From Devotions to Devotional Living

Have you ever struggled to maintain a regular devotional time with God? Have you ever felt guilty about your attempts and perceived failures in growing your connection with the Divine? If you have and you do, don’t be discouraged, because you are not alone, and I’d like to share some ideas that may help you along the way in your devotional life journey (and it is a journey), with its ups and downs, mountaintops and valleys, feelings of victory and defeat. Everyone feels this way at times—including some people we would consider among the spiritually elite, such as Elijah, David, Mary, Martha, and even Jesus (see Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34).This is the nature of any relationship that humans engage in, and it’s no different in a relationship with God.

What Is Devotional?

When I was growing up, attending Adventist churches and schools and living in an Adventist home, I remember hearing a lot about doctrines, the end of the world, and what kinds of behaviors are acceptable or not—but not really anything about how to have a truly intimate relationship with Jesus. Over the years I have found this to be a very common experience among Adventists and even among other non-Adventist Christian friends I’ve made. So it’s not just an Adventist problem. In my experience it’s a struggle for many Christians across all denominations.

When I was young, I was told that my morning devotions should include reading my Sabbath School lesson and my Bible and spending some time in prayer, but no one ever told me what parts of the Bible to read or what to do with what I read. And the model for prayer set for me was usually a long list of intercessory prayers for missionaries, pastors, people who were ill, and others. Engaging in these activities was certainly beneficial, but looking back, I can see that they had value as study time to inform me about God and what He is like (and intercessory prayer is important), but neither was necessarily devotional in nature for me.

So if the things I grew up being told were devotional in nature are not—what is? This has been one of my driving passions and lifelong pursuits. Several years ago I began exploring the gospel commission and how it appears just slightly differently in each of the four Gospels.[1] My favorite is the gospel commission according to John. You may have a hard time finding it at first, but it is there, and it shows us the heart and soul of what it means to be devoted to Christ in a “devotional” relationship with Him. The key passage is found in John 21:

“So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ He said to him, [Go] ‘Feed My lambs.’ He said to him again a second time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ He said to him, [Go] ‘Tend My sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’ Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, ‘Do you love Me?’ And he said to Him, ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.’ Jesus said to him, [Go] ‘Feed My sheep’ ” (verses 15-17).

The most important part of ‘devotions’ is to engage in activities that grow our love and devotion for Jesus, for that is what prepares us to understand Scripture better.

In this passage I added a “go” to everything Jesus asked Peter to “do,” to bring out the parallel to the Great Commission in Matthew more clearly. To “go” and make disciples includes feeding lambs and tending and feeding sheep. To make a disciple is to enter into a nurturing relationship with them, care for them and journey with them like a shepherd, and, just as Jesus entered into relationships with His disciples, to nurture them and help them grow in their faith and abilities to “go” and disciple others.

But the key we find here in John is the devotional emphasis on what must happen before we are truly equipped to “go.” Jesus asked Peter repeatedly, and He asks us, “Do you love Me?” This is the key to and the foundation of all spirituality. Jesus emphasized and expanded the importance of loving relationships when He was asked what the greatest command was by saying, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And thesecond is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:37-40).

The Most Important Thing

In my long search for “authentic, life-changing Christianity” this is what I’ve found. What binds everything together is love. Love is the heart of the two greatest commandments, and love for God is the foundation that Jesus wanted, before He ascended back to heaven, to firmly impress upon Peter’s mind after all his impulsiveness and failings. Jesus Himself claims that love is the key. He also reemphasized this in John 13:35: “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

So the most important part of “devotions” is to engage in activities that grow our love and devotion for Jesus, for that is what prepares us to understand Scripture better and what prepares us better to share our love for Jesus in ways that will appeal to others. Ellen White said: “Christ’s method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, ‘Follow Me.’ ”[2] This is love in action.

I would like to invite you to take some time and think about your life and your relationship with Jesus. What are the things that make you feel closest to Him? What are the things that make you feel most alive in your journey with Him? Read through the Gospels and try to identify what kinds of things helped each disciple feel close to Jesus.

We are all different—no two are exactly the same. Some people today feel close to Jesus when singing, reading psalms and Bible stories, journaling, sitting quietly in silent prayer—and the list goes on. Devotional time is very individual in nature. When you sit quietly in prayer and think about Jesus’ words “Do you love Me?” try to think about what things help you love Him most and feel closest to Him. Then you will probably be on the right track to finding the key to your devotional life. It may look nothing like anything anyone has ever told you before.

Additionally, devotional life is not something that should be relegated only to a designated time in the morning; like the Shema, it should be something that starts in the morning and flows throughout the day in all that we do: “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” (Deut. 6:6, 7).

God does not want our devotions to be some legalistic drudgery.

Just as the Shema instructs, the goal of devotional life is a renewed and prepared heart ready for the day ahead, and the daily effect of devotional life should be to help us to “pray without ceasing,” as Paul encourages us to—talking to Jesus all day every day, being led by His Spirit in all that we do, and noticing His hand at work everywhere we go. God is truly at work all around us, but we often miss it because we are not thinking of Him throughout the day and looking for His presence. But if we daily invite Jesus to be actively living in our hearts, His words and works will come out of our mouths and hands, and we will see Him in all we do, just as the branch grafted into the vine will naturally bear fruit for all the world to see, as a testimony of the goodness of God. This is how our devotional life becomes devotional living.

Heart Application

To get you started in your devotional time, I highly recommend reading the Gospels and Steps to Christ, by Ellen G. White. Go slow, read just a few verses or one page or less per day in Steps to Christ. Soak in it, think about it, and keep thinking about it throughout your day, trying to apply what you’ve read. This can become a part of your praying without ceasing. As you read Steps to Christ, keep track of how many times the book says things such as “love” and “heart” versus how many times it says things such as “mind” and “study.”

As you read anything devotional, always remember to go beyond merely being inspired by the thoughts and actions of the amazing spiritual people you are reading about, and ask, “How can I do this in my world today?” and “How can this draw me closer to Jesus and change the way I live my life?” At its core, devotional life is applying what we know about Scripture to our lives and doing our best to live it out each day.

One of the ways I make my devotional time more personal is to address Jesus rather than God. It’s easier for me to picture a relationship with Jesus because He is the one who came to earth and interacted with humans—so we have great stories and examples of His love and care for us.

Second, no one can tell you how exactly to structure your devotional time. There are many ideas and options based on your learning style, temperament, and other individual characteristics. I believe Scripture and prayer should always be involved in some way, but the key is to find every day what draws your heart to Jesus. And remember that just like any relationship, our needs can change and vary day to day. What works one day or in one season of life may not work as well in the next.

A relationship with Jesus and devotional time with Him needs to be alive and active, and as we learn more about ourselves and how we interact with others, it will also help us to see how we can better live and interact with Jesus. And remember that the second greatest command according to Jesus is to love others as we love ourselves. God does not want our devotions to be some legalistic drudgery. He wants us to know ourselves and how we can best connect with Him as the individuals He made us to be. When we experience God’s love for us and accept it into our lives—when we truly begin to understand how much He loves us—that love will naturally flow out to our families, friends, neighbors, and the world around us as a light shining on a hill for all to see.

[1] This study resulted in my book Authentic: Where True Life-changing Christianity Begins (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 2012). It may be a helpful resource if you’re interested in a better understanding of a relationship with Jesus. It includes a four-week guided devotional plan to help people experiment with new devotional ideas. There are tips in the last chapter to help you plan out annual, monthly, weekly and daily activities to fuel your devotional connection. Another helpful resource is Following Jesus: Stories of Discipleship and Devotional Life, available from AdventSource.

[2] Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1905), p. 143.