What Do You Do In Daily Devotions?
Our daily devotions should always begin with the Gospel. We must remember that the Gospel speaks to the entire Christian life. It is not solely for the non-believer, but has much to say to the mature believer. We should remind ourselves of the Gospel as we confess that although we have been redeemed in Christ, we continue to sin and are in need of the Gospel. Use a rotating series of your favourite Gospel passages and apply them to yourself, asking God to meet with you because of Christ’s work on your behalf.
Our daily devotions will normally have some time in the Word and some time praying. There are various methods that you can use. If you are just beginning to have a daily devotion then 7-Minutes with God may be a manageable start.
You will probably find that, once you start doing daily devotions and your relationship with God grows, you will want to increase your time spent with Him to quite a bit more than seven minutes. When you do this, a good method to use is the SOAP method. But there are some other similar methods you can use such as Appointment With God and the ACTS model.
Our time alone with God should also involve time in prayer. We should open our hearts fully before God, especially since He sees them for what they are anyway, and pour out our full longings to Him casting our worries and cares upon Christ (1 Peter 5:7). But our prayer must not be only a list of desires we should pray for the things which He has told us to pray for, such as for His kingdom to come and will to be done in various areas in our sphere of influence and in the world. We want to see His name lifted up in spirit and in truth. We thank Him for what He has done for us and we praise Him for who He is. Once our hearts are enraptured with God, it is only natural to pray for others to know the same thing and for those who know God to grow in their godliness. The prayers of Paul, such as Ephesians 1:16-19; 3:14-21 or Philippians 1:9-11 are good examples of what to pray for people to grow in godliness. You can download a recommended weekly Prayer Diary here.
Of course prayer throughout the day is important, indeed 1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to pray without ceasing. But the concentrated, unhurried, undistracted prayer of a daily devotion is crucial for our relationship with God.
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