Something I have really enjoyed over the years of my Christian journey is my devotional time.
I've tried a lot of different exercises when it comes to 'God time' from simply reading the bible, to prayer to family worship...I've enjoyed it all. But there is something that seems to have 'clicked' for me more than anything else.
And that's journaling my prayers and devotions.
Sometimes I simply use a blank Moleskine and let me thought flow, but another option has been guided journals.
I completed an entire year in one last year, which focused on being a father to my kids. And raising them in the faith. Every day there was a scripture to meditate on, plus some thoughts from the author about the bible verse. After that, an entire page to journal my thoughts about the topic.
I had a blast and I think there was something that I loved about it because of how much I journaled in my pre-faith life.
So this week I found another guided prayer journal and started a 100 day adventure...
So this isn't a full year worth of devotions, it's only a 100 day guided journal. And I'm about 5 days into it right now!
I'm going to practice a habit I used to do in my old journaling days and that's to re-read what I wrote down every week, and then follow it up in a month as well. This helps me retain much more information, and I can see what I committed to, and what I didn't.
Day 2, hit me like a ton of bricks tonight as I re-read my entires...
I dunno about you....But sometimes on this walk, you get cold feet per se.
It's not like I stop believing or anything like that but what happens is that the fire goes out. In my 10 years of following Christ, there's been about 3-4 times where you couldn't stop me. Every second of my days was spent with God. In the bible, studying like my life depended on it...Welp, it kind of does doesn't it? lol
But apparently this is normal. We are human beings and time and time again we always think we know best. So we start getting lukewarm in our faith. Sure, we still read our bibles. Sure, we still go to church. But that 'on fire' feeling that we get from time to time, seems to slip away...
And that's really not a good thing!
If we see what God thinks about the 'lukewarm' believer, read Revelation 3:16
A stern rebuke for the Laodiceans!
Everywhere in the bible, it talks about how we cannot serve God and man at the same time. We have to choose a side. After all, Revelation continues to bring up this word 'worship' time and time again in the following chapters which lets us know....God wants His people to worship Him and Him alone.
So how do we do that?
For me, I know what fires me up....DEVOTIONS! I need to follow the advice of this journal I just started and stop looking for anything other than God. And yeah, easier said than done but alas....The bible always gives you an answer...
"I can do all things through Christ!"