One of the difficulties in preparing for any type of writing or speaking assignment is trying to figure out what to say, and for me, how to arrange it so that it comes out as I intended.. For this blog post, I thought I would just let the subject speak for itself. So, I looked up the word on Google AI ‘Devotion’ even though I had what I thought was a pretty good idea of its meaning. Here is what I found:
“Devotions are a great way to get closer to God. A devotion is a quiet time that you spend praying, reading God’s word and reflecting on your relationship with Him,”Well, this was not the definition I was thinking about and upon re-reading it, I realized I had chosen ‘devotion’ with an “s” But, I liked what I read so I decided to go with it and look further into what attracted me about that definition. What I liked was that it suggested three ways to get closer to God through devotion:
1.The quiet time you spend praying. It doesn’t matter what your average day is like, whether you are actively working or pursuing a non-work lifestyle, there are times when you just want to take your mind off having to think or do and just relax and enjoy the moment. Isn’t it great to get up in the morning and start your day off with some quiet time spent with Our Father? Or maybe taking a few moments from the lunch hour to express some need to him? It could be during the drive home in the middle of rush hour when your nerves are frayed, or sitting on the back porch as the rain falls. In other words, the time of day and the circumstance isn’t the important thing, rather it is the quiet comfort of conversing with him. In 1Thes 5:17-18, Paul writes that we should “pray continually, giving thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for us in Christ Jesus.” We are following God’s will for us when we spend that ‘quiet time’ praying.
2. The time you spend reading God’s word The Apostle Paul’s letters to young Timothy have been preached down through the years as instruction to those called to serve in the ministry of Christ. But whatever your capacity of service (first responder, teacher, caregiver, etc.) the words are useful to all people, whether followers of Christ (Christians) or non-followers who seek the will of God. In 2Tim 3: 16-17 Paul tells Timothy that “All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Reading the Bible provides us the opportunity to see what others did in situations or outcomes that impacted them and how things turned out. Even though we know the stories written about happened long ago for the most part, we are reminded that human behavior remains the same and the ‘God-breathed’ i.e. words of inspiration from long ago still apply today. Reading the Bible is our affirmation of devotion to God’s Word.
3. The time you spend reflecting on your relationship with Him. The third part of the definition says we show our devotion by reflecting on our relationship with Him. If we do the first two, doesn’t it just seem natural that we will want to reflect on our prayers and what we read in the Bible? I’m sure many of you have heard the comparison of reading the Bible to peeling back the layers on an onion and how you seem to find a deeper meaning or understanding of something you have gone over before. When that happens, you tend to reflect, to drink in the fullness of what you now understand. By reflecting on a passage in the Old or New Testament and how it applies to us in particular, we are now better able to take a concern we have to God in prayer. The results often produce the outcome stated so simply in the beginning of this definition: ‘Devotions are a great way to get closer to God’.