Developing A Strong Devotional Life

Seven times a day do I praise Thee because of Thy righteous judgments. Psalm19v164

 There is something about Christianity that we have failed to get proper hold of as Christians and this is the reason why many of us are sometimes downtrodden and not constantly seeing the results we desire to see. The main cause ladies and gentlemen is that we lack a devotional life.

Praise and worship was not meant for the handsome and pretty smiling faces that wear classy and fancy uniforms on Sunday at the stage only, it is also for you and I

We go to Church and Church gatherings and there God does show Himself in mighty ways through diverse miracles, healings, deliverance, prophecy and all things that happen in the house of God. The problem however is that all these things do happen but they only happen in the Church. We rarely experience miracles, healing, deliverance, prophecy, visions or visitations when we are at home or when we are alone without the man of God. It is not because the man of God is peculiar or superior, no; it is all because of a deficiency of a devotional life. When I talk about a devotional life I am talking about a life that you enjoy with God independent of the man of God or the Church.

Folks, I have come to the realisation that Christians of today have a service relationship with God but very few have a personal relationship with God. People come to Church, they serve in the Choir, the Praise and Worship team, intercession team, ushering department etc and thus they have a strong service relationship with God. A few however take the extra step of setting aside time to pray, to sing, to study the Bible or to hear godly material that aids their spiritual growth. On this post I will talk about some basic things that may propel you to building or making better your devotional life. Your devotions are important, this entails what you do daily or if I can say at a constant basis.

Prayer

If you look very closely you will see how I have emphasised on prayer on the past sharings on this blog. I would advise you to view some of the sharings to get a deeper understanding of this concept.

Prayer is a vital aspect of a Christian’s everyday life. It charges up your spiritual battery and keeps you alive and open to the reality of God’s presence and work in your life. It keeps your spiritual senses awake. Prayer is everyday food for your spiritual senses; if they lack prayer they become dead. Find time everyday to pray, and the more consistent you become, the more enjoyable it becomes. You will realise that you will move from praying a three minute prayer to hours and hours of prayer.

At school they taught us about the law of diminishing returns, which states that the more you eat something, the less enjoyable it becomes. The opposite is true with prayer; the more you pray, the more you enjoy doing so. Prayer will keep you away from sin and temptation, it will preserve you from evil, it will create opportunities for you, and above all, it will build your capacity in the Lord.

Talking about Daniel the Bible says ”he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime“ (Daniel 6:10) Daniel took that extra step of going to pray alone in his house and he had a good devotional life.  He prayed three times a day. There is power available when we consistently keep our prayer schedule and attend well to it.

Pray!

The Word

Studying the Word of God is another aspect of developing a strong devotional life. The bible tells us to give attendance to reading and to doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13). To give attendance means to pay attention to; and in this case we are told to pay attention to reading, and reading that leads to doctrine, according to the scripture.

A good devotional life comprises of time that is set aside to pray and to study the Word of God on a constant basis. It is only the Word that can build you up to maturity. Prayer alone cannot do so, the man of God cannot make you mature, a spiritual gift cannot make you mature, neither can your desire make you mature. It is only your input of the Word of God that will do so and if you discipline yourself to take to the reading desk and consume the Word of God, you will discover how rapidly you will grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Aim towards studying the Word everyday, and do not allow your life to be a life of religiously reading a few verses along with the preacher on Sunday, then let the Bible gather up dust on the shelf throughout the whole week. Let the Word dwell richly in you as you go on to develop a strong devotional life.

Praise and Worship

The last aspect I will talk about in developing a fruitful devotional life is praise and worship. As I indicated earlier, Christianity will be a lot better if we bring Church into our homes and into our personal lives. Praise and worship was not meant for the handsome and pretty smiling faces that wear classy and fancy uniforms on Sunday at the stage only, it is also for you and I. A good devotional life also comprises of praising God, singing and dancing joyfully. Just find time to sing praises unto your God and also to sing worship songs, prayerful songs that ignite something in you that causes you to love God more and more. Even set up your radio to listen to songs of praise, inspiration and of worship. Songs that encourage you and that give you the desire to grow more and more in love with this God.

This is basically how you develop a sound devotional life with God and the more you do this, the more you will want to do these things. They help you become more dependent on God than on man.

Till next time, remember,

 Jesus is Lord.