This Won’t Be Easy

John 20:30-31

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Making time for personal devotions. Why should we do it? Well, we should do it because the Bible tells us that faith comes from hearing the Gospel. The Bible compares God’s word to seed that’s planted in soil that’s watered by the rain and the snow of the gospel that sprouts up to bring forth fruit. Fruits like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, you know, those as the fruits of the spirit. Well, that’s what God, the Holy Spirit creates in God’s people.

There are a lot of really good and even rational arguments for making time for personal devotions. But if you’re here and seeing listening to me right now, I’m going to assume that that’s what you’re trying to do. So I’ll assume that we agree on the premise and the importance of it. How do we do it? Or what do we do?

How do we do it? Well, your sinful nature is never going to make this easy. It can’t be tamed. It can’t be domesticated. You can’t reach a truce with it. Your sinful nature will always find ways to resist, to distract. And so habit, forming a habit is probably best here. Whether it’s personal, whether it’s family devotion times, if we wait until we feel like it or until my entire family feels like it, well, again, the devil is a master of manipulating our feelings. And so we dare not just wait until we feel like doing it. Habit is probably best whether a consistent time set aside first thing in the morning, last thing before bedtime, over our lunch hour. Habit helps us when the spirit is willing, but when the flesh is weak.

What do we do? What do we do for devotion? Well, remember, it’s God’s word, not the words of men that are the bread, the water of life. So there’s nothing wrong with just reading the Bible. There are lots of schedules, lots of apps that can help you do this, but you don’t even need any of those. It’s okay to just read God’s Word, read scripture, and it’s even okay to favor some parts of the Bible over others. You can’t go wrong reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, the Gospels. Think of those four books as the living, breathing stories about your Savior and what he’s done for you. Think of the letters, the epistles from Paul and Peter and John as pastoral counseling, telling people what the death, the resurrection of Christ mean for people in their own lives and in their own interactions with each other. The Psalms, all the Psalms give voice often to our sorrows, our trials, putting words, God’s word into our mouths. And the Old Testaments filled with accounts of God’s people waiting for Him to keep his promise. In the meanwhile, living amongst one another while they wait.

Now, that’s not to say that devotion books are a bad thing. They’re certainly not. Devotion books are great, but pick books where God’s word is front and center rather than just words, which are really just the words of men. And then, lest I be accused of not following my own advice, let me close with God’s Word.

We think of the Gospels as the living, breathing stories of Jesus. If we open up to John the Gospel of John, there, nine out of 21 chapters, almost half of the gospel is dedicated to just eight days of Jesus life from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday.

So in those nine chapters, we have Jesus prayer in the upper room where he prayed for all people, including praying for you. We have his suffering on the cross. John records how Jesus commended Mary into his care and keeping, woman Behold your Son, Behold your mother. John records Jesus anguish on the cross, crying out. Finally it is finished. And John, of course, records the resurrection, Easter Sunday, you have John himself and Peter racing to the tomb. Mary hangs back, weeping because she’s convinced that someone has stolen his body. Jesus appearing to them later that that evening in the upper room. And then a week later appearing a week after Easter to Thomas to show Thomas his hands and his side so that Thomas would know that Jesus really had risen for him.

Well, anyway, after all of that, after all those accounts of those eight days, John says this. He says,

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. (John 20:30-31)

That’s John 20 verses 30 and 31. So, my friend, may God bless your time for personal devotions.