Help! I Just can’t seem to get much from reading my bible!

Bible passage: Luke 8:4-15:
⁴ While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: ⁵ “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. ⁶ Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. ⁸ Still, other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.” When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
⁹ His disciples asked him what this parable meant. ¹⁰ He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others, I speak in parables, so that, “‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’  ¹¹ “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. ¹² Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. ¹³ Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing, they fall away.14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. ¹⁵ But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

I recently stumbled on a video about the importance of God. At first, I wasn’t really interested in finishing because I felt like I already knew so much about that topic but decided to continue watching anyway. As I watched the video halfheartedly, the guy started talking about the parable of the sower and it drew my attention because the parable was my all time favourite but for some reason, I completely forgot about it. I knew this was God speaking to me was because I had been struggling to keep the word of God in my mind for longer than the first 10 minutes of reading it. What tended to happen was that I would initially get excited about what I had just read but by the end of the day couldn’t recall the exact passage I had just read (I was kind of a mix between the seed planted with thorns and on rocky ground). I knew this was an issue but really didn’t bother myself about it because I felt that reading a new passage the next morning would make up for it. Gradually that became my excuse for not putting in more effort to meditate on the things I had read throughout the day. This happened for a while and because of this, studying the bible had become nothing more than a shallow read that quite frankly did nothing for me. I had managed to psych myself into believing that God will at least appreciate that I’m making an effort to read my bible every day (as my only goal at that time was to be up to date with my devotional). Therefore, being led back to this parable was like God placing a mirror on the state of my heart and where I was at the moment.

What I had come to realise was that studying the bible wasn’t a favour to God or beneficial to Him in any way. Instead, it was a way for me to be strengthened and guided in the right direction throughout the day. I would liken it to a book from a father to his child filled with life lessons, wise sayings and advice to navigate through life. One of my favourite passages is  “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9. It reminds you that others have been through whatever you’re going through and the bible has great examples of how various men and women of God have handled various situations. Let’s take Samson for example, God had given him the greatest strength of his time, but as a result of His lust for a woman he wasn’t supposed to be with He lost all that power and was brutally abused by His enemies. Thankfully in the midst of his disobedience, God still had mercy on him and granted his last request which you can read in Judges chapter 16. This is a probably a more extreme example but it just highlights the importance of obeying God’s word. In the moment His instructions may feel unfair, difficult or too restrictive, but God has placed them there for our own good because He sees the whole picture while we can only see what’s in front of us. So I would like to encourage you to read the bible with the mindset that you’re either going to learn more about the God who made you or receive great advice and wisdom from Him trusting that everything He says to you is for your good.
Have an awesome day!
God loves you!
Love,
Tobi.