When lacking desire to study God’s word, how do you find motivation?

This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 1989.

I am sure that many of us find the same difficulty. I know I do! It is, of course, most helpful when we find within our hearts a powerful desire to study God's word, but desire can be a very willow-o'-the-wisp affair.

An Olympic athlete doubtless requires very strong motivation, but I suspect that many such athletes find themselves in the situation where, not only do they not have any strong desire to go out and practise, but also wish they did not have to do it. The secret to their eventual success, it seems to me, lies in the fact that they are prepared to go out and train even when they do not feel like it. What keeps them at the training, then? Not a strong desire to go out and train, but an awareness that, if they do not train now, they have no chance of getting the prize in the long-term future.

I suspect it is the same with our daily business: many a man goes to work in the morning, not because he feels a strong desire to, but because of the compulsion that, if he does not go, he will not be able to meet the bills at the end of the month.

I would therefore distinguish between motivation, which keeps its eye on ultimate accountability to the Lord, and strong desire, which is concerned with our passing moods and feelings. Moreover, much as I believe that one day I shall have to give an account of myself as a servant to the master at the judgment seat of Christ, I have found it helpful to be committed to some fairly regular work for the Lord; which in turn compels me from time to time to study the word of God, even when I do not feel like it.

The discipline of having to work in order to meet commitments is, I find, a very helpful discipline; for once one is committed to some piece of work, then all sorts of constraints and pressures that come upon one overrule any weakness of desire. And then the habit that is formed under such pressures yields from time to time fruitful dividends, and they in turn become motivation for further work.

I do not know if these remarks are anywhere near to dealing with your particular question; and I can see that it is much more easy for me to speak, being a bachelor, than someone who carries responsibility for a family, with many broken nights adding to the strains and stresses. But may God encourage you and grant you his gracious stimulation.

With warmest greetings in the Lord,