How to do daily devotions.

Jun 11

Many struggle with this.

I hesitate to write on this, lest I sound like a know-it-all; but then I thought, heck people put videos on YouTube on “How to Save Money,” and “How to Cook an Egg,” so why not a Blog on “How to do Daily Devotions.”

OK, this is serious, which is why I decided to write it.

David was in the wilderness of Judah he said, “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;” Psa 63:1

There are two issues here: 1) Having devotions daily and 2) What to do when having them.

Firstly, having devotions daily, is simply a matter of establishing a habit, and keeping to it; of making the time and doing it. We get up, wash and dress, and go to work or school every day, we are just adding something to our schedule; a new DAILY habit. We eat every day; devotions is like eating, it is the intake of spiritual food, to maintain spiritual life, and it most be done each day.

I believe having devotions at the beginning of the day, as the first activity of the day, is best. It is giving the first fruits of the day to God, as an offering, a tithe of our time, which for many is more precious than money. It starts the day with him, preparing for what is ahead, asking for help to live the day aright, rather that at the end of the day when we are weary and everything is whirling around in our heads, and we have to do “damage control.” It is true that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!” As we fuel the car up before a trip, as we eat well before a long hike, as a lawyer prepares his/her notes before they appear in court, so we should start the day with God. I know some will say, “but Jesus prayed all night;” my answer is, “If you want to pray all night, rather than just in the morning, then do it.”

It will mean getting up earlier to build time into your daily schedule, and it will mean finding a quite place to be alone with God; Jesus called it a “closet,” Mat 6:6. It needs to be private and quite. It must be repeatable every day; a habit, that you come to depend upon for life. Remember, we are talking not just about a reading schedule to accumulate knowledge in an intellectual sense, we are talking of having intimate conversation, communion in the truest spiritual sense, real communion with the LIVING GOD.

Modifying the old schedule, to create a new one by getting up earlier, is work, for some it will be hard! Old habits are the enemy, as is the devil! When you think “no need to get up today,” that is the devil trying to derail you - do not listen.

Do you think he wants you to read the bible and pray?

We get up early to go to the beach or skiing for the day, or shopping or hunting. We endure all kinds of discomfort for our hobbies: cold and rain while watching a football game in the middle of winter; long hours of reading and study for school or work. We say, “I have to!” Frankly, if we want to know about God, and know him (2 totally different things), we need to read and pray; we need to learn about him, and then have conversation with him.

God wants to be known, and he wants to have communion with us; we are the ones who don’t show up for the meeting!

He went to the garden each day to have conversation with Adam and Eve, even on the day that he knew they had sinned.

“And my delights were with the sons of men” Pro 8:31.

Wisdom, the second person of the Trinity, the Word, says he delights to have communion with men. He is the same One who spoke with Adam and Eve each day. See my Blog titled “My Delights Were with the Sons of Men.”

If the problem is laziness, confess it as sin, or at least confess it as a bad habit, and stop it.

Secondly, what to do when having devotions; how do we do devotions?

First pray!

Many people use the ACTS acronym to guide their praying:

A = adore

C = confess

T = thanks

S = supplicate.

Many follow the Lord’s pattern for prayer; how novel is that, to pray like Jesus taught us to pray! Not the rote words, but the pattern, the sequence, the items, the topics.

After praying, read the bible. Many like following “reading through the bible in a year.” I have never done that; I wonder if that is too much to read, and giving no time for contemplation about what has been read.

For 40 years now this is the schedule I have used:

On Sundays, I read a chapter in Proverbs, going through the book over and over again. Yes, that is almost 2 times a year.

Monday to Saturdays I read one (1) Psalm (large Psalms are broken up), again going through the book over and over, and here too, I cover it basically twice a years.

I also read one (1) Old Testament chapter a day, starting at Gen 1:1 all the way to Malachi, repeating this over and over; this obviously does not include Psalms and Proverbs.

And one (1) New Testament chapter per day, Matthew to Revelation, going through it over and over.

As I read, I pray, think, and mediate on what I have read, asking myself and the Holy Spirit: what truths do these verse teach and how should I live based on these truths. I learn more and more each time I read, but I am not reading to accumulate knowledge, I am reading so that the Holy Spirit, who lives in my heart, can use his word to speak to me.

I then read a page or so in a Christian book; I mean good solid books (see my book list).

Yes, I need between 45 minutes to over an hour for this, but it is well worth it.

This has worked for me for 40 years now, try it.

And regarding busyness! Which is a bane on the American culture, Martin Luther said that when he had a particularly busy day coming up, he would rise up EARLIER to pray MORE, because he knew that God could get things done for him quicker and better than he could; he looked at his prayers as enlisting the help of the God in his daily activities; what a different way of looking at devotions Luther had than most of us do!

Here are several good books on the Lord’s Prayer:

A.W. Pink “The Lord’s Prayer”

https://www.amazon.com/Lords-Prayer-Arthur-W-Pink/dp/1717438741

https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/pink/The%20Lord's%20Prayer%20-%20Pink.pdf

Adolph Saphir “The Lord’s Prayer”

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3539475-our-lord-s-pattern-for-prayer

https://archive.org/details/lordsprayer00saph

Thomas Watson “The Lord’s Prayer”

https://www.amazon.com/Lords-Prayer-Thomas-Watson/dp/0851516645

https://archive.org/details/watson-on-the-lords-prayer-full

https://archive.org/details/watson-on-the-lords-prayer-full/page/n1/mode/2up

Alexander Whyte “Lord Teach Us To Pray”