Personal Devotional times. These words may either remind you of the private time you spend daily with the Lord, or they may stir up a sense of regret because of your lack of them. Or you may not be a Christian and they simply mean nothing to you.
In all honestly I have never been very good at keeping up a time of personal devotions. I mean we live in the 21st century, it's not like we have time to actually, you know, sit around(unless, of course, your sitting around at your computer)! I have done them on and off for the past several years with a, regrettably, blase attitude about them. I would try to do them, but it was half-heartedly. I would rather have been starting on school or reading a book other than the Bible. Then I got sucked into the phrase "It only takes 5 minutes a day!" which for some people it does. But if I'm only going to give God 5 minutes; He must not be very important. I give some people I don't like 5 minutes of my time just to shut them up.
The year 2007 was my first major attempt at keeping a constant devotional time, and it went fairly smoothly. I read the Bible in a little over a year, but it was in an unfamiliar translation and while it helped me grow some. I think I could have went about it better than I did because I was doing the devotional time more in duty to God then to prosper myself in Him.
During 2008 I continued the time to an extent using a devotional book that I had picked up the previous year and I would read random selections of the Bible. My devotional time was primarily at night, and I regret to inform you that most of the time I did not take more then a moment to pray. It got better as I grew in Christ during 2008; the times became longer and I even spent a few evenings praying for 30mins+ when I committed to a prayer journal. But I did not keep them as consistently as I should have, and eventually I stopped with the prayer journal all together. But during the latter half of '08 I did keep a fairly consistant time of reading the Bible to grow in Christ during the evening.
So here I am in 2009. What's changed from '08 you ask? Well a lot more than I'd like to admit :P. During the first week of February I committed to doing a week of media fasting, but I set it up weird so in the end it was more like a laziness fast :P.(Meaning I scheduled things out more-so and allowed for some internet/tv time). During that fast I wanted to connect to the Lord better so I scheduled 3 times of personal devotions.
The first was as soon as I woke up. It tends to take me a few minutes to wake up. So I usually just sit there on the floor in front of my heater for 10mins or so and once I wake up, I pray(tends to last 15 mins or so depending on how well my attention stays, lol.) Then I read a chapter of the Bible. My passages of choice started with Hebrews and I read onto Jude(stopped at Revelation because I did a class on it for school.) And then I also started Exodus(which the first half was awesome, and now I'm onto some harder reading).
The second is right after I finish school because I have noticed my tendency to forsake thinking about that time and just sit on the computer. So I thought this would be a good time to put what I want to do aside and give some time to God. This one tends to be a little shorter, about 20 minutes, but it helps me to remember that God is with me throughout the day and not just when I wake up and go to sleep(For this time I read a chapter from one of my two selections after praying).
The third and last, is right before I go to sleep. As long as I start going to bed by 10:00 or 10:30 this one is easy to keep, but I have to admit that the later it gets in the evening, the harder this one is to keep. But it is a good time to ponder over the day and pray, and then read a chapter before I go to sleep. This is the slot that fluctuates the most on time. It could be anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes.
I have continued to keep these 3 times of devotions over the past several weeks and the blessings have been tremendous. I have never felt so close to God. In fact last weekend I did some small thing out of selfishness and the sense of loss was incredible. Not loss of anything earthly, but I did not feel close to my Heavenly Father, and that was a truly horrible feeling. I hated myself so much for that and it was such a little thing.
I guess the point I am trying to get across is not that I am pious or that God needs you to do devotions for Him. Because as much as He wants you to, you will get little out of it when it's done out of duty. No, you have to want to do it, but when you do, do it and you truly try to hear his voice and follow His commands: The blessings are so much more than you could ever hope for.
It is not always easy, it is not always comfortable, but it is always amazing. And if you aren't a Christian I just want to tell you that you're missing out on one amazing God.
Written by The Lighthouse Admin
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