The Bible says:
“My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, oh Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.”
— Psalm 5: 3
Any Christian down through the centuries who did anything for God and made a difference in the world held regular devotions with God.
(Daniel 6: 10)
Devotions are a time of our private worship of God that includes at the least Bible reading and prayer. Devotions are a time spent letting God talk to us through His word with the Holy Spirit giving us understanding and then us speaking to God about Himself, ourselves, and others and what we say being shaped by what God has just said to us.
This two-way conversation is called devotions and continues while life lasts. And this is how we come to know our Bible and God our Father.
Most devotions, if they can be called that, are just a few snippets of time where Christians read a “verse for the day” and offer a quick prayer and then they’re out the door to work or school. Devotions are not finding time for God, but making time for God. Finding time for God means we squeeze in time to be with Him if all our worldly activities allow.
Making time for God means we will set aside a period of time to meet with God regularly, and will not let anything intrude into that time. If all we do is find time for God
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we do not find God during that time. But if we faithfully make time for God we find Him and discover He is remaking us during that time.
Some prefer the evening hours for their devotions and others the early morning hours. The morning hours are the better choice because we have just risen from sleep and our minds are fresh and not tangled up by the activities of the day as they would be with evening devotions. And we go to bed early to be able to rise early to have our time with God.
In our devotions, it’s best to read and meditate on Scripture and have God speak to us first. Our following prayer in which we speak to God will then be according to God’s will. With morning devotions God is the first one to speak to us and God is the first person we speak to.
Our devotions are not something we do so we can check them off our to do list as a good Christian. We have devotions because we have a desire to make conscious contact with God, linger in His presence, hear from Him and have Him hear us.
If during our time of devotion we are not hearing from God and we know God is not hearing us then we know that because of sin we have lost affinity or fellowship with God. Our fellowship is so important to God that He ceases to speak or listen to us until we acknowledge our sin and repent of it and have our fellowship restored. (Isaiah 59: 1, 2) If we take our devotions lightly and give ourselves little time with God in Bible-reading, prayer and self-examination and to check our affinity with God, the devil will surely get the upper hand in our lives.
Our devotions are our daily appointment with God our Father, and if we guard our time and faithfully meet with Him, we soon find that meeting with God is our daily delight.
James H. Cagle is a Ray City resident who pastored several churches for a total of 11 years. Email him at pastorjameshcagle@ yahoo.com
