More than anything else, Christians need devotional time each day -that is, time alone with God for a designated period of time. Devotions fill us up with needed strength to live a life for God that is somewhat unnatural for us.
Let me explain: By nature we do not live the way God wants us to, and what God wants can be and is usually unnatural. So when God calls us to love others as we love ourselves, we do need extra strength to do it or else we burn out, we give up trying, and revert to what is most natural to us. Devotions help give us the strength we need.
Devotions also teach us more about God. S. Freud believed that God was simply our own creation designed to meet the needs of our own wishes and needs. Even though I do not believe this to be completely true, it is true in this respect...
God exists, but He exists apart from us. He is not discovered by our own feelings and opinions about Him. He is ultimately discoverable only as He reveals Himself to us through different ways, especially through the Bible. So until we learn about who He is through the Bible we do tend to create our own conclusions about Him.
Let me explain further...I believe that even the best Bible scholars still have a mixture of what they have learned from God (in His Word) and what they have made up in themselves in a Freudian type of way.
OUR GOAL IS TO PUT ASIDE OUR OWN PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS OF WHO GOD IS AND WHAT HE DOES AND TO LET GOD REVEAL HIMSELF TO US THROUGH THE BIBLE AND THROUGH HEARING THE WORD OF GOD. As God reveals Himself to us we need to put aside our own preconceived notions about Him.
Let me summarize what I have been saying about devotions - Devotions renews our faith and gives us needed strength, and devotions provide the opportunity to learn about who God is.
There are other reasons, but for now this is a good start. In my next blog I will talk about what should be involved in devotions and then another blog about scheduling time for devotions.
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