Hello, my friends! For the next 4 blogs, I will be doing a 4-part series called 'How to Start a Walk with God'. I wanted to touch on this at the beginning of this blog so that while you read and gain more knowledge of God, you also have a firm foundation with your own walk! We are going to talk about four main things:
Simple Devotion
Prayer
The three S's, Silence Solitude, and Sabbath
Community
No matter how new or old you are in the faith, we all need to work on at least one of the things I mentioned! I know I could work on a couple of things, that's for sure! So, together, on our Monday coffee dates, we will be growing in our walk over this next month!
As we talk about these main things, I want to challenge you. Since we talk about things every Monday, take each week and work on the topic we talk about! This walk with Christ is definitely a growing process. There is so much to learn and grow into, it just takes time and effort! So, grab your coffee and get your journals and Bibles ready!
This week, we are going to be focusing on Simple Devotion. I didn't realize how important Devotion is in the walk with Jesus. Come to find out it is EVERYTHING to do with it. It's like learning how to do math without a math teacher or math books.
You can't learn math without the materials.
You can't learn about God without His Word.
This past September I took a class at Ramp University about Simple Devotion with Pastor Jacob Peterson. This class changed my life. I went from reading my Bible maybe twice a week and never reading books or doing devotionals and with time, so now I read my Bible every day, read books for more understanding, and... well I never was good at devotionals, but again, we all can work on some things.
Learning about Simple Devotion really changed my walk for the better. The definition of devotion is "love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause." Simple Devotion in my terms means loyalty to God, devoting time to everyday life.
To sum everything up, simple devotion is just simply spending time with God and getting in His word. This is how we build that firm foundation that Jesus talks about in Luke 6:46-49.
"Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well-built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
Jesus tells us in that parable that whoever hears His words and DOES them, builds his house on a firm foundation. If you do not hear His words or do them, there would be no foundation.
Let me say it like this, warning: it's going to be a hard sentence... If you go to church and do not have your own devotional life with God, are you really on that firm foundation or not?
If the church breaks... will you? Since your foundation is in God, not the church, you will stand. You will make it. But if you only learn about God through the church, what will happen if the church is taken away? To have a relationship with God, you have to devote personal time to Him. When you love someone and want to start a relationship with them, you devote time to them, right?
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE church! It's part of the community we will talk about in a few weeks! But do not make church your only source of finding God. Church buildings will rot and mold, the Word will never rot or mold.
This is why Simple Devotion is EVERYTHING!
Now that we've talked about why, we can talk about the how?
How do we start this Simple Devotional life? I'm warning you, it takes some sacrifices. I'm talking about hard sacrifices. You need to be willing to remove things in your life that take up time you need to devote to God.
The sacrifices can be things like:
A Phone, instead of taking your last 10 minutes in the morning before you leave for work on your phone, spend it in the Word. Remove the social media or games and add in God. Maybe that means telling yourself no phones the whole morning until you are physically in the car. After work or school, instead of being on Tiktok or Facebook, you can be reading the Bible.
Time, what if I said you are in control of your time? You can set 15 minutes aside and spend that with God. You choose that. Only you know what's best for your schedule. It could be an hour at the beginning, middle, or end of the day! There is no law about when you spend time with Him. It's a matter of doing it. For me, I get up an hour earlier and spend my first hour of the day reading, or praying. This leads me to my next sacrifice.
Sleep. You might need to start going to bed earlier and waking up an hour earlier. Or, that means an hour before you sleep. Maybe for you, it means skipping your nap and reading the Word.
There are so many sacrifices simple devotion will ask you to make. It may be hard, but it is worth every ounce of effort made.
Since I just told you how to devote yourself to God, I will tell you a tip on reading the Word. Simple Devotion is a lot of reading the Word. One thing that helped me is something Pastor Jacob said in class. Use the SOAP method.
The SOAP method:
S- Scripture, if a verse pops out at you pause. O- Observation, meaning behind words.
A- Application, how can you apply it to your life today?
P- Prayer, pray over the passage you read.
Using this method, it'll help you soak in the Word and understand the Word. If you don't understand some parts, go to another translation in the YouVersion Bible app. Or you can use commentaries. I still use these methods to this day! There will never be a day when I am not confused about what the Word is saying, don't be afraid to dig DEEP! Don't be afraid to ask the random or hard questions, God isn't afraid of them!
Reading the Word is a big journey in itself. My biggest piece of advice is to just fall in love with the Word.
"We need to fall in love with the Word because it builds our faith and leads/guides us." -Pastor Jacob Peterson
When you simply devote your life to God, it should be out of love. Not "I have to read the Bible." Committing to this in an "I have to" mindset is dangerous. It might turn religious. But when you are in love and want to devote life to the Word, it's simple devotion.
"If you “have” to spend time with the Lord in order to have a relationship with Him then you’re doing it wrong." -Pastor Jacob Peterson
You shouldn't have to, you should want to.
Now, I will tell you. It's easier said than done. With the help of the Holy Spirit, I believe you can do it! Keep pushing through. There will be times when you want to sit in bed and not open the Bible, but think to yourself, "Is my 5 more minutes of sleep worth losing 5 minutes of learning about God?
KEY POINTS:
Fall in love with the Word.
Making sacrifices for Simple Devotion isn't simple at first.
Having a Firm foundation in the Word and nothing else.
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