How to Get Your Spiritual Life Out of the Drive-Thru Lane
Another day was over and I had done it again. With sleepy eyes, I reached for the lamp on my nightstand and turned off the light. I fell asleep to the familiar feelings of guilt and regret.
I had intended to spend some quality time with God that morning. I had pulled my Bible out and found a nice comfy spot to sit on the couch. I intentionally made coffee ahead of time…so I already had that in hand. I even set an alarm to remind me to get started. So what in the world happened?
Sadly, what happened this morning was what happened to me many mornings.
Millions of little distractions.
One click on Instagram here. One “quick” email response there. One little squirrel moment over there. And…oh yeah. That text message. Yep.
Distractions had stolen my attention yet again.
But even worse, these little distractions were slowly robbing me of my time with God.
If you’re anything like me, you know the feeling. You’ve been there. Instead of your personal devotions feeling like a rich hearty meal, it feels more like a fast food drive-thru. Quick and on the go.
Girl, I am going to be really honest with you here. This is a seriously battle in my life and I have not totally conquered this problem. But in my heart, I know that I don’t want to live in the spiritual fast food drive-thru. I want something more. Something spiritually nutritious. I’m guessing you want the same thing.
Over the years, through trial and error, I have learned some helpful tips for staying focused and consistent in my devotional time.
But you know what? These tips won’t work very unless they’re rooted in the right motivations.
First, it starts by recognizing that your “daily devotions” aren’t simply a good Christian habit to check off the list. Instead, your personal devotional time should be just that — devotion. This is a set-apart time of the day where you humbly come before your amazing God to worship Him, praise Him, study His word, and seek His help through prayer.
This isn’t simply “devotions”…but an intentional time of devotion to your Savior.
With that mindset as your foundation, I want to share some of the practical tips with you now.
1. There’s no shortcuts to loving God.
If you’ve ever thought, “man…I wish I had a deeper, more passionate relationship with God!” you’re not alone. But the truth is, there’s only one way to get that. Quality time with God.
The more time you spend with God, the more you will love Him and worship Him. The less time you spend with Him, the less you will love Him and worship Him.
Your relationship with God will only be as deep as the time you spend with Him. If you want to love God more and develop a passion for Him, then you must spend quality, daily, and intentional time with Him.
2. Get into a consistent rhythm (put it on your calendar).
In life, we have a lot of natural rhythms throughout our day. We typically do similar things at similar times (i.e. breakfast, lunch, and dinner to name a few). Instead of “hoping” to get some solid time in with the Lord, pick the time of day that you’re going to make it happen.
Don’t squeeze God into your life, plan your life around God.
Everyone’s schedules are different, so for you it might be right before breakfast. Or maybe it’s the very first thing you do when you wake up (highly recommended). Or maybe it’s a block of time you set aside each night before bed.
Whatever it is, be intentional to carve out specific times and stick to them.
3. Ask for accountability.
Personally, I am most consistent and faithful in my devotional times when I have accountability in place. As Jesus Himself said to his disciples, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). My flesh is weak. Your flesh is weak.
Let’s be real — rolling over in bed typically sounds a lot more appealing than getting up.
Having personal accountability in place will help you as you seek to be faithful in your time with God. Ask a mature friend, a parent, or a godly woman to hold you accountable on a weekly basis to your quiet time schedule. Ask her to text you (or email or call) once a week to see how you’re doing.
It’s time to ditch the drive-thru method.
Instead, make intentional decisions to spend quality the with God in order to build a personal relationship with Him. Choose to make your devotional life a priority every single day.
The more you do this, the more you will grow to love your Savior. And the more you love your Savior, the more passionate you will become to live your life for His glory.
I’d love to hear from you below.
- Where do you struggle the most in your personal devotional life?
- What have you found to be personally helpful for you in growing closer to the Lord?
Sometimes I only fit in a verse on one day, and sometimes I go on for chapters. I think it can vary, but typically I read a chapter a day and study it, just going by what book of the Bible I feel like reading that day. Hope this helps! God bless!
Very good! We need more goddly people in governments
I agree with Hannah. Sometimes a single verse will give me enough to think about for hours (Micah 6:8, for instance). Other times I’ll read several chapters at once, like with Elijah and the Shunnamite woman. It varies. Sometimes inspiration happens quickly, other times it takes a lot of reading to find that connection with God. I think, try not to be formulaic about it. The holy spirit moves on its own time. Let it. By reading for you, for your connection with God, you’re starting at the right place. 🙂
One question . . .
The Holy Spirit is God. . .so I hope you just made a mistake. . .by calling Him an it and didn’t mean He is just a force. He is part of the Trinity. Just curious of what you meant by that?
Actually, I was thinking of it in a somewhat metaphorical sense, i.e., as the wind, not as That-which-makes-the-wind-to-blow – so I think “it” works fine.
However, your question does bring up an interesting avenue of inquiry. For instance, Gen. 1:27 states that “male *and* female” is created in the image of one God. (I use “is,” singular, intentionally.) If woman is created in the image of God, and man is also, then what is the gender of God? Wouldn’t that make Him either genderless, or bi-gender, or pan-gender?
Most of us probably agree the Bible is the inspired Word of G-d in it’s original language. I find it very interesting that even though Hebrew (the language in which the Old Testament was written) has words for both male & female genders, the pronoun used for G-d is always “He”. All humans are absolutely created in the image of G-d, both male & female, so I truly believe G-d is more than just “He”, but if G-d chose a masculine pronoun to identify himself, I am not about to argue with him. (I’ve never won any time I have tried to fight with G-d anyway! grin)- Penny (John’s wife who chooses not to have her own FB page.)
Actually, it’s my understanding that the original Hebrew of the Bible (Torah) had words for six different genders. If that’s true, it would be interesting to know if the words translated as “He” and “Him” related to the masculine gender in the same way that it does in English – or if it was another gender signifier altogether, and just got translated as “He” in our English, Latin, and other relatively modern translations.
Skip the multiple chapters idea. . .just stop that. Do it at your own pace. Sometimes I plan to study a whole book and I can’t even get past reading the first 3 verses, because I just want to stick on them. Everyone’s different. The point of reading the Bible, should be solely for discovering more about Jesus and getting closer to Him. . .so if reading tons of chapters stunts that. . .umm something is wrong. Just dive into the Word. . .and soak up verses. Ask Jesus to help you out.
I tell my kids to read until they get to a verse that REALLY speaks to them – then copy that verse down in their journal & write down why it was so meaningful. Write down anything they felt G-d saying to them personally or that they felt applied to their own life right now. I do this myself. Like everyone else has said sometimes I will read a few chapters. Other days only a few verses go by before something strikes me as interesting enough to want to remember. Sometimes I really need to hear from G-d on one particular subject that is troubling me so I go to my concordance (love the free online ones!) and search by keyword -like “forgiveness” and just read verses on that subject alone. (example; Recently I got all excited about the concept that G-d has a “mercy seat”. He has a special seat to sit in just to show MERCY! As a child of G-d, I know how much I need G-d’s mercy. As a parent – I was reminded how much my children need my MERCY in addition to my instructions & corrections. I wrote a lot that day! ) – Penny (John’s wife who chooses not to have her own FB page)