GROWING THROUGH DEVOTION AND PRAYER

Greetings in the name of Jesus:



 Each morning my wife and I try to start our day with devotion and prayer.  We have found it to be a great help to us in our daily activities when we take the time to include God in our morning devotions.  I remember Isiah 40: 31 which is another favorite verse of mine " But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on wings like Eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint."

  We each need strength. from God through the discipline of devotion and prayer...that time spent in just simply trying to find God's favor for our day.  It is in no way an easy thing to have the strength necessary for us to stay on course in a day without the help and guidance of God's Holy Spirit.

 We find when we look more closely at devotion it is one of the commandments of obedience that Jesus gave us to follow through with in life. Although we as individuals have varied schedules to deal with we find that the disciples did something in Acts 1: 13-14 that will help all of us to draw closer to God.  They always had their time with God in prayer the first thing they did when they got up to ensure that they started out with the power of God's Spirit at work within them.  King David was called a man after God's own heart not because he was perfect, but because he never wavered from setting aside a particular time to communicate with God Psalms 5:3.

 We can't really say that we don't have the time for prayer and bible study, because we have the time to do whatever it is that we really want to do.  It is the time that we as Christians take the time that we need with God much more seriously than we have.  I don't mean to take a hurries two or three minutes to spend reading a verse of scripture. We need unhurried time with God so that His Spirit has the chance to filter through our mind and heart, and then help us in guiding our day. I can guarantee that your life will change within days of starting this practice.  Choose a time and a place to meet with God, and really try to make it the first thing you do in the morning and test God's word on this as to how quickly and completely God will begin to turn your life around.  Sometimes the only place I can do that is by going into the bathroom.  If you have a guest bathroom even better because you can take those precious moments to connect with God.  Some other places would be perhaps a nearby chapel, a corner of a library at school, or a library or room in your own house where you won't be disturbed.  It's also good to have with you a little devotional material to help you to direct your time with God for that day as well otherwise it quickly becomes just another grocery list of things that you feel you need for that day and not any real communication.  Think about these things for the evening. We will discuss this more next time. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.



THE UNWORTHY SERVANT