Devotion
I am going to say a pretty “un-Christian” thing: I struggle to have a regular devotional time. I know that many of you are already praying for me right now. So, let’s pause so you can finish.
One of the hallmark activities for Christians is a devotional time or “quiet-time” spent with God each day. If you have known me for any length of time at all you know that I am not a person that can just sit still and be quiet, unless I am reading or writing. The thought of me just sitting in one spot reflecting a praying for more than about 2 minutes is laughable.
I am not being glib about prayer, but I have to believe that God did not make a mistake when he created me. I don’t know of any place in the Bible where it requires that I sit in one place to pray. Prayer and reflection in the Bible happened all over the place. David sang songs in the fields and Jesus prayed in the garden.
So, I kind of have a “pray as you go” kind of arrangement and I use my writing and reading as my devotional. It works a little something like this:
- I pray for people when they come to mind. This means that when you ask me to pray for you and I agree, that prayer will probably be sent up to heaven almost as soon as we part ways. When you come to mind later in the day I will offer up another prayer. This seems to work for me and I can avoid the awkwardness of telling you I will pray for you and then forgetting.
- I am an external processor and so I work out my faith issues and theological positions right out in the open for anyone and everyone to read. I am not ashamed that I have struggles and I am not afraid that you won’t like me for being honest about my understanding of God and my relationship with Him.
- I am not a seminary trained theologian and so I read the bible with the aid of a commentary. I feel that my reading is much more enriched through the eyes of an expert than just reading some verses on my own. For me I approach it like I would a doctor. I am not going to ask the doctor to let me look at my own x-ray. I can see the bone and probably the break, but he has the understanding of what to do with it. I will let him look at it with me and show me the context of what I am looking at.
So, that’s how I do devotion. Tell me, how do you do it?
I have tried a variety of ways. I have become fairly convienced that without a good understanding of scripture (from actual study) we are limited in our spiritual growth. We can learn in whatever way we learn, but we should be disciplined enough to actually work on learning. If we can read and study any other thing, then we can read and study scripture. But I totally agree that it doesn't need to be any particular method of "devotional time".
Several things I have done in the past. But a bible on the counter in my bathroom. (I work at home). When I go to the bathroom, read a chapter. Doesn't take much time and keeps scripture on your mind throughout the day. I have started doing fixed hour prayers (about 10 minutes of a guided prayer and scripture time three times a day. Because of my schedule I don't do a hard, must pray at 12 noon exactly, but more of a, "around lunch time" take a break and pray. I have an audio bible on my mp3 player and I try to listen to 3 chapters a day as I am doing the dished. I try to read three chapters a day throughout the day. So in a day when I get it all done, I am reading/listening to 6 chapters a day and spending about 30 minutes of time praying.
Often doesn't all get done. But that is my goal.
Wow! That is a pretty good system!
Reading this post is such a relief to me. I have been beating myself up over my inconstancy. True, I do still feel I need to get better about dedicated time for reflection, since sometimes studying stands alongside learning, but at least I see praying-as-I-go as a worthy pursuit, too.
Who knew A-D-D could stand for Actively Dispensing Devotion?
Yeah, somehow I figured I wasn't alone!
very cool – beta testing the standardtheme as well (think you may have to de-activate the tweetmeme plugin for now since it is added by the theme already)
As for Devotion: hmmm, something I need to be doing more consistently.
I prefer to start by praying for guidance, understanding, etc – that also helps me to focus.
read the scripture.
Then the part I hate – my wife does it very well – think about what part stood out and why.
Then pray something specifically related to that and bring in everything else that I should be praying for.
Not that I do that all the time
Phillip, thanks for the tip on tweetmeme. I haven't had as much time to play with Standard Theme as I would like. UGH.
I just recently (in the last couple of months) started studying the Bible on a pretty regular basis. It is so amazing to me how much more I have already learned and grown just in the last couple of months. I know I shouldn't dwell on the past but I wonder how much more I would know about my Savior had I been doing this for the last 5 years which is when I started walking with the Lord. I started doing a Bible reading plan on esv.org. I know…this seems kind of old school but it really helps me keep up with where I am. I have never read the Bible all the way through or even a whole book. It is the first time I have ever really enjoyed getting into His word and He is really working in my life. I am one of the leaders in a college girl's disciple group and we are studing two AMAZING books as we study the word…"Spiritual Disciplines" and "Christian Beliefs". Spiritual Disciiplines has really opened my eyes to why we do the things we do. It goes through all 12 spiritual disciplines. I would HIGHLY recommend it. We are only on chapter 3 and I am already amazed. I will say though that it is quite overwhelming but in a good way.
If you have a smart phone the guys at LifeChurch.tv have come up with a pretty cool free Bible (tons of versions and languages) its called YouVersion. They also have a bunch of reading plans that you can keep with you on your phone as well as on the internet.
We went through a book called Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth<img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=austinklee-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0060628391" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> in our small group. I would definitely check it out!
I am still a pray as I go person as well but I do have a few minutes of prayer before I sit down to do the reading for the day. I am really hoping to get to where I can just sit and pray for a long time. I totally agree with Adam about studying the Bible is how we will grow. I have been making excuses for the last five years about why I can't grow…"I don't understand the Bible" or "I don't have time" or "It is just too overwhelming" or "I get bored". R.C. Sproul said something (it was quoted in the Spiritual Disciplines book) that really hit me hard…it was painful for me but gives me motivation. He said, "Here then is the real problem of our negligence. We fail in our duty to study God's Word not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because it is work. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence or lack of passion. Our problem is that we are lazy." Ouch. This hit me where it hurts : ).
This is all still a HUGE work in progress for me but am anxious to see what God is going to teach me. I used to think I couldn't understand anything in the Bible, but am quickly finding that God will give me the ability to grasp what He is teaching me. I am amazed.
I also think that sometimes we choose not to read because if we don't know what the Bible says, then we don't have to live it. Its a lot easier to say, "I didn't know," than it is to be accountable for our actions.
Thanks Austin for the resources! I will definitely check them out. I need all the resources I can get : ). I have a lot of catching up to do. I really like reading your blog. You've got some good stuff on here. Keep it coming!
That is a VERY good point. I never thought about it like that.