Learn how to have your own devotional time.
When I was a baby Christian, people told me to read my Bible. But they didn’t tell me how or even where to start. I heard the term devotional time, and I knew you were supposed to have it, but I had no idea what you were supposed to do in your devotional time.
The phrase read your Bible became intimidating to me. I hadn’t grown up in a Christian home, I wasn’t literate in the Bible and I didn’t even know where to start.
But one thing I did know. I could ask God for help through prayer.
And He answered that prayer.
Today, reading my Bible and having a devotional time is second nature to me.
I want to share with you what I do during my devotional time. Take the things you want and leave the rest. Your devotional time is just that, yours.
First off, a devotional time is time that you set aside to spend with Jesus, whether it be in worship, prayer or reading the scriptures.
Worship
I found that when I spent time worshipping the Lord every day, it made it easier for me to pray, and welcomed the presence of God into my home and my life.
Worship is a weapon.
You can read in 2 Chronicles 20 how worship served God’s people as a weapon against their enemies.
Worship is also a way to invite in the presence of God into your home.
Psalm 22:3 says that God inhabits the praises of His people.
For me, worship is a wonderful part of my devotional time.
I started with a tape cassette of songs I liked, moved on to a CD, and now I have a digital collection of songs that I like to use in my worship time. I Sing along with the music and worship the Lord just as I would in church.
Reading the Word
There are so many reading plans out there.
But I like to soak in the word. When I read scriptures, I pray this prayer before I read, “Holy Spirit, speak to me through the word of God.”
I learned this prayer from one of my teachers in Bible College.
You can also base your prayer on the following verse.
Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law;
Psalm 119:34
Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart (NKJV).
Take Notes
I take notes while I read, writing in my journal any insights I see while I’m reading.
I used to try to keep up with a reading plan, but I found that something that was meant to take fifteen minutes was taking me over an hour. This is because I like to move slowly through the Word and take notes.
So, today, I have a reading plan written down on a piece of paper. But I don’t follow it by date. I follow the order of the reading plan, a little in the New Testament and a little in the Old Testament.
What I do is set my timer for the amount of time I want to spend In the Word, and then let myself soak in that Word. Sometimes I read two days’ worth at one time. Sometimes I read only a few scriptures.
The important thing is, I am in the Word of God and I’m letting it speak to me about my life and my situations.
Click Here for a Free Reading Plan
Apply the Word to Your Life
When I am done taking notes on what I’ve read that day, I spend a few moments looking through those notes and ask myself how I can apply the Word to my own life.
James 1:22-25 says,
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does (NKJV).
I take the time to pray about how I can take what I’ve just read and apply it to my everyday life.
Sometimes it has to do with how I’m looking at something. I ask myself if I’m looking through a lens of my own hurt or God’s lens?
Sometimes it has to do with an action or decision I’ve got to make.
Sometimes it has to do with a relationship.
Whatever it has to do with, whether it’s changing a mindset or physically doing something, I write down how I can put the word into practice.
I find that God sometimes has His finger on one thing in my life for a while, so don’t feel bad if you’re dealing with the same thing for weeks or months. God is working in you regarding that one thing, and you may need to be reminded several times to apply scripture to your life in that area.
Be patient with yourself and ask God to help you.
Which brings me to my last point.
Prayer
Once you’ve spent some time in worship and the word, pray over your notes you’ve taken. Pray over how you can apply this to your life. Pray for the people involved in these things and ask God to intervene in your circumstances and give you strength to implement His word.
And that is how I do my devotions
Worship invites God’s presence into my home and life, being in His word gives Him a chance to speak my heart, and prayer is where I ask for God’s help about what He just spoke to me about.
I invite you to put at least one of these things into action in your own life for the next twenty-one days, so that it becomes a habit, and then, look back over that time and see how God has encouraged you, spoken to your heart or given you direction during that time.
I would love to hear how your devotional time went.
In His Love,
Carolyn
Check out Carolyn’s Bible Study Loved by the Father.
