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I needed inspiration but it wasn’t coming. After creating a list of nearly forty changes I needed to make to Relief Society ministering assignments, I spent hours on Leader and Clerk Resources online, shuffling names and companionships around, and was feeling good about most of the changes. But there were at least three pesky issues I couldn’t seem to solve. Every move I tried had an undesired domino effect on other ministering companionships.
This weighed on me for weeks. I prayed about it daily. Why was I not receiving the inspiration I needed for my calling? I wasn’t aware of doing anything that would impede the flow of the Holy Spirit in my life. So, what was the problem?
Then one afternoon, I listened to a podcast which quoted latter-day prophets speaking of the power that comes from a serious study of the scriptures. I remembered that when my Bishop set me apart for my current calling, he admonished me to “…let your gospel study be powerful.”
I love the scriptures. I doubt that I have missed a day of scripture study in nearly five decades. Yet, as I thought about my recent scripture reading, I had to admit that my eyes were quickly tracing over sentences on a page, but my thoughts were scattered and distracted. I could not honestly claim that my scripture study had been powerful for several months. I was basically speed-reading the scriptures.
Baptist preacher C.H. Spurgeon described exactly what was happening as I “read” the word of God: “The eye glances but the mind never rests. The soul does not light upon the truth and stay there. It flits over the landscape as a bird might do, but it builds no nest there, and finds no rest for the sole of its foot. Such reading is not reading.” (1)
Regretful that I had allowed my time in the scriptures to become simply an item to check off each day, I determined to be more prayerful, more focused—to slow way down. After just three days of improved, mindful scripture study, early one morning I was in the relaxed state between sleeping and waking. I began to see in my mind the solution to my ministering questions. I could actually see the names moving into place as if I were typing them on my laptop. In my half-dreaming state, I drowsily thought, Hmmm … that would work. Then suddenly I was wide awake, excitedly thinking, Yes! That will work!
As I recognized that I was receiving the inspiration I needed, I pulled a scrap of paper and a pen from my bedside table and scribbled down what I had envisioned in my head. Slowing down in my scripture study proved to be an invitation for revelation. It didn’t require me to study longer than usual—just to actually pay attention to what I was reading.
I love what a recent AI search yielded about the importance of searching the scriptures slowly:
“Reading the scriptures slowly allows you to deeply digest, savor, and metabolize the text rather than just checking off a box. This unhurried approach helps the words take root in your heart, transforming your character, shifting your thoughts, and helping you notice profound details you might otherwise miss. Deeper reflection gives our mind time to rest on specific phrases and imagery, replaces a hurried, task-oriented mindset with a meditative practice, and allows space for God’s word to shape our daily thoughts and actions.”
Digest, savor, metabolize. That definitely sounds like feasting on the word. It can be difficult—especially for list checkers like me—to overcome the habit of trying to read a full chapter of scripture or reading a certain number of pages each time we study God’s words. But I’m gradually re-learning what I had already discovered in my later years: the value of slowly reading a story or a few doctrine-filled verses, and then sitting with them for a few minutes, wondering why they were included in the scriptures, and writing in the margins any thoughts that trickle into my mind. Slowing down my study process allows me to extract something meaningful and relevant from the pages.
I agree with Christian writer Katherine Pittman: “We should, of course, strive to familiarize ourselves with all of the Bible. But to grow spiritually—to gain answers to difficult questions and find comfort through hard seasons—we must also have slow, unhurried moments before the Lord.” (2)
While focusing on the New Testament a few years ago during Come, Follow Me study, I benefitted greatly from using a different translation of the Bible than I had previously read. The wording of the New International Version (NIV) was just unique enough to make me pause occasionally, to think about the verses in a way I had not considered before.
Brother Ted Barnes of the Church Curriculum Department shared several helpful techniques for reading the scriptures slowly. My favorite is: “Never assume that you already know what a passage means, no matter how many times you have read it before. Always be open to new insights the Lord might give you.” (3)
Recently, my husband left town for a week on a business trip. Before leaving, Brad asked me to water his large vegetable garden a couple of times while he was away, reminding me to keep the flow of water fairly slow instead of turning it on full force in order to hurry it down the rows.
I arose extra early on those watering days to beat the intense July heat. Brad has installed spigots at the heads of the garden rows, each connected to a length of hose long enough to reach the furrows. This enabled me to water five rows at a time. As I stood in the early morning light, watching the water trickle down each furrow, I could see the wisdom in using a moderate flow of water instead of a heavy one. With a slower flow the water has more time to soak into the ground as it makes its way to the end of the long rows.
I found myself whispering a phrase from a song. “Everything grows where the water flows.” (4) Indeed, every time we make a connection to the Lord through thoughtful scripture study, His living water flows into us and gives us what we most need.
Decades ago, Elder Dallin H. Oaks shared this wisdom: “We often hear…that the scriptures have the answers to all of our questions. Why is this so?…Reading…the scriptures will…put us in a position where we can obtain inspiration to answer any doctrinal or personal question, whether or not that question directly concerns the subject we are studying in the scriptures. That is a grand truth not understood by many….Again, even though the scriptures contain no words to answer our specific personal questions, a prayerful study of the scriptures will help us obtain such answers” (5)
From recent personal experience, I can testify that these words are true. My need for specific inspiration was met after I stopped speed-reading the scriptures, and took time to savor the words. If you’ve been a scripture speed-reader like me, I encourage you to slow down a bit and see what answers the Lord may have for you.
Notes:
1. C. H. Spurgeon, How to Read the Bible, Sermon 1503. Sermon delivered at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, England.
2. Katherine Pittman, https://www.journeywomen.org/blogs/the-beauty-of-slow-scripture-meditation
3. Ted Barnes, Slow Reading: Seeing the Savior in the Scriptures, Liahona, January 2024. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2024/01/06-slow-reading-seeing-the-savior-in the-scriptures?lang=eng
4. Janice Kapp Perry and Orrin G. Hatch, Like a River, from the album Like a River, Prime Recordings.
5. Elder Dallin H. Oaks, “Studying the Scriptures,” Fireside given November 24, 1985.
