Weekly Word Archives

Worshipping God

DEVELOPING A LIFE OF DEVOTION

(CLICK YOUR BROWSERS "BACK" BUTTON WHEN FINISHED)

A life of devotion is one of constant communion with our indwelling Lord. The dictionary defines communion as “an exchange of thought, the act of consulting, conversing or talking with another.” Communion with God means relating to Him – “praying without ceasing.” Communion is like breathing. It is the most natural activity of the child of God. However, it is Satan’s desire to limit our communion with God because this is what gives us power over the world, the flesh and the devil.

Satan’s goal is to rob us of enjoying communion with God. One of the ways he does this is by turning prayer and Bible reading into a duty instead of a delight. This happens when we make these activities a means of gaining favor with God instead of a means of knowing Him. When we make spending time with God a means of measuring our spirituality or acceptance by God we become self-focused and our time with God becomes less satisfying.

The Bible does not provide a set pattern for spending time with God. It does give us examples of how to live in His presence and relate to Him. Our relationship with God needs to become natural and growing. Each person’s style of relating to God will be different and will change from time to time. God will show Himself to us through different means and in different ways. Our only sure guideline is God’s Word. Our manner of relating to God will change as we grow in intimacy with Him. The goal of spending time with God is to know Him. The means is through the Holy Spirit’s revelation of Christ to our hearts. The method, which is our part, is placing our faith in Christ and not our own manner of relating. This will result in our being changed into His likeness more and more.

Suggestions for developing your communion with God. It is a mistake to try to pattern our time with God after another’s experience rather than developing our own style of relating to Him. The following is not a formula but merely suggestions for helping you relate to God and experience His presence on a daily basis. Not all of these steps are necessary each time we draw near to God.

a)	Turn your first thoughts of the day to the Lord. Focus on His presence and thank Him for the gift of another day in which to live and move and have your being in Him. Give your life to Him and ask Him to show Himself to you moment by moment throughout your day and fill you with His Spirit. As you lie down at night, think on God’s faithfulness and praise Him (Psalm 27:4-8; 63:1-8).

b)	Feed on His Word, seeking to know the Author. Recognize His presence and ask Him to speak personally to you through His written word. Think about a small portion – don’t just read it. This is not a time for study but for prayerful thinking, asking God what the passage shows about Him and how it applies to you (Psalm 119:11-14,18).

c)	Spend time in worship. Worship is worth-ship – declaring God’s infinite worth and surrendering yourself to who He truly is. A wrong view of God will hinder our entering into worship. Right worship is what transforms us into His image. Respond to God’s revelation of Himself with praise and thanksgiving. Surrender to His will and leading. We enter into the Holy of Holies as the Holy Spirit makes Christ known to our soul (mind, will, and emotions). David said that a day in His courts was better than a thousand outside. Worship is what satisfies and changes us. In His presence is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. Pray the Psalms or write your own. Sing praises to Him. Remain in His presence and allow Christ to minister to you. Receive His love and affection and respond with the same (Psalm 95-100).

d)	Be still and know that He is God. Listen for God’s instructions. Express to God any concerns or needs you may have. Ask Him to show you His will by asking, “What are you doing in me and what do you want me to do?” Focus on one thing at a time. It is helpful to write down the thoughts that come to mind so that you can go back and reflect on them and test them against God’s Word and what He is like. Respond to what He says with obedient faith (Psalm 4:4; 32:8; 62:5-8).

e)	Depend on Christ moment by moment. The purpose of our devotional time with God is to make us more aware of His presence so we can TRUST AND DEPEND on Him throughout our day. Intimacy with God is living in the truth that God is closer to us than we are to ourselves. Don’t focus on the past or worry about the future. Learn to live in the present. Trust the Spirit to bring Christ to mind whenever you need to direct your thoughts to Him (prayer). Christ is our life because we are united to Him in our spirit. His thoughts and desires have become ours. We are learning to go through our day increasingly depending on His life, trusting Him to live through our thoughts, desires, and actions. Our thought life is our prayer life (this is the only way we can pray without ceasing). It is often helpful to pray out loud but it is not necessary. Being aware of God does not mean that every thought is about Him. It means that whatever happens throughout our day leads us to relate to Him. It may be to give thanks, seek direction, ask for wisdom, make a request, or to intercede on behalf of others. Communing with God by faith is praying in the spirit.

f)	Deal quickly with failure. When we are aware of sin we need only to draw near to the throne of grace to find God’s mercy and help in our time of need. The believer has continual access to the Father through the shed blood of Christ. We can be sure of receiving from Him what we need because we have been given the righteousness of Christ. We stand before Him blameless. We do not come to God as sinners saved by grace but as lovers of God who struggle with sin. The principle of sin is present in the believer, but it is not who we are. Sin is an evil force to be dealt with through yielding our members to Christ. We quickly confess (agree with God) our failure (allowing sin to reign in our bodies), but at the same time we acknowledge His complete forgiveness and cleansing. Ask the Lord to show you any wrong beliefs that may be giving sin a place to work in your life. Again, give your life to Him and ask Him to fill you with His Spirit. Accept by faith that you are one spirit with Christ and your desire is for Him to live through you. The Deceiver will try to keep us from immediately going to the Father when we fail – telling us we need to make ourselves right (correct our behavior) or suffer for a length of time (receive punishment) before we can expect God’s help. In this way, Satan gets our focus back on ourselves which causes sin to increase. It is only as we rely on Jesus that sin has no power or influence over us.

g)	Boast in your weaknesses. Weaknesses and needs are God’s way of showing us our need to depend on Him. We are not told in Scripture that we will be free from human weakness or need. These are the very things that draw us into a close, dependent relationship with the Trinity. We were created to be containers, vessels of His life. Satan has led us to believe that we can live and serve God on our own, that God expects us to “do” for Him. Just the opposite is true and was modeled by Christ’s dependence on the Father. He said He could do nothing apart from the Father. It was the Father living and showing Himself through Jesus’ humanity as He depended on the Holy Spirit. If Jesus needed to depend on the Father, how much more do we? There are many word pictures of this dependent relationship in Scripture. We are called earthen vessels, temples, branches, and lamps. All of these show that we are containers to be filled with His life. We can only give out of what we receive from God. We are what we are by His grace. There is no need to try hard to live for God in our own strength, but only to receive by faith all He is in us. Our boasting is in the Lord and we can do all things through His Spirit who strengthens us. Staying in this child-like posture is what makes us usable vessels.