Devotional time is with God not with a check list

My pre-salvation habit was a good habit and a not so good habit. Because new Christians struggle to form the habit of daily reading the Bible, my habit was helpful because I was already doing it. I copied my mother for many years without understanding anything I read. I kept a journal and marked RMB in the upper corner along with SMP, hating to miss daily reading and prayer that left that corner blank.

However, it was a negative habit in that I can slip too easily into letting these spiritual disciplines a duty, a box to check, a file-card system like Tozer describes rather than a personal experience with God. On those occasions I can feel guilty for breaking my habit when I should feel guilty that I allowed my quiet time to become a ritual.

Imagine the joylessness of taking verses like these . . .

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

And making them look like this . . .

o  I rejoiced all day

o  I prayed nonstop today

o  I gave thanks for everything

o  I’m not quenching the Spirit (even though making a list like this does just that)

o  I loved the preaching I heard today and fully tested it

o  I held on to the good that I heard today

o  I kept myself from all evil

The biggest error is revealed by all those “I’s” — making this a self-righteous spirituality instead of walking in faith, living by grace, filled with and motivated by the Spirit of God. A list of ‘rules’ keeps even the sincerest believer from hearing God’s words, words that are personal and for the needs of the moment.

Tozer warns that “inevitably the calendar crowds out the Spirit and the face of the clock hides the face of God.” He hits the problem dead on. Living a file-card Christianity produces a hit or miss prayer life and a hit or miss ministry. Instead of consistent freedom in following God’s leading, obedience gets mixed up with habits and rules, robbing me of that freedom and spontaneity that Jesus Christ died so I could enjoy.

^^^^^^^^^^

Lord Jesus, in the past few weeks, my heart condition has robbed me of almost all ambition. Some days, I want to sleep all day. But You are using this situation to show me how much effort I give to ‘be a good Christian’ instead of simply trusting You and resting in Your presence. As Tozer says, it is my privilege to live so fully in You that I never get out of the experience of Your Presence for one moment, that my whole life becomes a prayer, my thoughts become mental prayers, my deeds become prayers in action and even sleep may be unconscious prayer.

NOTE: September 27 is pacemaker day, but it will not be hooked up for a few weeks after that. The offending electrical impulses in my heart are in the two upper chambers meaning that they must be zapped to put them out of commission so the lower chambers and the pacemaker can take over. This zapping (ablation) cannot be done until the pacemaker is in and healed. Both are done without anesthetic, just local freezing. As shared above, God uses all things to teach my ornery heart to pay attention to Him.

Easily Interrupted?

“This is the way we have always done it” is a familiar line that almost always deadens creativity and progress. While there can be advantages to sticking to the tried and true, it does not work like that in the kingdom of God.

For one thing, God’s solutions to our problems and prayers are never predictable. There is no repetition in His idea file, no predictable pattern. Christians delight in His ‘surprises’ and those who know Him well never expect the same old, same old.

Tozer writes that the essence of our faith is spontaneity. The Holy Spirit moves in the spirits of His people in ways that surprise and bless. He calls it “the hallmark of spiritual excellency, the evidence of reality in a world of unreality.”

He also calls the ‘way we have always done it’ a “file-card mentality” that believes spirituality can be organized into a system of numbers, statistics, laws of averages, and other such natural human ways of doing, evaluating and measuring things . . . and “creeping death always follows.”

Could an opposite term be ‘hang loose’? Some use this to describe attitude of not making plans or just going whatever way the wind blows. However, this isn’t necessarily spiritual spontaneity either.

For a more accurate view, a verse from Proverbs comes to mind:

“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)

This grasps the essence of how I am supposed to live. I can pray about my day, make plans for this life, have a to-do list, yet at the same time realize that my life is governed by a sovereign God. I must yield to Him when He interrupts my plans with a different plan. The issue is listening and yielding, not sitting idle waiting for direction. God expects me to get up, eat, brush my teeth and do the normal chores of the day but not be so stuck in ‘my’ plans that I cannot drop them in favor of His.

Tozer points to this verse as a guide:

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:27)

Keeping myself pure can be a full-time occupation yet this is not about a total self-focus. It assumes that I am involved in the world and exposed to the temptations that go with it. Involvement means seeing and meeting needs as the first part of the verse says.

In biblical days the care of orphans and widows was not the obligation of a government agency but of families and caring Christians. Today, every culture has these and other needy people in various situations. Some need justice or homes or food or friendship. The thing is, we cannot categorize by making lists of who and what and keep track of how many loaves and fishes we hand out. God’s Spirit tells us where and when and what to do. We plan to do what He says so listen for that nudge and do it.

^^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, Tozer says many churches are in such a state that if the Holy Spirit withdrew from them, they wouldn’t find it out for many months. That is so sad. I don’t want it to be true of me as an individual. I want to hear Your voice and do what You say without responding with, “Just as soon as I’m done this . . .”

Spontaneous worship

We have at least three nature channels in our cable package. One of them shows oddities in creation and as I watch it, I am amazed that the narrators can say these things ‘evolved’ as if there is no designer in such a well-designed universe. Even the simplest mind would wonder how skunks can learn how to stink in order to protect themselves before all their predators kill every skunk.

Tozer tells of realizing that God is a master of geometry and all sorts of art, poetry and music. I look at flowers and other plants and see how He knows tone, color, variety, movement, every principle of design. The stories on those nature channels, despite references to ‘evolution’ put me in awe of our amazing God.

That said, it is also true that sin blinds human eyes. I don’t need to point to anyone else. Every time I get a burr under my saddle, I lose my vision of God. When life goes sideways, or disasters happen, or other people seem bent on doing evil, I begin to struggle with the grace and power of God. Where is it? Have I been duped? After forty-five years of believing in Jesus Christ, is it all a myth?

The Holy Spirit does not leave me in the dark for long. Soon my heart begins to think about the Lord as He has been revealed to me. My fears and doubts vanish as my heart begins again to worship Him and be thankful.

There are two passages of Scripture in the New Testament that are similar. Both speak of results — this is what happens when you do this. The results are the same: singing psalms and hymns from the heart with thankfulness. The causes are different . . .

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:15–21)

The first passage says I need to be richly immersed in the Word of God. The second says that I need to be filled with the Spirit. For both, the results are the same, indicated that there is a great similarity between the causes. That is, being filled with the Spirit has a great deal to do with being filled with God’s Word, but not merely reading or memorizing; the verses say it should dwell in me richly!

Richly is the English version of a Greek adverb that means rich in an identifible, distinctive manner; conceived of in a similar way as something characterized by great material possessions. This is ‘in a large amount’ and visibly apparent, abundant. It is like the creative abundance in the world around us.

My best example of someone in whom the Word of God dwelt richly was a pastor whose conversation include copious portions of the Bible, but he was not ‘preachy’ just so delightfully filled with the Word that he thought of it and used appropriately in most situations. He was a spiritual man with a wonderful capacity to bless other people. As Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:38)

^^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, as much as I’ve read the Bible and studied it, I’m not there yet. So often, the words and stories, the teaching and principles of the Bible are not the first thing that come to mind in life’s situations and events. That may come later, but I’m not bubbling over with it. Keep working on me, please!

Simplicity — like a child

Children are spontaneous, at least in they start out that way. Then they form habits, become predictable, and lose some of that spontaneous charm. I’ve wondered if this has anything to do with Jesus saying we must become like little children to enter the kingdom of God?

Chambers writes about being spontaneous in the sense that our habits (of obedience) have been practiced to the point that we are not conscious of them being habits. We just do what God wants without thinking or deliberation.

To me, this seems a growth into that child-likeness that Jesus described. Instead of a choice to be polite, or to lovingly serve others, or to share the gospel because our Father told us to, we just do it without premeditation. It has become our nature, who we are.

Perhaps this is what Peter is saying too. He tells his readers all we need to be godly people is given to us in Christ. Because of that, I can grow from simple faith to greater virtue, increased knowledge, more self-control and so on until all of these qualities are mine and even increasing:

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. (2 Peter 1:5–9)

Peter says that this growth insures that I am an effective Christian who remembers what Christ has done for me. Chambers says this increase needs to become such a part of my life that I don’t think about it or work on it; it just happens.

Chambers adds that if I become introspective, it is because I’m not there yet. A child does not stop and think that he is not being like a child. God is looking for that kind of simplicity, a life without effort, not making habits a governing force in my life, but relating to God in such a way that my life is simply at home with Him no matter what is happening.

I’ve know few people who are like this. Sadly, at least one of them has been ridiculed for his life of simple trust, of not worrying about anything, and of being spontaneous like a child. How sad. The life of Christ shines through his transparency and every time I talk with him it seems as if I am talking with Jesus.

Why do we try so hard to be godly and miss the simplicity of it? Maybe because that childlike attitude is dismissed by the ‘spiritual’ people — something like the disciples trying to send the children away until Jesus told them, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14)