the real culprit is my heart. I am approaching God’s Word as if Bible study is something I must do to be accepted by God, or that praying is a duty to perform rather than a way to connect. I am acting as if I have to somehow earn His attention or approval through these spiritual disciplines.
This is the performance trap. And the gospel is the only way out of it.
We spent January learning that we don’t work for God’s approval—we work from it. We spent February discovering that our identity is grounded in what Christ has done, not what we do. And now, in March, we get to ask: What happens to our spiritual disciplines when we apply those truths?
Everything changes.
When I know that I am accepted because of what Christ accomplished on the cross to cleanse me of sin and make me right with God, my time with Him becomes an avenue of intimacy with the Almighty. He has made a way for me to know Him, and I can do that through His Word! What an honor and an awesome opportunity!
My quiet time is then no longer something I must strive to do each day to please God, leaving me full of guilt and shame when I fall short. Rather, it is a means of hearing from God, following Him, learning from Him, and relying upon Him.
“They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb” (Psalm 19:10, NIV).
The psalmist wasn’t grinding his way through a religious obligation when he wrote those words. He had encountered a Person—a God who is living and active, who speaks through His Word and meets His people there. That’s what’s waiting for us on the other side of duty.
From Duty to Delight: What This Looks Like in Practice
Worship, prayer, Scripture memory, and Bible study all become the avenues through which I come boldly to the throne of grace to find help in my time of need. I am so desperate for God that I will find a way to take in His Word every day, even if I have to listen to it on audio while I cook, worship in the shower, or pray as I go.
When the object of our desire is God Himself, we approach Bible study as an encounter with God, not as a duty to perform. When the text becomes repetitive, or we struggle to grasp its meaning, we can choose to remember that not everything has to have an immediate application. We can sit with a passage without looking for a quick takeaway.
Here are a few practical shifts that can move us from duty to delight:
Come curious, not obligated. Instead of asking “What do I need to do?” ask “What does this passage show me about who God is?” Bible study becomes interesting and exciting when we are seeking to know Him more.
Start small and stay consistent. Even fifteen focused minutes of genuine engagement beats an hour of dutiful slogging. Give God what you have, and trust Him to meet you there.
Invite the Holy Spirit. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you from His Word. Focus on what the passage shows you about who God is — His character alone is enough to strengthen you, even when the meaning isn’t fully clear.
Give yourself grace for dry seasons. Delight isn’t always a feeling—sometimes it’s a choice to show up anyway, trusting God to meet you there. None of that time is wasted. God’s Word never returns to Him void.
“So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11, NIV).
An Invitation, Not an Assignment
Just when we least expect it, God will honor our faithfulness to keep pursuing Him, and that Word will begin to come alive, to renew, to refresh, and to reorient our hearts toward Him. So, don’t give up in the hard seasons. Let God’s love drive your pursuit of Him, because daily quiet time is not an assignment to complete; it’s an invitation into His presence, where there is fullness of joy.
“You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (Psalm 16:11, NIV).
You don’t have to be perfect at this. You don’t have to show up with everything figured out. You just have to come—open, willing, and hungry for more of Him. God will meet you where you are and delight to do it.
Ready to Build a Consistent Habit?
If you’re looking for a low-pressure, grace-filled way to get started, I’d love to invite you to the FOCUSED 15 Challenge—just fifteen minutes a day in God’s Word, built on the truth that you’re already loved and already enough in Christ. Come because He delights in you, not to earn His delight. That’s where the joy is.