One at a time.

Raise your hand if you ever struggle to do your devotions, whether that’d be for just one hard day or those dry, grasping for anything weeks turned into months seasons.... If you did not raise your hand you aren’t human and you can move right along because this blog isn’t geared towards super-holy robots. Now for all you remaining normal people, I am right there with you! For the past month I’ve been in a bit of a bible reading drought and since it’s something that I know every Christian faces and some point, I want to talk about some real and practical ways to trudge through those achingly parched spiritual days.

Doing devotions is something that I have always struggled with and for many reasons; one being that I hate reading. Now that may sound absolutely appalling to some of you but I really do. I can think of literally a hundred things that I would rather do than to sit and read a book for fun. I am an audio and kinesthetic learner all the way. So that alone made it hard for me to ever choose to carve out time for bible reading.  Match that with the fact that I grew up as a pastor’s kid where I fell hard into the lukewarm, for-granted category of faith, and then throw in my rebellious little teenage spirit; devos were pretty rough for me.

For most of my middle&high school years I can remember a mere handful of times where I read more than one chapter before bed out of reluctant habit, if I read even that. I saw devos more like “Heaven insurance” rather than a true privilege. There were of course times where I had glimpses of how great of a treasure the Word really is and I would cling to those revelations, but they were by no means regular.

So with this very shaky and undeveloped routine, I arrived at Bible College a little shocked to find out that it was mandatory to wake up a 6am every morning and do devotions for a full hour. Every single morning of both freshmen and senior years presented a massive fight to even sit up in bed knowing that I had three full hours before class started, giving me every excuse to sleep a little longer; and honestly the call of sleep won much more than it should have.

Through my two years there, this habit was practiced and formed but I learned fast after graduating that even though I now had all the freedom to choose any time of the day to read, it didn’t mean that I wanted to. Distractions and busyness fought for my attention and pulled me away from opening these truth infused pages. The more days I missed of doing devos, the more shame I felt which only created a painful cycle.

The core of devotions is sitting down and pouring all your focus into the words and heart of God, so of course the devil is going to try and throw everything at you in attempts to get you to shift your gaze away. But in all my tries to break this miss&shame cycle, one of the main truths that I’ve learned in defense to the devil’s plots is that doing devos has to become more than a learned habit.

Especially for people who have grown up in church their whole life, it can become so monotonous and repetitive that it loses all wonder and is as much second nature as brushing your teeth. Spending time with your Creator has to become something that you want to do. You’ve no doubt heard it a ton but it remains so true, that we were created for relationship with God. Reading our bibles and praying are the most essential ways to how we deepen that relationship. If you struggle even wanting to put aside time to do devotions, start by praying that God would change your heart to crave that time with Him. He’ll do it.

Devos aren’t just a matter of reading your Bible and checking it off the to-do list; there’s not a mandatory amount of pages to cover per day or a quantity of time to fill. It’s a matter of believing what you read and letting God apply to your heart.

I am all about practical real life help, so here are just a couple basic and realistic ways I’ve found help me the most to get beyond the habit of devotions and into a place of coming away each day strengthened.

1. Make time every day to read. It can be the same time every day or in lieu of the busyness of life, whenever you find a free moment. Read one chapter or read until you have no time left; just make sure you read something. They may look like simple words on a white, crispy page but they were spoken from the same mouth that formed the universe so they hold all the power in the world.

2. Pick one word or sentence, or just one thought from the portion that you read. Sometimes it can be very hard to find anything “helpful” in various sections of the Bible (no offense Leviticus & Numbers),  and honestly, some seasons of life are just downright tough, leaving you to feel like God has slung a “Do not disturb” sign over his door. So regardless of what season you face, wherever you are reading force yourself to choose even one word that sticks out. Maybe a characteristic that reflects God’s heart or a thought that reminds you of a hopeful verse in Psalms that you can then go look up and hold to. Whatever the passage may be, try and walk away from it with a piece of something to think on for the day.

And if you find yourself at a complete loss of where to even start reading, just pick your favorite book to begin at or Google verses in the Bible that speak on a specific issue you might be facing. And if all else fails, start in the New Testament and just work your way through.

Now onto an even more struggly topic: Prayer.

Even more than the repetitive task of reading, I’ve always struggled with praying. Like I’ve shared before, growing up I never felt much worth in my words, so having to present solely my own thoughts to God was massively intimidating. Again it was at school where I learned the unending safety found in sharing my every thought with my Savior but even now on those inevitable days, that solid truth starts to shake in me. I easily get overwhelmed by my own smallness verses the immensity of the problems that are in my immediate social circle, not to mention the rest of the world.

Too many times the overwhelmed-ness takes over and I shy away from more than a two sentence, “thank you for this day” prayer. But over the past months, God has been moving my heart from caving to the bigness of the problems to facing them head on in prayer with His help and there are 2 specific ways that He has shifted my mindset to in order to get to this point.

1. When you think of a need or a praise, pray it right then. It is so ridiculously easy to be in the routine of life when a need or a specific person is laid on our hearts but we pass it off, making a mental note to pray for it later. This tendency is the easy way out and if we are all frank, we don’t usually follow through. The good news is that God doesn’t have a call waiting service that uselessly steals our time but rather we can reach him 24/7/365. So when that need pops up in your mind, pray for it then. When that friend shares a request with you, stop and pray then. And if it is truly impossible to take a moment to pray at that exact time, use your handy dandy phone and jot down a quick note that will remind you to bring that issue to God later.

2. Pray one prayer at a time. This is the most mind-shifting thought that God has shown me in regards to praying. Instead of retreating in the face of the magnitude of problems that race through my brain, God invited me to pray just one thing at a time. Super simple. Start by making a list of the problems you face, of the needs your friends/family have shared, the areas you want to cover your spouse in, and any bigger world issues. Then each time you sit to do devos and pray, you can choose a handful of topics to cover that day, the next day choose a different handful and so on. This is the most doable and worry-defying way to come to God with everything we hold in our hearts.

These thoughts are so simple and maybe you already have them down, but sometimes it helps to have a fresh and practical take on how to do something that, if you’ve been saved for any amount of time, can become a for-granted custom. The fact that we have full and constant access to the very words of God and the most powerful force in the world- prayer, should set us on our knees in awe. I am not claiming in any way to have this all mastered, I struggle on the daily, but these few points have helped make my stagnant and dull devotion attempts into something that actually produces new life in me.

Let’s learn to crave and treasure every quiet moment spent with our God.

One chapter, one thought, one prayer at a time.

“Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.” Proverbs 30:5