Devotions Are Vital 6

When I awake on my knees I will likely sit at the dining room table with my coffee, my Bible and the never-ending always-changing list of things that need doing. On days when I must be out of the house in an hour or less I might read a page or two or a chapter or two in the Bible. Sometimes a verse or a few verses or just a part of a verse will occupy my mind for 15 or 20 minutes. On days when I don’t have to rush out I might feel directed to write an outline for a message for my Nursing Home ministry, or a Bible study. The central idea comes quickly and then an outline. Sometimes the ideas pop into my head and then the scriptures to prove them. Sometimes the scriptures come first followed by the thoughts. God often provides relevant quotes and articles to add. Some mornings I meet road-blocks and have to get on my knees a second time. I love the mornings when this goes on for a couple of hours or more. Throughout the day thoughts and scriptures will come into my mind in connection with what I worked on in the morning. (With my poor memory, I have to jot them down and add them the next morning.) Some mornings I might just type and store in my computer the thoughts from previous mornings. (I am very fortunate in that my wife likes to sleep late, leaving me time alone with the Lord.)

My devotions are not rigid. Every day they are different. Some mornings I get so immersed in them, the Lord must remind me to stop and have breakfast and take my medications. Sometimes the meeting with God resumes after breakfast. Many days I have a chance to meet with God again and again.

Before I became a Christian, I was usually upset when I woke up at night and couldn’t get back to sleep. Now those times are special because I believe God woke me and wants my attention. When I wake up at night, I might read the Bible or pray or meditate for a time. When I do get back to sleep, I sleep much better and wake up refreshed in the morning.

Unconfessed and unforgiven sin will limit communication between us and God and spoil our devotions, much like clouds limit sunshine. Spurgeon devotional entitled Abiding with Jesus:

“We are too much like the bird we read of in the old Saxon story. When the first missionary was preaching in the royal hall, he told of the peace which the gospel brings to sinners, and the rest which souls find in Jesus. After his sermon an ancient chieftain spake his mind, and compared himself and his countrymen in their unrest to the bird which just then, attracted by the light, flew into the bright hall through the open window, flitted through the warmth and light, and passed out again into the darkness and the cold by a window on the other side of the banqueting hall. The simile might well apply to our transient fellowship; we have brief communings, and then away we pass into worldliness and indifference. Oh, would it not be blessed if we could abide with Jesus forever, building our nest in his palace! How heavenly our life if we could walk with him, as Enoch did, in our business, in our families, in all places and at all hours! If instead of now and then climbing the sunny peak of fellowship, and standing near to heaven, and conversing with the Son of God, we could forever dwell in the heavenly places in Christ.

Care to discuss Devotions Are Vital 6 with Ron?

He'd also like to hear your prayer requests