4 Helps for A Better Devotional Life

Looking to enrich your devotional life in 2024? Not sure where to start? 

Here are 4 helps for a better devotional life...

The fast-paced American culture has often shoved aside family priorities and thrown away any sense of meaningful and healthy conversation. The table has become a decorative household item versus a wholesome desk of fellowship and support. And I get it. Some days are harder than others, and sometimes you simply just don’t have the time or energy. But I think that the benefits of being together at the dinner table far out way some of the inconveniences.

Isn’t it the same way with our Jesus? He invites us to pull up a chair at His table. He wants our fellowship and longs to give us the nourishment that we need for our souls. But we get too busy and side-tracked to notice what He has prepared. We come and quickly consume what is on our plate without ever considering Who put it there. Or we rush into His presence, vent to Him about our problems, and never stay long enough for Him to share His heart. Our conversation is filled with a plethora of “I want” or “Why can’t You” statements. All the while, if we would just be still, we would know that He is God, and He has everything we need.  

This is why your time alone with God matters. 

What you do in the secret place is essential to your personal growth and your influence as a Christian. It is the foundation that holds up every good thing in your life, and it is the vitality of your mind and heart. When you immerse yourself into the vast ocean of God’s Word and prayer, your soul is refreshed, and your life forever altered.

Trying to turn over a new leaf can’t ultimately change you. 

Working hard to fit in with cultural trends can’t sustain you.  

Living by legalistic standards by just pushing through and doing more will not lead to lasting change.

Only a genuine and wholesome relationship with Jesus and His Word can satisfy your soul. And even though most of us know our time with God is vital, staying consistent is the hard part. Life happens. Tragedy comes. Plans change. And all that we are left with is the guilt of not having an emotional high from our devotions every day. Our perfectionism kicks into our spiritual life, and we just feel like failures. But let me encourage you by reminding you that this life is a walk with Jesus. Sometimes you know where you’re headed and other times you are just thankful to take another step. Regardless, Jesus longs to spend time with you each day and bring you into His presence. 

So, what can you do to deepen your walk with Jesus right now, in this season of life? What habits can you implement each day for a full and nourishing devotional life?

Transcript

How do I stay consistent with my devotions, when I open the word of God? where do I even go? That's the kind of questions that many Christians have, especially this time of year. We're trying to deepen our walk with Christ. We want to set maybe a pattern. Of consistency when it comes to reading our Bible. 

Well, I'm going to give you 4 basic habits that have helped me so very much in my devotional life. Honestly, since I was about 12 years old, these habits have helped me stay focused on Christ. When I'm reading his word and stay consistent in what I'm doing. This first one is pretty simple find. Place find a place when it comes to doing your devotions each and every day. You ought to find a place wherever that is, whether that's in your special chair, in your living room, or on the sofa. Whether that's at the dinner table, sitting on your bed, which, if you're like me, you'll probably fall asleep. If that is your place, wherever you can get some quiet. Wherever you can check out for a little bit and focus in on what God is saying to you, or you can focus in on the word of God and prayer, wherever that is. Find a place and when you find that place, sanctify that place. Sanctify that place to God. May God I'm going to make an appointment with you each and every morning. I'm going to be right here. I want to be right here. Ready to receive everything that you have for me. So find a place. I think the second thing is to have a plan. So not just find a place, but have a plan. If you don't have a plan, you're going to plan to fail. And I truly believe that we've got to have some type of direction, some type of vision for our devotional life. And you know, we think about that and we think that's kind of weird. But honestly, think about how many things you plan for, how many things you schedule out, don't you think we ought to prioritize our time with God enough to have some type of plan? Some people use a Bible reading. Calendar. Some people are like, no, that is not me. I don't like using those. That's perfectly fine. But whatever you do, have a plan and make sure it's Holy Spirit guided. Make sure that God is guiding you and don't just think about how much scripture you're reading. A lot of people like this Bible reading plans and that's great, but they're or they focus on reading four or five 610 chapters a day. Don't just focus so much on length, but on one as one preacher says, focus on depth. Your devotional time. 

My suggestion to you would be to read until the Holy Spirit of God stops you. And to the Holy Spirit of God stops you. And there's been times when I've been reading and you stop on verse two, right. You're not even you're. You just got. Started, you know, verse two God begins to speak your heart, so read until God speaks and have a plan. Whether that's a reading Bible plan, whether that's a devotional that you follow along with, have a plan to get in God's word. Is if you don't have a plan, you're going to plan to fail, and then the third thing that I would say is not just have a plan, not just. Find a place, but make it profit. Will eliminate distractions. Make sure that your little phone, that little world of distraction that loves to live in your pocket, make sure it's in another room, because if you're like me, what will happen is you will be so tempted to check Instagram or you see a notification come through and you've got to check that before long. You've wasted 30 minutes because your mind has gone off on this wild. Use chase. Right. We live in a world of distractions. We have to eliminate the distractions around us. 

If we're going to focus in what God is telling us, we've got to make that time profitable, but not just eliminate distractions. We'll make it profitable while also having the right kind of tools. Right? For me in my office, I have a Warren wears be. Commentary, which I love that commentary, a lot of people like Jay Vernon McGee through the Bible, there's so many others. Matthew Henry. He might be harder to understand. For some, but I love those tools because it helps me to understand the scriptures if I need some context or if I need some historical background. If I need all of those things, it's going to help me better understand who is writing and what are they writing about. All of those questions. That's going to help me. And my walk with the Lord right, this might be informative, but they're still leading me to a truth about God in which I can learn and implement and obey, right? So I have to. Have the right kind of tools. I like to use my iPad as well. My iPad and the Blue letter Bible app. It's another great tool that you can use. It's got interlinear in it. It's got a dictionary. It's got commentaries, all kinds of kinds of different things that you can use but have the right kind of tools with you. Once again, be careful with technology because you don't want them to become a distraction. To you, but have the right kind of tools that's going to make the absolute most of your time. So find a place you've got a place. Where's your? Have a plan #3 make it profitable. OK. Eliminate those distractions. Have the right kind of tools. And then the last one. Probably the hardest one is be persistent. Be persistent. See, here's the reality. The devil does not want you to get in the word of God. Today the devil does not want. You to pray today. And so you must be persistent. If you missed today, determine you're going to make it up tomorrow. If you miss this morning, make sure you don't go to bed tonight without diving into the word of God without getting in the word of God. I think some people are like, well, I. Missed this morning I'll get. It tomorrow morning. No, no, no, no, no, no. You need the word of God. Every single. Day you probably didn't miss. A meal today? Well, you. Don't you need your spiritual food? You need the word of God in order to. Spiritually survive and all the devil wants you to do is like. Just put it. He all he's got to do is whisper into your mind and say, hey, is it really going to make a difference? Is God really speaking to you? He loves to pump those lines into your head and he will be your opposition. He will oppose you getting into the word of God. I'll just be honest with you with this video, this is probably the 100th time I've tried to record this video. Why? Because the devil doesn't want me to tell you how to do your devotions. I had my microphone break. I had my computer having trouble. So many different. Technologies having all this issue, OK you know why? Because the devil doesn't want you to hear this message. The devil does not want you to improve in your devotional life. In your walk with Jesus. Because if you do. You are his. If you do. If you get in the word of God and you allow it to change you, you can change the world around you and does the devil want that? Absolutely not. So you've got to determine to be persistent. Be persistent. Say Lord, help me to keep this appointment with you every single day. How many keep this appointment with you every day to make the most of my time to have a plan in a direction where we're going? Sometimes I even failed to mention this earlier, but sometimes I like to have a theme. That helps my vision, right? A theme for that year. My word this year is a rise, right? Take action. When God says to do something right, I want to have a plan and a vision for my walk with the Lord and to find a place. Sanctify that place to God. 

These are just four simple habits that have helped me so very much in my walk with Jesus. And I have put all of these, written them all out into a really nice ebook that we've put together for you, and it's free to you. You can go down to the link below and you can download that ebook. And hopefully that will serve as the catalyst kind of a launching pad that will take your devotional life to the next level, tell you exactly where to go and where to start and hopefully enrich your walk with Christ. But we've got to get in his word right. There are people that are waiting on the other side of your obedience. As one preacher says, and our obedience starts right here with the word of God, we've got to study. We've got to get in the word of God. Allow it to change our lives so that we can impact. The world around us.