Questions from my students: what is your daily devotional practice?
When I was just starting in ministry, I must have been 19 or 20, I asked my supervising pastor if he had advice for the my struggling devotional life. For all of the existing stereotypes of a young Christian man I perfectly satisfied, one of them certainly was a waining desire to read the Bible and pray every day in a devotional matter. His wisdom rings with me today: “There’s one rule for good devotional life: just open the book.”
What is a devotional? My wife has always noticed the relationship between the words “devotional” and “devote,” which of course have an etymological relationship. A devotional is a way of expressing our devotion to God. In my mind, I would define it as a time set aside to focus of God through prayer and Scripture reading. For thousands of years, Christians have begun their days with prayer and Scripture reading or meditation. A devotional life is trying to join that rich tradition.
Before I share my routine — which, I assure you, is not a thrilling answer — I thought I would take some time to share some thoughts on the importance of a personal devotional life for Christians.
1. Great Christian lives are always marked by discipline. Do great people happen by accident? We wouldn’t say that about any category of people — athletes, pilots, authors, musicians — but for some reason we think godliness will just happen to us. Dallas Willard puts it this way: “Who are the great ones in The Way, what are the significant movements in the history of the church that do not bear the deep and pervasive imprint of the disciplines for spiritual life? If there are none, what leads us to believe that we might be an exception to the rule…?” (Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines pg. 126)
2. No one stumbles into godliness. You will never wake up one day and find yourself to be a kind and generous person. Becoming like Jesus takes a long time, and our habits have everything to do with the small decisions of daily life. “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths,” Paul tells Timothy. “Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:7–8). You’ll never wake up with a six pack and toned biceps, so what makes you think you’ll wake up one day to find yourself spiritually healthy?
3. Habits inform, shape, and expose what we love. If we really value a healthy body, we will discipline ourselves to eat some things and not eat other things. If we love our instrument, we will create time to spend with it in order to master its complexity — no matter what. People may accuse us of our lives “revolving around” something we love — a girl, a sport, or a hobby. But our life will always revolve around that which we love. If we love God with all of who we are, there will always be room to be accused of our lives revolving around him. I hope it does.
4. The definition of discipline involves difficulty and pain, but also joy and fulfillment. Every discipline is all about sacrificing something that would immediately gratify you for the purpose of achieving something else you could never achieve without that very sacrifice. You go through the pain of sweating for the joy of a healthy life — and there’s no shortcuts, no matter what the diet pills say. You can’t be a great shooter without spending tons of agonizing time in the gym, and you can’t unleash an incredible guitar solo without painstakingly practicing your scales alone in your room. Likewise, a remarkable spiritual life happens when feel the pain of a daily devotion to God in prayer, scripture reading, and sacrifice of time. It may take us years, but the great life only comes through this one path: discipline.
So what is my routine?
I still hear my pastor’s words to me many years later: “There’s one rule for good devotional life: just open the book.” What did he mean by this? During the time I asked this question of him, I was fumbling around with all kinds of rules for my morning time with God. Do I read one chapter? Do I do a different reading plan? How much time do I spend in prayer? What do I pray about? I wanted an outline, but he gave me the smallest thing to succeed at: open the book. Just open your Bible and allow your Bible to lead you to Christ and prayer.
Each morning, I make coffee and a small breakfast. I take that to our counter, open the book, and pray something like, “God, show me something.” I usually start in the Psalms and follow a reading plan for the Psalms (something I’m enjoying right now is The Bible Project’s reading plan). I do not suggest to many people to read every book of the Bible during a devotional time. There are certain books that do not serve us well first thing in the morning. The Psalms, I think, always serve us well.
After I read the Psalm, I will, in some form, pray that Psalm. For example, if Psalm 108 says, “Help me, O Lord,” I will use that line to begin praying to God, and, like a musician hearing what key the song is in, I begin praying in that tone. What do I need help with today? How does this prayer translate into my life today? Using Scripture, I will talk back to God — I’ll answer him. I then (usually) end each time in the morning by praying the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9–13), using that as a template to fill in any specific things that come to my mind as I pray Jesus’ words. All of this takes about 10–20 minutes.
Sometimes, this process is transformational, uplifting, and worshipful. Other times it is robotic, unfeeling, and dead. Sometimes it’s just blah. But is this not the experience of a discipline? Musicians and athletes will tell you, there are times where workouts and practices feel terrible, but there are other times where you realize your skills and health have increased, and that experience is transcendent.
If you need more of a resource for developing disciplines to foster intimacy with God, I would suggest you read my book, Distant God: Why He Feels Far Away…And What We Can Do About It. I wrote this book to help those who struggle with God’s presence on a daily basis and my prayer is that it would be helpful to many.
