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Pastor Jay's Blog

Devotion Times That Count, Part 2

 

 

Last week I argued that the goal of devotional times was not just to have them, but to revel in them as times of relational intimacy. It is a time for knowing Christ and being known; a time for Christ to dwell in and through you while you rest and grow in Him.


Like any relationship, there are two kinds of time spent with a person: quality time and quantity time. They are both needed. For a real relationship to exist, there has to be a significant amount of time spent together doing whatever (quantity time) and an intentional time spent together interacting and talking in ways that matter (quality time). Those that advocate quality time in exclusion of quantity time are only doing so because they are selling you out for another Significant Other who will leave if they don’t give the quantity demanded (i.e. the boss demands I work these hours, therefore I give you the leftovers and christen it with the name “quality time”). Those advocating quantity time in exclusion of quality time will be with you, but laziness ensures that the relationship stays cemented in mediocrity.


How does this translate over to our devotional times and the spiritual dynamic that should be at play in those times? I believe there is a lot of correlation here.


Let’s think about quantity time first. Quantity time means that a person is reading all of the Bible, over and over again. It doesn’t matter if you do it in a year, four years, or six months. What does matter is that you are spending time in it regularly and substantially. You might object here by saying, “Isn’t that what you were arguing against in your last post? Weren’t you saying that there has to be more than just doing it and checking it off the list?” You are right that I said there must be more. There is a goal to be pursued, and regularity is not the goal. But regularity will be a part of achieving the goal. Imagine a husband and wife working on all the chores of a regular household. There are dishes to clean, bills to pay, repairs to be made. They will do these things together, but no one is going to call this intimacy. However, all of that normal stuff will provide a framework for intimacy. When they are walking hand-in-hand on a delightful evening stroll, they are going to laugh about how he dropped a dish in the sink and splashed water right up his nose. Or they will discuss how they can trim the cost of a certain bill to help their parents or maybe take a romantic trip to the mountains.


Being in the Word, day-after-day, year-after-year is like this. Not every chapter is going to have a powerful application into your life right now. But you are building a framework. You are slowly building your life upon the Rock. And as regular life happens, you will discover that you are walking with Christ and the Spirit is going to apply His Word to all of this regular life stuff. You need all of His Word, just like you need all of your spouse. Not every moment in the Scripture will be transforming, but every moment is needed to bring about transformation. Not every moment in the Scripture will be exhilarating, but when times of exhilaration happen it will be because you laid the groundwork for it. Therefore, make sure the quantity of time in God’s Word is substantial in your life.


So let’s be honest, 10 minutes in the morning is not substantial. Not really. Am I trying to discourage you? No. I am trying to shame you a bit. Why? Because you are not a slave being pushed in grueling labor for 16 hours and unable to read more; that would be discouraging. You are someone who has time to spend as you please, and you fill it with T.V., internet browsing, shopping, travel, gardening, etc. When you give just a fraction of your day to knowing Christ and being known by Him, that is shameful. You are selling him out for lesser things. So, am I calling you to be in the Bible two hours every day? Don’t be silly. You would have to cut out, like, two T.V. shows to do that!! There is no magic amount of minutes because people’s ability and particular situation will vary widely. “Substantial” is going to be different for everyone. What you should be looking for to determine substantial intake is familiarity. For instance, how well do you know 1 Corinthians? If I asked you for several important passages about the person of Jesus in the epistles could you take me to them? What is the point of Ruth? Now if you have only been a Christian for several years, you won’t know these things for the same reason a new wife doesn’t know if her husband would rather have mint chocolate chip ice cream or Rocky Road. But if you have been a Christian for a decade or two, there has been plenty of time to know the Word.


Devotion times that count only become possible when you count your hours and start using them for things that count.

 

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