The Gracious Cycle

Dannah Gresh: Do you want to develop a greater hunger for the Scriptures? Here’s Kristen Weatherell. 

Kristen Wetherell: If what I give myself is junk food, that’s what I end up wanting more of, and my appetite for the good stuff starts to wane. Your appetite actually changes! The same is true with God’s Word. 

There’s a gracious cycle between meditating on the Word and delighting in the Word. The more we meditate, the more the Holy Spirit leads us to delight. And the more I delight in the Word, the more hungry I am for it—the more I want to meditate on the Word.

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast for Thursday, January 23, 2025. I’m Dannah Gresh. Our host is the author of A Place of Quiet Rest, Nancy Demoss Wolgemuth.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Well, here we are, three weeks into 2025! I’m going to be your accountability partner for just a minute, okay? Here’s my accountability partner question for you: How’s it going on spending time with the Lord in His Word and in prayer every day?

Maybe you started out the year deciding you would read the Bible every day. I hope so! If not, it’s not too late to start. Sometimes, though, we get weary, or we allow other things to take priority. And before we know it, the new habit we’re trying to form dies before it really has a chance to take root.

Our guest today is my friend, Kristen Wetherell. Kristen understands the challenges that a mom of little ones faces. She’s here to give us all a good dose of encouragement! Her book is called Help for the Hungry Soul. It includes eight encouragements to grow your appetite for God’s Word!

Not long ago, Dannah had a chance to sit down with Kristen to talk about that subject. Let’s listen. Here’s Dannah Gresh talking with Kristen Wetherell.

Dannah: At some point, all of us grow weary! We have weary moments, weary days, weary seasons. What’s really going on in our souls, do you think Kristen, when we have that feeling?

Kristen: Well, for myself in my own experience, it’s been that I am trying to satisfy what I believe John Piper calls, “the God-shaped hole” in my heart with things that don’t really fit. That’s the main reason that I feel so weary.

I’m talking about a sense of purposelessness—or restlessness. You know that feeling. That even on the greatest day, the most enjoyable day, something is still missing. Or, I feel like I’m toiling. 

This work that God has given me to do as a wife, as a mom, even as a writer, “What is it all for?” So I think that it could be that I’m trying to fill this God-shaped hole with things that don’t fit.

And then I also think, Dannah, weariness, because we are whole people, we are embodied souls. Physical weariness can really take a toll! We all experience that differently.

But, a week straight of kids waking up in the middle of the night needing things, or for some reason you’re just up and you don’t know why, a week straight of that will get to you and make you feel weary!

I’m sure that there are more things that we could pinpoint, but I think a lot of it comes down to the physical and the spiritual, and a combination of the two.

Dannah: You mentioned that we try to fit things into our God-shaped hole that don’t satisfy because they don’t fit there. What are some examples of things that maybe you’ve used to try to satisfy your heart?

Kristen: I think I’m quick to turn to people rather than The Person—I’m so quick! That’s not necessarily all bad, because I am surrounded by amazing people—people who love the Lord, people who will point me to the Lord. And thankfully, a lot of the time they do.

But my very first response is not to turn to prayer and talk to my Father. It’s to pick up my phone and try to find an “out” for my situation or a solution for what I’m walking through in a friend or in my husband. Like I said, that’s not a bad thing. These are good friends and spouses and family members, church family. They’re good gifts!

Dannah: I think sometimes it’s whether or not it’s the first thing. Sometimes I’m picking up my phone saying, “People! Please pray about” this, that, or the other thing, and I haven’t even prayed yet! I haven’t talked to the Lord. I haven’t said, “God, do you see what’s going on?” And so, sometimes, even those good things,when we turn to them as the first thing, they start to be a competitor with God. Right?

Kristen: Yes, that’s right. The word “competitor” is a great word. Because in our struggle with weariness . . . A lot of us struggle with a sense of purpose and finding/rooting our purpose and our identity in Christ.

For myself, I think I try and fill that God-shaped hole with praise from people. So I can turn to people for help, but I can also turn to them for honor. I can also turn to them for praise and affirmation. And that will never satisfy me, because the more I get, the more I want! So, am I turning to the Lord for that? Am I looking to Christ to be that Rock, that Solid Rock that fills that God-shaped hole, that won’t change? There’s a big difference between the two!

Dannah: So, how do we redirect ourselves from those counterfeits—sometimes good things, but they don’t belong in our God-shaped hole? How do we redirect?

Kristen: Well, we need God’s mind to fill our own minds. We need God’s will and His priorities to fill our own hearts. And so, where do we get that? How do we get that? It’s a work of the Holy Spirit.

It’s not something that I can conjure up, or that anyone else on their own can do for me. It’s a work of the Holy Spirit that primarily comes through the Word of God—which is such a gift to me! Because, how else would I know who He is?

How else would I know the full, perfect revelation of God? How else would I know unless He had given me it in the form of this book that we call the Bible? It’s such a beautiful gift. When you think about it that way, it’s something that I can touch with my fingers and something that I can see with my eyes, and yet it’s a spiritual thing. It’s the God of all creation speaking to me, speaking to us. It’s such a gift!

Dannah: Now, before we talk about how satisfying that can be, because, “Oh, I’ve tasted that, and I know that it is good!” I imagine there is someone listening right now who says, “Uh, I have grown weary in my Bible reading. That’s making me weary!” What would you say to her about that?

Kristen: I would say that that is also me in certain seasons. I have found that weariness—another word for it may be dryness, spiritual dryness—tends to be a bit cyclical. So I’ve been there, and then at times I come back there.

If this is you and you’re listening, then I would encourage you that perhaps the lack of hunger and the weariness might be God’s way of reminding you how much you need Him. Because, I can’t cause within my own heart any love for the Lord unless He stirs it up within me.

I can’t change this weariness that I sometimes feel about opening my Bible on my own. And so, it is really a ripe opportunity to freshly turn to the Lord and tell Him what you’re feeling. 

Dannah: Honestly.

Kristen: Honestly, yes, thank you. And say, “Lord, my heart’s not in the right place. I don’t even want to do this right now. So, please, would You help me? Please, would You show me something in what I’m about to read that would stir up more and more of a hunger?”

And then, secondly I would say, we just keep coming. We just keep coming, and we trust that the promise that God gives us about His Word doing His work in our hearts is greater than what we may or not be feeling at any given moment. It’s worth holding on to. It’s worth taking God at His word. So, we’re honest, and we just keep coming.

Dannah: I think, too, when we come that we have to come with the right mindset. Many times when I look back on seasons of dryness, I was faithful in my Bible reading. I was faithful in my prayer time, my quiet time, but I was dry because I was going for the wrong motivation. I was looking at my Bible through the lens of me, instead of the lens of Jesus.

How can focusing on Jesus in the reading of God’s Word change the way we have an appetite for the presence of Christ through the pages of Scripture?

Kristen: I’m so glad that you brought this up! Yes, that’s me. My first inclination is to check today’s reading off the reading plan: “Check!”

Dannah: A little Type A, maybe? (laughter)

Kristen: Yes . . . and then to feel really great about myself because I did it! I imagine that’s some of the listeners, too.

But you know, Dannah, like you mentioned, if we’re just coming to check off a box, if we’re just coming to glean some information, if we’re coming even to simply try and solve a singular problem that we’re going through, we’re missing the point. That’s because the whole entire Bible is one big story, and the entire story is about Jesus! 

 

God has given us this story in order to draw us into it in order that we would know this Jesus and walk with Him. That we would not think about Him and His truth and His gospel as ideas or theory, but to take hold of His hand as a Person and say, “Lord, I need You! My whole life is bound up in Yours!”

You know, if you’ve trusted in Christ, your whole life is bound up in His. You are one with Him. And so, our greatest privilege is to get to know Him and to walk with Him, and then to be in the process, transformed into His likeness.

But we can’t see Him with our eyes right now. It’s a walk of faith. We walk by faith, not by sight, and so this is hard for forgetful people.

Dannah: As you’re talking, a Scripture verse is just like screaming out at me! Because you’re saying we can’t do it ourselves . . . I mean, even spending time in the Word of God. We can’t have a desire for that outside of the Holy Spirit.

At the same time, we can set the stage for the Holy Spirit to fan that desire, to give us that desire and that appetite. I’m thinking of Hebrews 12:1–2 which says, “We lay aside every weight, and the sin which clings so closely to us and we run with endurance the race that is set before us,looking to Jesus . . .” (paraphrased) some versions say, the “author and perfecter of our faith.” It goes on to talk about, “the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and he is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (paraphrased)

But, fixing your eyes on Jesus, looking to Jesus . . . He is the Author and Perfecter of our faith! He writes the faith in us; we can’t do it! We can position ourselves for Him to do the writing. We can say, “Look, Lord, my day today is an empty slate. Will You show up? I’m fixing my eyes on You; I’m steadying my gaze on You. Will You write faith onto my heart?” 

When you talk about coming back again and again, we’re not going to have a perfected faith until we see Him face to face, right?

Kristen: Right. 

Dannah: But He can do even that! He can perfect what is not perfect in us. So, it really does rely on Him!So many times we’re making that reading the Bible time about us—like you said, “crossing it off.”

Kristen: That’s right. I love how Peter talks about this dual, simultaneous reality. It’s this work of the Spirit and yet our human responsibility to open the Word. Peter talks about this as if we are newborn infants longing for the pure spiritual milk, that by it we may grow up into salvation! (see 1 Peter 2:2). 

If you’ve ever been around a newborn baby, all they want is the milk. They’re just hungry! They’re growing. If they don’t get the milk, they wither, and they don’t grow. And yet, a baby doesn’t produce the milk it needs to survive.

And yet, if a baby doesn’t put him or herself in a position to receive the milk, what’s it all for? They’re not going to receive it. And so, similarly, are we putting ourselves in the position? Are we making the choice to open God’s Word and to say, “Okay, Lord, now You do what only You can do through this Word”? It’s both/and.

Dannah: You’re bringing up the idea of appetite here. You’re bringing up the idea of a baby having the appetite for the milk. And the question is, “Do we have an appetite for the Word?” Kristen, what helps us establish that appetite and maintain an appetite for God’s Word?

Kristen: I found it helpful to think about an actual food-related appetite in this regard. By experience I know that if what I give myself is junk food—sugar, refined stuff—that’s what I end up wanting more of. My appetite for the good stuff—my fruits, my veggies, my good protein, my good fats, all that—starts to wane. Your appetite actually changes! 

It’s the same with exercise. How many of us have bemoaned the alarm clock when it rings: “Uhh, I said that I would get up and take a run” or “do my weights,” or whatever. We bemoan it because we don’t want to do it!

But how many of us once we have started and gotten into some kind of rhythm, feel it when we don’t do it, when we miss a day? You start to benefit from the exercise, and you start to see strength and growth.

The same is true with God’s Word. There’s a gracious cycle in Scripture. We see this everywhere, but especially in Psalm 119, which is all about the beauty of God’s Word. There is a gracious cycle between meditating on the Word and delighting in the Word.

Dannah: Oh!

Kristen: The more we meditate, the more the Holy Spirit leads us to delight—not instantaneously, necessarily, but in time, in God’s time. The more I delight in the Word, the more hungry I am for it, the more I want to meditate on the Word. The cycle just keeps on going.

And so, I think there’s a promise to be believed here as we obey, as we come to the Word and take up God’s command to hold it fast and to treasure it up in our hearts. It’s so kind of Him!

Dannah: Yeah, the cycle is fascinating. You see the cycle in Psalm 119: meditate/delight, meditate/delight. Let’s talk about those two words. Meditations is a word that, I think, has a lot of definitions these days. 

Some people have a very biblical approach to it, and then there are all these other counterfeits out there. So, how do we meditate on Scripture in a way that’s not only biblical, but it does feed our soul?

Kristen: Well, you’re referring to an Eastern form of meditation which involves (I’ve never participated in it) “emptying your mind.” We want to empty our minds of everything bad, of ourselves.

Well, biblical meditation is the opposite. It’s filling our minds with God’s voice, with God’s truth, with His promises, with His Word. Biblical meditation can look different, depending on the setting, with how much time we have in the Word. Maybe you didn’t sleep well last night, and so this morning you’re bound and determined to spend some time with the Lord. But for you, this morning looks like five minutes before you’re out the door going to work.

You can meditate in that five minutes. You can take a verse, read a short passage or a couple verses, and take a verse. Don’t only carry it with you throughout the day. Ask some questions about it: “What does this tell me about God? What does this tell me about myself?” It could be as simple as that. Or, if you have an extended period of time, if you have thirty minutes, if you have an hour, and you want to go deeper, you can ask more questions about what you’re reading.

You can study the context behind the book that you’re reading to understand, “What was God even trying to say to the people of this time period?” and “How does that relate to me right now?” Stirring our minds with thoughts about God and with thoughts about our own hearts. 

“How does this apply to me right now? What is God calling me to in response to this? How does this point me to Christ?” Ultimately, that’s the question we want to be asking is, “How does this point me to Christ?” So meditation is about filling our minds with more Scripture, with more of God.

Dannah: I think of Psalm 77, verses 11 and 12: “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.” As you’re saying, meditation in the Christian form is directing your thoughts to something. It’s intentional. So, how does that turn into delight? Tell me about that word.

Kristen: Well, delight is a desire for more of whatever it may be, fill in the blank. It’s a joy; it’s enjoyment! So, when my husband and I go to a super-wonderful restaurant—we find something new that we love, we taste the food, it’s wonderful—we delight in the whole experience. We have enjoyed it!

We’re more likely to tell people about this great restaurant that we’ve found. In that sense, there’s a fruit of it. We tell people about it, we end up going back. And so, delight is a great enjoyment in the Lord as we learn more about Him. 

It’s taking that God-shaped hole that He made us with and filling it with Him and enjoying Him. That doesn’t mean everything’s hunky-dory all the time, it just means that we’re actually trusting Him and we’re bringing everything to Him.

That means the hard stuff, that means the stuff we can’t understand. Being able to worship Him and say, “Lord, You’re bigger than I can understand, and yet You’ve given me Your Word, which is something that I can see and feel and believe. Would You help me to believe it?” So delight is enjoying Him, and it leads us back for more.

Dannah: I’m going to tell you about the last time I delighted in Him, and then I want you to tell me the last time you did. I love hearing the way the Lord restores our appetites! It is one of the greatest ways He restores mine.

Not long ago, the Revive Our Hearts team gathered for three days of prayer, and we were led in prayer by an author named Daniel Henderson for about eight to ten hours collectively. . .it didn’t all happen at once, but throughout one day, all we did was open the Word and read Scriptures about Jesus to Jesus.

It was very orderly, but every now and then we would break into a worship song about Jesus to Jesus. And then there was prayer about Jesus, to Jesus. None of us were talking about us, we weren’t talking about how we felt or what God had done in our lives; it was just Jesus! 

I called my husband on the way home, and I said, “Baby, you know how a few times in my life I have gone away to a women’s retreat, and I have sat on the edge of the bed for hours telling you about that?” And he was like, “Yes, baby, I know that.” 

[And I said,] “Prepare yourself! I’m going to sit on the edge of the bed and tell you about Jesus ’til you’re like . . .” And when I tell people about it, they’re like [underwhelmed]: “All you did was read Bible verses and sing songs . . . and?” I’m, “Yeah! It was the simplest thing!”

But my appetite the next morning when Bob Lepine taught out of the book of Revelation, I felt the Word is alive and active! I felt it! It was active and alive! That was the last time I delighted. And I haven’t really stopped delighting—this was just a few weeks ago.

But when was the last time you really found yourself caught up in the delight of the presence of Jesus and the power of the Word?

Kristen: Well, it’s funny that you ask this question, because you have been such a sweet pray-er for me. Not long before we’re talking right now, you were praying for my family and my motherhood . . . and it’s just not for the faint of heart.

And honestly, Dannah, I was delighting in His grace earlier this afternoon! I was brought back to what I had read earlier this morning, and reminded that when we feel we are utterly weak and insufficient, His power and His grace are made perfect and are wonderfully fulfilled through our weakness!

That makes me able to come to Jesus—not because I think I have my act together, not because my family does or my kids do at any given moment, but because He does, because He’s wonderful! He’s righteous and good for me on my behalf!

And so, I think just being able to say on any given Thursday afternoon, when I have slipped into sin, when I have failed, that His grace is still sufficient for me and being able to remember His Word and His promise fills my heart with delight! I have tears in my eyes just talking about it. I’m so thankful for that!

Dannah: Amen! I wonder if you would pray for that woman who is listening and it’s been a really long time since she has felt that delight. Would you pray for her?

Kristen: Yes, I’d love to. 

Father, You are worthy of our delight. Lord, we don’t deserve to come to You. We don’t deserve to even talk to You right now in prayer. And yet, Father, You have opened the new and living way into Your presence because of Christ, through Him.

And so, I pray for this woman who wonders if she could ever feel anything for You again; who hears the word “enjoy,” and feels like it might be unattainable. I pray for her, Lord, as I pray for us; that You would stir in us a wonder and awe at who You are. 

This is a spiritual thing, Lord, we confess that. This is not something we can create on our own. But by the power of Your Holy Spirit, would You revive our hearts again? Would You restore to us the joy of our salvation? And God, the other part of that prayer is, would You uphold us with willing spirits? Would You give this woman the desire to open Your Word?

And God, I pray—and Your promise is—that You will do Your work through Your Word. Oh God, would You do Your work? Would You stir up in her heart a great love for Jesus?! And I pray this in His Name, amen.

Nancy: Amen! What a beautiful prayer from Kristen Wetherell. I love it that she asked the Lord to stir us to wonder and awe at who He is as we read His Word and spend time with Him in prayer. You’re going to be hearing a lot about that connection between wonder and the Word of God in the months to come.

Our True Woman ’25 theme is Behold the Wonder!And in two years here on Revive Our Hearts, Lord willing, we’ll start working our way through the whole Bible in the course of a year. That series will be called “Wonder of the Word.”

Well, if you feel like, “Yeah, I need to recapture the wonder!” can I recommend you get a copy of Kristen’s book? It’s titled Help for the Hungry Soul: Eight Encouragements to Grow Your Appetite for God’s Word. We’ll send it to you as a thank you for your donation of any amount to help support Revive Our Hearts. 

Be sure to ask us for Kristen’s book Help for the Hungry Soul when you contact us with your gift. To make a donation you can visit ReviveOurHearts.com or call us at 1-800-569-5959. And thank you so much!

Dannah: Yes, we do truly appreciate your support! And you know, Nancy, you mentioned True Woman ’25: Behold the Wonder.I want to encourage everyone to go ahead and sign up! It will be October 2–4 in Indianapolis, and we have a powerful line-up of speakers. 

The registration rate goes up on February 2, so if you commit to it now, you’ll save some money. All the details are at this special website: TrueWoman25.com. Check it out. 

Tomorrow, Kristen Wetherell will be back to help us go beyond just checking the box off to say, “We’ve read the Bible today!” She’ll challenge us to examine our motives: why we’re reading and praying. I hope you’ll be back for Revive Our Hearts.

This program is a listener supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness and fruitfulness in Christ! 

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.