Enjoying the Journey
Posts Tagged ‘Devotional Life’
5 Books To Help With Your Personal Devotions
There is a delicate balance in the daily devotional life: we want to keep both discipline and freshness in our time with God. Very easily routines turn into ruts and delight becomes drudgery. Today’s list is unique because each book must be used. Reading is not enough. Let me begin by clarifying that there is no book like the Bible and no daily devotional time can be what it should be apart from time in God’s Word. It is a very dangerous thing to allow any book, no matter how helpful, to substitute for the faithful reading of Scripture. Begin with the Bible and allow every other resource to drive you deeper into the Word of God. Here are five…
Read MoreAre You “Having Devotions”?
I don’t know when the word devotions started to mean the daily meeting with God in prayer and the Word. The only two times the word is used in our English Bible is in the negative. The Apostle Paul beheld the devotions of the idolatrous people in Athens. In his own words, “For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you” (Acts 17:23). The same word that Paul uses in Athens he uses to describe the anti-christ in 2 Thessalonians 2:4. The word means “the object of worship or admiration.” Just because you “have devotions” doesn’t mean that God is…
Read MoreImproving Your Devotional Life
Just today over lunch the topic of the devotional life came up. Let’s be honest. We all struggle with it. Not just consistency, but truly having a meaningful time with God. How can my quiet time become a true meeting with the Lord? In college I was given a copy of George Muller’s Soul Nourishment First. It has been a joy to share it with many people through the years, and I find myself going back to its principles again and again. I am posting it below in its entirety. It is a longer article than most but it can be read in less than five minutes. It will be time well spent. I am praying that the Holy Spirit will…
Read MoreThis Month’s Free Downloadable Resource!
Just this week someone asked me where they should begin in their Bible reading. So many people are looking for a plan or devotional help. Some are looking for a place to get started. Others are looking for a place to start again. It is easy to allow your devotional life to grow stale. Remember that your soul may grow dry but the Word of God never does – it is perennially fresh! Go back to the Scriptures and you will find that the river still flows! My suggestion to others in recent days connects to this month’s free resource: REDISCOVER THE PSALMS. The book of Psalms is God’s devotional book for His chosen people. It is both the Hebrew…
Read MoreA Simple Idea for Families
Families are busier than they have ever been. One of the most challenging things to do as a spouse or parent is consistently read the Bible with your family. I must confess that I feel I have failed in this area more often than I have succeeded. We have done better at certain seasons than at others, but I want to be more diligent in putting the Word of God into our hearts and home. Pastor Sexton instructed us that a Christian home has more to do with what you put into it than what you take out of it. In one of the classic passages on the family the Heavenly Father reminds us that a key element in home…
Read MoreFree Resource: Help for the Daily Devotional Life!
Are you spiritually fit? Spiritual health does not come on accident – it is a product of purposeful disciplines. In recent days the Lord has taken me again to the words of 1 Timothy 4:6-8, If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou has attained. But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. Isn’t it interesting that the same two elements that are necessary…
Read MoreAn Aid for Your Prayer Life
Prayer is a help. It is our connection to the great Helper! Prayer is our lifeline to Heaven and the only way to live victoriously on earth. Yet, as surely as I know that prayer helps, it seems that many days I need help to pray! My problem is not that I don’t believe in prayer. Belief does not always behave as it should. I cry out with the disciples, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Lk. 11:1). If this describes your prayer life may I suggest three simple ideas…an AID to your prayer life. A – Adopt a prayer verse. There is power in the Word of God! One verse of Scripture can be used to motivate prayer and increase…
Read MoreDaily Bread (Daily Living – Part 4)
Confession: I love to eat. Food makes the day so much more interesting. It is one of my favorite hobbies to tour America by restaurant! Most of us rarely go a few hours without feeding our bodies…much less a full day! Yet many a believer goes days without feeding his inner man. There are so many malnourished souls in our world! Busy people trying to function without the sustenance that can come only from God’s Word. It is no wonder that many are weak and faltering. They do not have the strength to carry on. Our generation is more acquainted with feasting than fasting. We are tempted to give more attention to the body that will soon be gone than…
Read MoreDaily Worship (Daily Living – Part 1)
Some things must be done every day to sustain life. This is as true in the spiritual realm as it is in the physical. The Christian life cannot be lived on Sunday alone any more than the body could feed or rest only one day a week. It must be daily. Over the next few weeks I plan to share a series of articles on the daily disciplines of the Christian life. (Read the introductory post here.) I begin this new series of posts with one of the daily truths that God has deeply impressed on me in recent days – the necessity of Daily Worship. Worship is a most misunderstood thing in our world. Perhaps it has always been. Man…
Read MoreWhat to Do When Your Devotional Life Grows Stale
Has your devotional life become dry? As far as you know there is no unconfessed sin. You are reading the Bible and going through the mechanics of prayer, but it seems like mere motion. We have all been there! People often think that preachers must jump out of bed in the morning, always excited about their quiet time with God. Nothing could be further from the truth! We all battle with flesh. Even on our best days there is a struggle to keep the devotional life fresh. Permit me to share a few practical suggestions that have been of help to me… Sometimes it is good to “switch things up.” All of us can get in a rut – our souls…
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