3 Thoughts About Devotional Time

 Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!

  1 Chronicles 16:11

Hello!

I've been a bit busy working on a different "project" lately, but having missed my post two weeks ago, I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss two in a row!

As I mentioned recently, I've been doing a lot more reading. Due to some church commitments, I'm actually in the middle of reading three books right now (it used to be four! 😮). Interestingly enough, they all recently touched on the topic of devotional time, but from slightly different angles, which got me reflecting on my own habits.

First, in Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby notes how often he hears people complain about the difficulty of maintaining a consistent devotional time, framing it as a lack of discipline. To that, he responds that we treat devotionals too much like a health habit. While that’s not inherently bad, it’s simply not sufficient. We are meant to have a real, personal relationship with God. In a marriage, you don't spend time with your spouse just because "it's healthy for the relationship." You do it because you actually delight in them and desire to spend time with the person you love. We should have that same perspective with God.

Second, in Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, and I have to admit, I haven’t totally loved this book as a whole, but I really liked the most recent chapter, Peter Scazzero writes about the Sabbath and an idea called the "Daily Office." The core concept is that instead of spending time with God just once in the morning to "recharge" or "fuel up" for the rest of the day, we should be pausing to connect with Him multiple times throughout the day. He shares about spending time at a monastery where he participated in five daily sessions of meditation, prayer, and liturgy, and how life-changing that rhythm was. It definitely made me consider the value of creating more regular touchpoints with God.

Last, in Wild at Heart, John Eldredge addresses the spiritual battle we find ourselves in and how the enemy is constantly at work trying to deceive us. When negative or destructive thoughts enter our minds, we have to stand firm on God's truth, but that is only possible if we are anchored by regular time in God's Word and an active personal relationship. Eldredge also offers some fresh ideas for what that time can look like, such as journaling, taking walks, or listening to worship music and audiobooks.

So there you go: three different perspectives on devotional time.

I definitely struggle with consistency, mostly because I don't naturally enjoy reading that much, and I often forget to treat that time as quality connection with a God who wants a personal relationship with me. I had never really considered breaking up my devotional times throughout the day before, nor had I thought about expanding the ways I can actively delight in the Lord outside of a standard quiet time.