“I was about to go take a nap, since that seems so much easier than pressing into God. I get so bored sometimes too, but …”

Jacquie left a comment several days ago, and I’m not sure why but it inspired a thought – I’m not sure it qualifies as a “revelation,” so I’m going with “thought.”

We all go through “dry” seasons. We all have those times – whether it’s hours or weeks – when we’re bored with prayer, bored with worship, bored with the Word. Holy Spirit doesn’t meet us the way He has in the past, or the way we want Him to, and it become so difficult to discipline ourselves to do the routine work of discipleship.

I love Matthew 11 (stick with me – I’m going somewhere with this). Verse 12 may be my favorite:

For from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.

We use the word “suffers” when someone is dealing with an affliction. Less common is using the word to mean “allow.” Think about old movies you’ve seen. They say silly things like not “suffering” something to happen.

The kingdom of heaven isn’t advocating physical violence, but spiritual violence – ’cause you can’t take the kingdom of heaven physically. Jesus is telling the people that in the New Covenant, the kingdom of heaven is available but you have to take it – like Israel took the promised land, like John took the book from the angel in Revelation. You have to fight for it.

Nothing seems to turn people away from fighting for the things of God like spiritual boredom. It’s easier to see the world’s distractions and the devil’s attacks. Boredom is a gentle, subtle deterrent.

What if we started looking at spiritual boredom that way? What if we pushed through the distractions, through the attacks, and anticipated boredom. What if – when it happened – we didn’t sink into nap time or despair and recognized it as the last affront to spiritual breakthrough? The last battle to be fought before the next thing God has for us?

Boredom would suddenly become an exciting time.