The Pros and Cons of a Devotional Life

[00:00:03] Welcome to the STOKE IT UP podcast everybody. A podcast encouraging you in your journey with God.

[00:00:08] I'm Alan Stoddard and I'm your host and we've got another conversation on spiritual formation coming to you.

[00:00:15] But before we jump into that, I want to remind you that the STOKE IT UP podcast is a part of CGN Media, a

[00:00:22] podcast network that points people to Christ.

[00:00:25] Check out cgnmedia.org for more great shows and ways to support the ministry.

[00:00:32] I also want to invite you to the Pastors and Leaders International Conference at Calvary Chapel Coast

[00:00:37] Amesa from June 23rd to June 26th this year. And it's at conference.calvarychapel.com.

[00:00:45] I'll put it in the show notes and we would love to see you there.

[00:00:49] Well, I'm joined today by Kenneth Fries for another conversation on spiritual formation, specifically

[00:00:57] how we can encourage you in your journey with God with the pros and cons of a devotional life.

[00:01:04] We're all spiritually formed by many things. Let's jump in and see what it looks like to have a quiet

[00:01:11] time devotional life should you do it or should you not mess with it. Is it really worth it?

[00:01:16] Well, let's jump in and see what it looks like. And we want you to also evaluate where you are

[00:01:22] spiritually and how you can grow in this season of your life. Again, thanks for tuning

[00:01:29] into the Stoke It Up podcast. Well, all right, Kenneth. It's good to see you back here at

[00:01:35] the Stoke It Up podcast man. We are going to talk more about spiritual formation and today

[00:01:42] we're talking about the pros and cons of a devotional life. What's been going on with

[00:01:47] you since last week, man? Everything okay? Everything is good. Yes, it's good to be back with

[00:01:52] you and looking forward to us continuing our conversation centered around this topic. See how

[00:01:58] we can help pastors and church leaders out. We were just praying before we came on and I was

[00:02:06] praying and we've talked about this before. Kenneth and I met each other. He actually got

[00:02:11] me a job in some kind of way as a grader in the undergraduate department at Southwestern

[00:02:16] Seminary in 1996. And you know, we look back in ministry all these years later and we're like,

[00:02:24] wow, some people didn't make it. They fell out. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that has something to

[00:02:30] do with spiritual formation. I think it does too. Yeah, well, last week you talked a lot about

[00:02:41] our small group up in the faculty lounge of the educational building over there at Southwestern.

[00:02:47] Seven year class that was the best class we really signed up for, but it wasn't a formal class.

[00:02:55] It was just the best class he could have gotten in on with Darrell Eldridge. Man,

[00:03:00] still living off that. Still living off that. Absolutely. Well, let's do this. Let's talk

[00:03:05] about the pros and cons of a devotional life. And I want to tell you listeners,

[00:03:10] I want to give you an argument for why you should stop doing devotions. Divosions. When we do devotions,

[00:03:19] and I'm being a little facetious here, but we want to give a unique way of having a conversation.

[00:03:23] But when we do devotions, when we talk about that, when you have youth that go to youth camp,

[00:03:30] we will have a time for the kids and a youth. When they get up, there's going to be a 20 minute

[00:03:35] period of time where they take their Bible, they take their little camp workbook and they go do their

[00:03:43] devotions. And we tell people when they get saved, you need to do devotions. But I want to make an

[00:03:50] argument that you should stop doing devotions and just go with, you know, kind of wing it.

[00:03:56] You don't have to be all that formal and strategic and intentional about having devotions. And, you know,

[00:04:06] those books, by the way, those books that we read, they're not the Bible. Oswald Chambers,

[00:04:14] My Atmos for His Highest. I mean, I've got all kinds of devotions. You know, I would say,

[00:04:20] stop using those things. They're not the Bible. You need the Bible. And listen, you're always,

[00:04:27] you're always listening to the Bible. I mean, you go to church, your pastor opens the Bible.

[00:04:34] You're showing up. I mean, you're there and you're hearing the Bible on Sunday. I mean,

[00:04:42] those and when you don't have your devotions, you don't make it. Okay, so you're like feeling

[00:04:46] guilty. You're like, Oh man, I'm a loser Christian because I'm not having my devotions.

[00:04:52] You should just stop because, Hey, look, God is forming you anyway. He's spiritually

[00:05:00] forming you and shaping you into what he wants you to be anyway. You can just kind of assume

[00:05:07] that, you know, you become a Christian, you've been baptized, you're going to church, you're

[00:05:13] doing your part. You should stop doing your devotions and stop feeling guilty about

[00:05:21] not having a devotional life that is spiritually or a devotional life and or a taking a look at

[00:05:31] what we're trying to do these days is say, what has formed you in your life spiritually?

[00:05:38] Okay, so, Kenneth, if I say that, what's your response to that? Why you should stop having

[00:05:45] devotion? Yeah. So, well, you know, you naturally want me to jump in the opposite and go against

[00:05:53] you on that. But one thing I will say is, you know, you should stop doing them if they do not

[00:05:59] drive you to the word. Devotions that are written outside of the word are just self-help books.

[00:06:10] And so, I would agree with you that that's not what you should be doing. But if the

[00:06:14] devotion is driving you to the word first, then it is something to consider doing.

[00:06:22] Most devotions are systematic and structured. They're thematic potentially in that they're going to take

[00:06:32] a week and address a theme, and they're going to pull out verses throughout Old and New Testament

[00:06:38] that focus on that theme. And oftentimes people can find great comfort in a devotion when they're

[00:06:45] going through a difficulty and they're able to see more than just one Bible verse to help them

[00:06:52] through a difficult situation. Oftentimes when you just find one verse, you know,

[00:06:58] you kind of say that's not enough. I need more to help me. And so, a structured devotional plan

[00:07:06] is actually a good thing in your life. It can be a good thing in your life if it drives you

[00:07:11] to the word. And if it's meeting the spiritual needs of where you are at this particular time.

[00:07:18] And if it's, if you're using a devotion that's not meeting your needs,

[00:07:22] then the encouragement would be to change up your devotions, change up how you're doing

[00:07:28] devotions. And let's be honest, everybody goes through seasons in their life where they just

[00:07:34] kind of set it aside and they take a break from doing devotions. And you know,

[00:07:40] there's nothing wrong with your devotional time just being you and your Bible and a piece of paper.

[00:07:46] And you're just sitting there and just reading through God's Word and taking notes. It could

[00:07:52] be that you're in the midst of, so one of the things that I've done for actually two different

[00:08:00] churches I've served is the Bible in a hundred days. You know, the average person reading

[00:08:06] the Bible 45 minutes a day can read the Bible in 86 days. I'm not an average reader, I'm a slow

[00:08:14] reader. It takes me a little bit longer than 45 minutes, takes me about an hour, hour and 10 minutes

[00:08:18] a day, but I could do it in 86 days. So you take one day a week off and that turns into 100 days.

[00:08:26] And so I've done kind of Bible in a hundred days as a sermon series. And so we encourage the

[00:08:30] devotional to just be reading the Bible. Well, if you're going to spend an hour

[00:08:34] reading the Bible, it's kind of hard to pick up another devotion and read that as well. And so,

[00:08:39] you know, there are seasons that you might go through that you'll do something differently, but

[00:08:45] there is nothing wrong with engaging in a devotional reading to give you a systematic

[00:08:51] structure. You brought up the whole youth camp kids camp kind of thing. Typically those devotions

[00:08:57] are geared toward the theme of the camp. And so it's getting those students engaged with the

[00:09:02] word in a different way than just hearing the speaker, than just hearing the small group sessions.

[00:09:09] And so they're actually breaking down into three different models of disciple making of

[00:09:14] spiritual formation. They have the proclamation, which is coming from their campus pastor or their

[00:09:22] camp pastor. They have their small group community time. Usually you go away to one

[00:09:28] of these youth camps and you're at this big event with multiple churches. And so your church group

[00:09:33] sets aside and has small group times, but then they also give you this individualized time and all

[00:09:40] of them are centered around the same theme. And so you're developing students in that same theme

[00:09:46] in these three different spiritual formation methodologies. And I think those are good.

[00:09:51] I think it's great when a pastor develops his own devotional plan that does partner with

[00:09:56] the sermon series that they're doing, the theme that's happening at the church right now or the

[00:10:02] season we're about to go in. Let's prepare for that. And so they develop a devotional series

[00:10:08] that goes along with that in revitalization. We do that. We're like, look, here's a 40 day

[00:10:13] devotional. It's centered around revitalization of the church as personal renewal as well as

[00:10:20] corporate renewal and what that looks like. And so there's a purpose for doing devotions

[00:10:26] in different types of devotions in different ways. And they are generating a spiritual formation

[00:10:33] in your life that can be beneficial for you. But as far as not doing them at all,

[00:10:40] I don't know that that's the right thing to do. But yeah, that would be my immediate response.

[00:10:48] I like it. And we're going to answer that. I was being half facetious, but then I'm also

[00:10:54] being half we want to bring up in a minute. What are the other things that shape? How does

[00:10:59] the devotional life go into the day? So, so one of the reasons why we should start and keep doing

[00:11:08] devotions is like I'll use the kids camp example. I thought I used to have a little love hate

[00:11:16] relationship with sending kids to camp and youth to camp. So I'm like, man, we're getting

[00:11:22] kids that are going and they're, they're not paying and their parents are coming to church. And

[00:11:29] then I was reminded here a couple years ago and it was before this, but it was really

[00:11:35] reminded afresh about two years ago when I saw, wow, the church where we're going here in

[00:11:42] Grandberry at Grandberry Baptist, we totally fund kids. We raised $30,000 for kids to go to

[00:11:48] camp. I mean, we pay for other churches sometimes. And I thought, I thought of this, here's the picture.

[00:11:55] Some students and kids by them going to camp and being encouraged to do little devotions,

[00:12:01] that will be the only time they will have anyone telling them you ought to develop a devotional

[00:12:06] life. And I came under conviction a little, I thought, oh, I'm not thinking right. We want

[00:12:12] to spiritually form those kids and students to have devotions. Let me ask you this, what is your

[00:12:20] favorite devotional book? If you had to pick one? Well, you know, you named my at most for his

[00:12:27] highest. That's that's probably one of the best that that I've used through the years.

[00:12:35] There's there's my favorite. Yeah, there's just something about the way that he wrote

[00:12:41] the engagement that it has for your life and the topics that are were selected that he addresses

[00:12:49] that are just very, you know, inspirational and challenging as you grow. As a young believer,

[00:12:57] I believe that's a great one to get someone in but also as a maturing believer. I believe that

[00:13:04] it is it is unique how it can address you right where you are in your spiritual journey.

[00:13:12] What is your present plan a for your devotional life? What are you doing right now?

[00:13:19] Well, we do different things as I kind of alluded to already. And so we're reading through

[00:13:26] OS Hawkins book, the connection code, which is based off the book of Philemon. So his code

[00:13:35] series books whenever he has one come out, I try to grab it and we try to use it to go through it.

[00:13:41] Now, and this is going to lead into another part of our conversation. So I'm going to kind

[00:13:45] of let the cat out of the bag now as we're going through those one of the things that I'm

[00:13:51] looking for and praying through is does this benefit church revitalization? So is this a tool that could

[00:14:01] be utilized in church revitalization? So I mentioned the Bible in 100 days earlier

[00:14:06] and my work in doing that. And so OS has what's called the Bible code. And so one of the things

[00:14:13] that I found very helpful is you may have people in the church that just don't feel like and

[00:14:19] it's not that they can't, but they just get intimidated to read the Bible in 100 days. I mean,

[00:14:26] if you think about it, reading 66 books of the Bible in 100 days is pretty overwhelming. Now,

[00:14:33] the people that accept the challenge and complete the challenge, they're always glad they did it.

[00:14:38] But I always have people that, you know, I don't want them to fall out of church during our

[00:14:45] 100 day campaign. And there's a chance of that. And so what we try to do is we create on ramps.

[00:14:52] And so actually, my wife has developed a Bible reading plan that's kind of this whole key passages

[00:14:59] through the Bible. And so she went through the entire Bible and she found all of the key

[00:15:04] verses from every book in the Bible. And so we provide a key passages if you're not going

[00:15:09] to read the whole thing, then read the key passages. The other thing we offer is, hey,

[00:15:13] buy the Bible code and read through the Bible code, which goes through all the books in the Bible

[00:15:20] while we're preaching through the series. And so using the tools that are available devotionally

[00:15:28] to partner with what you're doing with sermon prep, with, you know, your ongoing Bible study

[00:15:36] that you personally do as a pastor, as you're preparing is actually not a bad tool to do. So

[00:15:42] right now we're in the connection code. We're reading through it as I'm looking at this little

[00:15:48] single chapter book, the book of Philemon and trying to decide, you know, does the connection

[00:15:55] code add value and benefit if I were to preach on Philemon? Because how much can you preach on

[00:16:02] Philemon when you've got those few verses? And yet then you've got this devotional reading

[00:16:08] that lasts for, I don't even know how many weeks it is because we're in the middle of it right now.

[00:16:13] Hadn't looked at it. So right now that's what I'm in as the connection code. Reading it outside

[00:16:19] of my normal when I'm preaching, preparing for a sermon and what I would do to utilize tools for

[00:16:26] that. I can tell you, you can get five messages out of Philemon at least. I take, that's a

[00:16:35] very parenthetical thing, but it's, he just used the paragraphs anyway separate subject,

[00:16:39] nerding out here. So what I'm doing is this year I decided I wanted to go through the Bible again,

[00:16:48] but I've had trouble in the last couple of years keeping up with the reading of it. So I bought

[00:16:54] the ESV Bible Lab, you 20 bucks and you get, you know, people like Jackie Hill Perry and Ray

[00:17:02] Ortland. I use those two the most they read the Bible and I'm using the McShane Bible reading plan

[00:17:09] when I get up, uh, I takes me a minute to wake up. And so I just start listening to the Bible,

[00:17:16] no matter if I'm getting coffee or showering. It doesn't matter what my first for the most part,

[00:17:23] my first little season, a few minutes there about 15 minutes is listening to the Bible.

[00:17:30] That's been very beneficial. I think we downplay that for some reason, we make it out to be if you're

[00:17:35] not a reader, you're a loser. But for the first 1500 years of the church, of church history,

[00:17:44] oral, oral communication was a big thing until the Gutenberg press. So I try to remember

[00:17:49] it's okay to listen to the Bible. Then I'm very, a very nerd thing is I'm reading

[00:17:58] Greek right now about a verse a day and parenthetically I'm in filiment. It's not as easy as

[00:18:05] you. I'm not a Greek expert or anything, but if I read it, you know, Dr. Mum was right. If you

[00:18:09] read a verse a day, it sticks with you some and, and I'm just, it makes me slow down.

[00:18:16] It makes me stop. And then one other thing I'm doing is I take a chapter a day

[00:18:23] and I address it devotionally. And, but then here's a sleeper. I've been studying

[00:18:29] more. I've decided I need to be putting a little bit of study in the danger of that

[00:18:35] is that you can be studying all the time and not be treating it devotionally. Absolutely.

[00:18:44] Before we move on, well, let's move on. I'll come back to this question of how the

[00:18:49] devotional life shapes us spiritually, but let's go to this seminary thing because it dovetails into

[00:18:53] what I just said. Should seminary devotions be separate from class? You and I were told,

[00:19:01] and it was a few professors that probably would have said that don't let your seminary classes or

[00:19:07] if you're a Bible college student, Bible college, don't let your classes be your devotional life.

[00:19:13] What do you think about that? When you look here 25 some years later almost, what do you think of,

[00:19:20] what do you think of that? Well, I go back to, yeah, I go back to where you and I,

[00:19:25] well, you and I heard that and we actually had long discussions about it early on.

[00:19:34] And you and I both landed somewhere that I still believe in today for seminary classes,

[00:19:43] for sermon preparation, for Sunday school teaching, any of those. I start out with reading it,

[00:19:52] reading the scripture passage devotionally first and then I move into the preparation side.

[00:20:03] So if I know the text that I'm preaching on, I go and I read that as a devotional thought

[00:20:09] first and just ask the question of what is this text saying in general, right?

[00:20:16] What do I get out of this text just as a quick read? Here's what the verse is. Here's what it says.

[00:20:24] And then I go through after I've read it devotionally, I go through and start reading it

[00:20:31] with the commentary and with the academic perspective to see what's behind this text, right?

[00:20:40] I do all my hermeneutical work on the backside of that. But if I'm not read it devotionally first,

[00:20:47] just to ask the question, what is this text just plain English, what it's saying?

[00:20:52] When I tell the congregate, because I don't know, you know, everybody has their own method,

[00:20:57] right? When I see what the pastor is preaching on Sunday morning, when I'm listening,

[00:21:02] or when he goes, open your Bible to this passage. What's the first thing I do? I read it.

[00:21:09] I read the entire text that he's going to preach from so that I know what he's preaching.

[00:21:15] And I'm reading it as that first pass so that it's more of a devotional read. I want to

[00:21:21] know what the text says before I hear what he says, because the text is the Word of God.

[00:21:28] And so he can then explain to me what the Word of God says and give me that deeper understanding.

[00:21:35] But just the plain simple English, I should be able to read the Bible for myself and

[00:21:41] know what it means. And so if you're not reading it devotionally,

[00:21:43] you're jumping straight into this academic perspective on things. And you never go back

[00:21:49] and just read the plain simple English and say, what is this? I was talking with a pastor today.

[00:21:55] He's working on a degree out of the European model. And so he was talking about the

[00:22:06] professors over there. They said, for you Americans as you're writing these papers that we want you

[00:22:16] to write, do us a favor. Just answer the question. We don't have to have all this

[00:22:25] hermeneutical and setting. If we ask a question, we just want to answer to the question, right?

[00:22:32] We don't have to go into all the background before you answer the question. You need to

[00:22:39] presubose we know the background because we do. We wouldn't have asked the question if we

[00:22:44] didn't know the background. We're trying to find out, can you answer the question based on this?

[00:22:49] Well, that's the same thing. A pastor doesn't need to go into all the background

[00:22:55] if he hasn't read it devotionally. Again, this is my philosophy, my opinion on this. So

[00:23:00] I read devotionally first academically second. Would you

[00:23:10] say that this statement is good? Respond to this statement that I'm going to give you.

[00:23:17] Okay. The difference between a sermon and having a word from the Lord is whether you spent time in

[00:23:27] that passage devotionally trying to hear the heart of God in it. I would affirm that statement.

[00:23:36] I believe that's a very good way of summarizing this because again, if you jump into the academics

[00:23:45] without the devotion of it, you're giving all this background and setting and you're not just answering

[00:23:55] the question. The reason why I say that is because somebody may be listening going,

[00:24:02] I'm not a pastor. What are you guys talking about? Here's what we're talking about.

[00:24:06] We live in a day now where you can literally fill your life all the time in the car,

[00:24:13] in the in between at work. You can retreat with air pods in and you can listen to podcast,

[00:24:22] you can listen to preaching, you can listen to worship music. It is much more now than it

[00:24:28] was 20 years ago. I mean, it's unreal and I would argue that sometimes filling your life

[00:24:36] with all of that instead of having the devotional approach, a simple devotional approach to life,

[00:24:46] it's not going to do for you at times, at times. It's not going to do for you

[00:24:52] what you think it's going to do. Now there are other times where I think you

[00:24:55] want to pack yourself full. I think too many Christians, somebody will say, well,

[00:25:01] you said a few minutes ago, get it? Well, you read the Bible in 90 days and I've done that

[00:25:05] before. It's a beast but it's doable. You know what? I'm in the I don't want to hear our

[00:25:10] excuses mode. Hey look man, we got time for everything else. You got to be kidding man.

[00:25:15] We got time to take an hour. We're not used to reading for an hour so that's what makes

[00:25:20] it grueling. I get it but we've got plenty of time if we want to make the time and here's what I think.

[00:25:26] Colossians 3 verse 16 is the parallel passage for Ephesians 5 18 where Paul said be filled with the

[00:25:34] spirit in 5 18 but in Colossians 3 16 he said let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. The

[00:25:43] word dwell is got a derivative of the word Oikos and it means house. Yeah, let the word of God be

[00:25:51] in housed in you and you don't get that from just reading Oswald chambers. Right. I'm not against

[00:25:59] Oswald chambers. I think I love that Devo. I mean I'd love that thing. I got so addicted I

[00:26:05] finally said I'm getting off of the Devo books because I love them. There's a fullness

[00:26:11] to quote Dr. Hemphill. There's a fullness of the spirit that comes only from intake of the word of

[00:26:20] God enough to bring that fullness into a person's life. Absolutely. So what am I saying? It's either

[00:26:29] or but it's also both and. Yeah, absolutely. Dependent on the season of life that you may be in.

[00:26:36] A new believer they're not going to read the Bible in 90 days. Not easily but they might and they'll

[00:26:42] be okay. What do you think? What are you sitting there thinking when I say that? No, no, I'm in

[00:26:46] 100% agreement. I mean that's the whole issue with this and I think what you said earlier

[00:26:52] you know is a great we did this as well listening to the Bible. So because we've read it in 100

[00:26:59] days multiple times that one of these times recent times that we did this we said hey

[00:27:05] let's just listen to the Bible in 100 days. I'm preaching through it or challenging people to read

[00:27:11] it and we just say look if you don't feel like you can read like I have one person that she's like

[00:27:16] I don't read well but she could turn the Bible on and she said she would just get so engrossed

[00:27:23] in the story of the Bible and that's the whole thing about this grand story of God

[00:27:28] right and just allowing yourself to just be there's something Alan about God's word being read over you

[00:27:39] that is a lot different than you just reading the Bible. When your house is you're dwelling

[00:27:46] when you're dwelling is full of God's word because you've got it playing on your

[00:27:54] on your surround sound or whatever you know so you can hear it whatever you're walking around doing

[00:27:59] there's something about that word being read over you that does just

[00:28:04] encompass you and causes you to just experience God in a different way than actually reading it

[00:28:10] yourself. Yeah you know what I like is when I'm listening to it I can sometimes if I'm doing

[00:28:18] something I'll carry my phone and I'll be listening or if I'm brushing my teeth or I'm in the shower

[00:28:25] whatever I'm doing I like to try to go okay what chapter of the Bible is that where is that

[00:28:30] what chapter and I don't remember all that but it's fun to hear the story and go oh yeah I remember

[00:28:35] here and I remember this and I'm the story it somehow it packs in there is a fullness of

[00:28:40] the spirit everyone what are we saying right now we're saying that the devotional life

[00:28:46] is crucial um let me ask you this Kenneth what is your plan B I usually tell people you need a plan

[00:28:54] B there's going to be a day where you're not going to be able to get up get your coffee get to your

[00:28:58] little sweet spot it's not going to go that way you got to get up and get moving what's your

[00:29:04] plan B for that what do you do well excuse me you know it's different uh and my plan B is not

[00:29:13] so formulated because all of our plans can go awry it really comes out to what is my day like

[00:29:22] and so what does it turn out to be you know when it's a study day uh the the plan is the plan

[00:29:30] right I mean I'm protecting my study time and so devotional reading happens first in fact

[00:29:39] when I'm doing sermon prep devotional reading of that text happens every time I sit down to begin

[00:29:46] working on the sermon because I want to go back to the devotional so that I make sure the in-depth

[00:29:51] stays where it's supposed to be and doesn't take away from the devotional but if it's just a

[00:29:56] normal routine day like today was this day that I did not have any study day whatsoever

[00:30:03] and so our devotional happens at night as a couple and that's where we'll read the connection code

[00:30:11] now there's there's nice we were traveling last week and we didn't take the connection code with

[00:30:16] us normally I take pictures of each of the the days but connection codes multiple pages is kind

[00:30:23] of hard to to get photos of all those on the phone and be able to read it so we're gone for two

[00:30:28] nights so we did not take the connection code hey you know what it's okay if you miss a couple of days

[00:30:35] this is not a legalistic you have to do this every day or god looks down at you and and

[00:30:42] it's disappointed in you no it's okay if you miss a couple of days the issue is you

[00:30:48] cannot make a habit of you can't allow the the exception to be the rule right so you can't

[00:30:56] say oh I'm just going to occasionally do a devotion you've got to have a plan for how you're going to

[00:31:02] do it and yeah you should have a backup plan my backup plan I have my own private devotions that

[00:31:09] happen for me when I'm doing my prep but we have our couple devotions together that's the

[00:31:15] following and look I can honestly say in our marriage I've not been great about leaving

[00:31:20] out in that couple time we have to find us a system that we are both like and are good with

[00:31:27] and commit the time to do it and so you know we we don't have television we watch everything online

[00:31:34] and so you know when we're about to sit down and watch a couple of shows before we turn it on

[00:31:40] we do our devotion and then we'll engage in television and watch shows you know if if I'm in

[00:31:49] the shower she's in the shower I might be watching a show while we're waiting but the computer gets

[00:31:55] set aside while we do our devotion time and then we can go back to entertainment if we want

[00:32:02] entertainment but yeah so I don't have this idea that that I have to do something every single

[00:32:07] day and if I don't do it God's judging me for that but I do have this spiritual practice in my life

[00:32:14] of saying I've got to engage in God's word in some way so whether it's through the devotional

[00:32:20] reading or through the engagement of actually preparing a biblical text for teaching or for

[00:32:25] preaching that I utilize how about you my plan B is usually the biggest thing I

[00:32:34] have realized you just tapped on it I don't panic yeah God's not going to squash me dead if I don't

[00:32:41] get to have my devotional the way that it works there are times when I've got a weird thing going

[00:32:49] on right now I do a group devotional on a live Facebook thing every day and it's it's definitely

[00:32:57] an odd thing so I try not to prepare for it a lot I prepare a little but I really it's a

[00:33:03] devotional preparation but my plan B is get in the car listen to something on the way

[00:33:11] talk to the Lord in the car if I got to go and whether it's a pastoral thing where you

[00:33:17] got to be at the hospital or maybe you're just a person then you got you're late you didn't wake

[00:33:22] up in time and you're like oh man I'm such a loser no use the time in the car that's right

[00:33:27] you know the Lord blesses that I've had great devotional times in the car

[00:33:32] the key is to talk to the Lord to be listening to him to not be disconnected in your life

[00:33:40] and in such a way that you're not relating to him personally because spiritual formation

[00:33:48] happens well look at us here we are all these years later having these I remember when I first

[00:33:54] started having devotional life okay check this out so when I was at Fort Campbell I used to think

[00:33:59] okay I'm going to seminary I got to start really reading my Bible now so I started waking up at

[00:34:05] like 430 I had been accepted as a student at Southwest I was like I got to get up early I got

[00:34:10] to get holy before I get to seminary oh my goodness I didn't know what I was doing well I'm

[00:34:16] waking up at 430 I would wake up like 20 minutes later in front of a computer screen I had some

[00:34:23] lame computer but I was trying to remember I'd fall back asleep right and then I would leave the

[00:34:29] house by five so I thought wait a minute wait a minute you're messing it up I would get up

[00:34:34] get awake get my stuff get in the car and I would listen to Radio Bible class with

[00:34:41] Haddon Robinson yeah Mark Dillon and Alice Matthews it's about a 15 minute devotional

[00:34:49] Bible study on the radio every day and I got so much out of that spiritually

[00:34:57] and I didn't even think to put that in our talk notes that I thought I'm so glad the Lord reminded

[00:35:02] me of that right now I mean that was so beneficial so that's just an example of your plan B can

[00:35:07] actually be your plan A don't worry about it and don't live in guilt okay here's what I want

[00:35:14] to do I want to end the podcast with a little back and forth up to the number 10

[00:35:20] and I didn't tell Kenneth this was coming but we're gonna we're gonna answer the we're gonna give you

[00:35:26] 10 ways to stoke up your devotional life and we're just gonna randomly give you things off the

[00:35:32] top of our head right now to end the podcast of how to stoke up your devotional life and be

[00:35:36] spiritually formed by the Lord so so I'll go first the first thing you can do is get a new

[00:35:43] devotional book Kenneth second thing is get a different version of the Bible to read read a

[00:35:53] paraphrase that's really good yeah I'll say number three get a Bible the one that Kenneth just said

[00:36:02] let's say and actually start marking it up right in it get one that you're willing to write in

[00:36:08] underline highlight and and just do word studies okay another way of doing your devotions and there's

[00:36:17] I'm not this type of person but some people are is you can journal your devotions and so grab you a

[00:36:23] journal a blank piece of paper and begin writing out what God's teaching you through reading the

[00:36:29] Bible I wish that was a practice that I could do but journaling for some reason has just always

[00:36:35] been a struggle for me really I'm surprised because you're such a writer okay number five

[00:36:41] I'll go with what we've already said listen to the Bible on your phone that's good number six

[00:36:50] number six well I'll still what you've already mentioned but you know listen to

[00:36:55] someone like a had had Rob you know listen to one of these you know Jack Graham does PowerPoint

[00:37:05] Charles Stanley even though he's passed away he still has audio devotions that come out online

[00:37:11] sermon type things I love his oh he's my guy Dr. Stanley was so his devotional preaching man

[00:37:19] just always I loved him amen I would say take a prayer walk do something different take a prayer

[00:37:27] walk another one that that's actually this spoon feed you you can read so I Debbie and I both have

[00:37:34] Charles Stanley's daily devotion emailed to us so when you wake up in the morning you have a

[00:37:40] devotion sitting right there in your email box and so find one of your favorite preachers that

[00:37:46] has a devotion like that and sign up for his emails and you'll get a daily devotion so when you wake up

[00:37:52] to get out of bed there it is ready to read yeah I like that I've got a couple that come in it gets

[00:37:58] lost in my inbox sometimes but I do look at them that's that is really really good

[00:38:05] another thing would be to make a use a prayer list stoke up your devotional life by getting

[00:38:12] a list of names and just putting the names of your neighbors people who don't know the Lord

[00:38:19] your family just start using a kind of a formal prayer list on a three by five card

[00:38:25] and go down that list and just let that be your guide for praying okay one more be number 10 Ken

[00:38:32] yeah the number 10 the last one I do is actually go through a different model of prayer as a

[00:38:38] part of your devotion the acts right adoration confession thanksgiving supplication and so

[00:38:45] find these different model prayers and use that as your devotion time a lot too many people pray

[00:38:55] requesting and they don't praise during their devotion oh that's good yeah that's good

[00:39:02] well the reason why we wanted to deal with this topic the pros and cons of a devotional life is

[00:39:08] because it is important to be connected devotionally to the Lord and to the body of Christ in Acts

[00:39:14] chapter 2 verse 42 the older versions of the Bible say they continued steadfastly but some of the

[00:39:21] newer translations do the same thing it's same word but it uses the word they devoted

[00:39:27] themselves to these things and the first thing they devoted themselves was

[00:39:32] to was the apostles teaching the word devotion has the idea of we're going to start doing

[00:39:39] something devote ourselves to it and we're not going to stop yeah and so we hope you guys will

[00:39:46] hear us encouraging you to be spiritually formed by your devotional life develop a

[00:39:53] devotional life it is a long time proven practice that if you will have a devotional life

[00:40:02] it's going to carry you through your life and I do remember at southwestern when I was in seminary

[00:40:07] I remember Jimmy Draper and so many others who came through and basically said don't neglect

[00:40:13] your devotional life because it's going to keep you when other things are not going to keep you

[00:40:19] in the ministry right well thanks for the conversation Kenneth that's awesome we look forward

[00:40:28] to seeing we'll see you next week and listeners we're going to have the end of show notes some

[00:40:32] resources that we've mentioned we appreciate you guys share this content somewhere and remember

[00:40:38] we're on a journey to encourage you and your journey with God we want to help you walk with

[00:40:45] the Lord and so we're just creating some conversations if you want to interact with us look us up I

[00:40:50] can get you uh uh Kenneth's email and we can answer any questions and be a resource here we would

[00:40:56] love to do that more to come and I'll see you later Kenneth God bless bro see you have a great week