Digging Into God’s Word Is Always Worth It

Colorado’s Rocky Mountains are home to 58 peaks that reach 14,000 feet above sea level known to locals and hikers as “Fourteeners.” All but one require a strenuous hike to reach the summit. One exception, Pikes Peak, offers a paved road to the top. And while the views are nearly identical, the experiences could not be more different.

To hike to the summit is to feel every footstep, every heartbeat, every ounce of effort. To drive is to arrive detached from the journey. Those 14.5 miles and 5,100 feet of elevation gain? They're not a barrier to the view they're part of the view’s wonder. The sweat and strain deepen the glory.

So it is with Bible reading.

In a world of instant gratification and spiritual shortcuts, the Word of God calls us to a different pace one that requires patience, effort, and thoughtful engagement. But this hard-won path isn’t a burden. It’s the very terrain where deep, enduring joy is found.

Quick Emotions or Deep Transformation?

Many Christians can relate to what J.I. Packer once described as “restless experientialists” believers who chase emotional highs but avoid the hard work of sustained thought. He wrote,

"They value strong feelings above deep thoughts. They conceive the Christian life as one of extraordinary exciting experiences rather than of resolute rational righteousness." (A Quest for Godliness, p. 30)

In other words, we often want the beauty of the summit without the climb. We long to “feel” Romans 8 but resist the theological trek through Romans 1–7. We desire joy without doctrine. Emotion without effort.

But that’s not how God designed His Word to work.

Fire from the Scriptures

Consider the disciples on the road to Emmaus. After the risen Jesus walked with them and opened the Scriptures, they said,

“Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32)

Their hearts didn’t burn because of a supernatural thrill out of nowhere. The fire came as Jesus explained the Scriptures walking them through Moses and the Prophets, showing how every page pointed to Him (Luke 24:27). Their joy followed their understanding. Emotion flowed from exposition.

J.I. Packer puts it this way.

“God moves us, not by direct action on the affections or will, but by addressing our mind with his word, and so bringing to bear on us the force of truth.” (*A Quest for Godliness*, p. 195)

Real spiritual fire the kind that lasts through trials and dark valleys is kindled through truth. And truth must be studied, wrestled with, and understood. In Scripture, God addresses our minds first not to bypass the heart, but to reach it.

Hiking the Hard Passages

So how do we begin to experience Scripture as a summit worth hiking?

Don’t Skip the Difficult Terrain

When Jesus opened the Scriptures to the Emmaus disciples, He didn’t just take them to Psalm 23 or Isaiah 53. He began with Moses and the Prophets Genesis, Leviticus, Deuteronomy places many of us skip over.

But skipping hard passages is like driving past the trailhead. Books like Leviticus, seemingly dry or irrelevant, are actually rich with shadows of Christ and foundations for the gospel. They are not emotional dead ends but logs waiting to be lit by the Spirit’s fire.

Reading the whole Bible not just favorite verses or feel-good passages prepares our hearts to see the beauty of the summit in full.

A 2021 study from Lifeway Research found that only 11% of Christians have read the entire Bible, and 30% don’t read it weekly at all. That means most believers are missing the very path God laid out to shape their joy and faith.

Slow Down Enough to Notice

Some treasures in Scripture aren’t visible at high speed. A simple word a pronoun, a preposition, a tense can illuminate God’s glory in unexpected ways.

Take Matthew 5:45, where Jesus says, He makes “his sun rise on the evil and on the good.” That small word “his” reminds us, the sun doesn’t rise by accident. God raises it each day like a Father waking His children with light.

Such moments aren’t reserved for scholars. Anyone, with patience and prayer, can find them. But we must be willing to read slowly. To reflect. To ask questions. To sit in a verse longer than we scroll through a social feed.

Resist Sentimental Shortcuts

Martyn Lloyd-Jones once warned against reading Scripture only for “soothing” effects.

“They make it a kind of incantation and take the Psalms as another person takes a drug.”

This kind of sentimental reading bypasses the logic of Scripture its arguments, its “therefores” and “becauses.” But God’s Word is not a spiritual sedative. It’s a sharp, two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12). It confronts us. It changes us.

Even beloved verses like Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation” become far more powerful when we trace their logic back to Romans 7, and ultimately to Romans. The “therefore” is not fluff. It’s the rock-solid foundation that makes the promise unshakable.

A Better View Awaits

Deep joy doesn’t come to those who drive through devotions. It comes to those who walk slowly, thoughtfully, dependently.

Like hikers on a steep trail, Bible readers must come prepared: with endurance, with prayer, and with a willingness to sweat a little. But every step is worth it. Every chapter holds treasures. Every hard verse is part of the journey to glory.

Peter describes joy in Christ as “inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8). That joy doesn’t float in through a window it’s found in the Word. Through plodding, patient reading. Through the long obedience of study. Through Spirit-fueled meditation.

And when we reach the summit whether it’s in Romans, Leviticus, Psalms, or Revelation we’ll know the view was worth every step.

So next time you open your Bible, resist the shortcut. Walk the trail. Glory awaits those who climb.

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