What is a Devotion?

I'm getting ready to teach what we call at our church 1st CLASS, which is a church information class used to introduce people to our church. My goal in teaching the class is to "level the playing field" so to speak. The good old USA isn't so good anymore. In other words, we can't assume anymore that people have a basic knowledge of Christianity and the role and function of the local New Testament church.

Because of this, I wanted a class that would explain our basic orthodoxy - what we believe and in conjunction with that our orthopraxy - what we do or how we practice what we believe. Not only do I want to tell them what we believe and what we do, but in addition, I want to give them some basic tools. So, as I was doing my daily devotions this morning, I got to thinking how many people don't have a daily devotion. Something that is crucial in our relationship with our Lord, and yet most in the church today don't do them, and so I began to ask myself why is this. I believe one reason is people really don't know what a devotion time is and have never been taught how to have one. With that in mind, I'm going to launch out and try to define it and give practical ways in how a person can have one. Of course, there are going to be many different techniques that are good, and I believe the important thing to do is to just START.

So what is it? Daily devotional time is a regularly scheduled period in each twenty-four-hour cycle for undistracted personal response to the Lord and nurture of our spiritual relationship to Him. This practice is also known as a daily quiet time or simply daily devotions.

Two or more persons may have devotions together, such as Christian parents leading their children in devotions or a gathering of several Christians for a devotional time. However, here we are emphasizing personal daily devotions as a private time of fellowship with God.

The personal devotional time is not primarily academic Bible study or preparation of spiritual truths to share with others. This is where many pastors and even Sunday school teachers go astray and count their study time as their devotional time. Remember, Christianity is a relationship and devotions, in my mind, is time that I hang out with the God of the universe. What an incredible humbling thought, that God greatly desires just to spend some time with Him to talk and listen. Thus, this is a special time focused on intimate fellowship with the Lord.

Our personal response to the Lord and nurture of our spiritual life during devotions should be empowered by the Spirit and directed by Scripture so that our devotional time is dynamic, spontaneous, and properly controlled rather than dull and rigid. Consequently, Christians should not take a legalistic approach to their daily devotions. Neither should they try to impose a daily devotional time on others or require a strict format for personal devotions. Legalism makes a daily devotional time dead and discouraging rather than attractive, vital, and spiritually uplifting. Furthermore, legalism can mislead people by causing them to measure and compare each other’s spirituality by the length or other characteristics of their devotions. This is why as a pastor, I don’t usually share with people exactly what I do, but to give them many options and to encourage them to find out what works for them.

We should also avoid judging others’ preferences concerning the best time, place, length, and contents for personal devotions so long as one’s devotional practices are within biblical bounds. Our daily devotional time must be handled within a context of grace.

Nor should we call just any type of Christian practice a successful daily devotional time. One of the worst excuses for a devotional time I ever heard was this: “I have my devotions by reading the Christian bumper stickers during my daily driving.” Many so-called Christian bumper stickers are biblically inaccurate, and the rest hardly give the reader even a spoonful of spiritual skim milk. Not to get away from what we’re talking about, but I also would encourage people to keep “Christian” bumper stickers off their cars. Okay, back to the subject at hand – devos.

Others claim that since they “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17) they do not need a specific devotional time. To commune constantly with God and to send a continual stream of prayer requests to heaven is wonderful. But this does not substitute for a daily devotional time. Believers can pray without ceasing while driving a vehicle, doing housework, or tending their lawn. But they cannot give undistracted attention to the Lord while doing these other activities. Suppose I tell my wife I am going to spend some quality time with her by thinking pleasant thoughts of her and saying endearing things to her while I mow the lawn. She may appreciate my pleasant thoughts and endearing words, but she will hardly think this practice can replace quality time when I focus just on her and our relationship. Likewise, a quality devotional time with the Lord must include our undistracted personal response to Him.

Well, we’ve covered what a devotion or quiet time is not, next blog, we’ll look at why we should have one. By the way, I mentioned the key is to start. So while I’m writing on the subject, I would highly suggest to begin now with a pre-packaged devotion. There are many out there on the market and many more that are free on the internet. A good one can be found at: DavidJeremiah.org. It’s free and you can subscribe and have it delivered to you every day via email and also to your blackberry, iphone, and many other devices.