Make way, Give Room : Jonathan Crabtree
I can tell you for a fact I was one of the people who thought that living life with god was enough, and that the world obeyed me 24/7 rather than it sweeping me away, but I have come to the realisation that living life with god during the week is not enough. You can worship in class, you can give glory to him every time you do something great, or thank him every time you set your eyes on anything, but how does that advance you? Yes it keeps your eyes from slipping off him, and it stops you from being puled away from the crowd, but I don't want to be someone who just settles for not being influenced by the wrong things, I want to influence others to the extent that they are pulled by me! This is why even the most devotional livers need specific devotional time, it gives you chance to build yourself, read into the word, re-enforce scripture and recharge your batteries, you know what its like when your phone is on charge, and yet your on it all the time, playing music and texting, the battery charges, but it takes hours and hours longer, and you constantly are moving around, so you unplug and plug back in adding time to your charge. Where as you could set some time out, and plug in and stay in, no applications on, just plugged in for the soul purpose of charging up your batteries. You will be full to bursting in no time, and i urge you, if you don't believe me just go out and try it! It makes a world of difference, takes away worry, gives peace, and so much more I can barley describe!
But even during your devotional time, after you have "made way" you can still become sidetracked and distracted, sometimes when we are in the right mind set and in the presence we can push god out and become self centred and up tight, not allowing god to move and have his way, which to be honest is the soul reason we have devotional time and pray, its to find out gods plan for our life and then fill ourselves to enable and equip ourselves to be able to do it. These distractions can come in a variety of ways, there are allot more than these ones I am about to list, and you will know about it if they aren't here, but there are some listed here that you may never have realised and this may help your devotional life go to the next level (well at least I hope so, since thats the reason I wrote this :P)
The 3 D's
1)Social Distraction
This is for you tecnological people who cant miss a tweet or a Facebook, PUT IT DOWN! its great to stay in contact with people, and its great to share what you find in your devotional time, but save it for after, if your mind is on your phone or computer while in looking into the word its not going to set in properly, I advise to step away from technology, even if you write notes on it, put it down, leave it, and get out a good old fashioned pen and paper, sit comfy and read from a real book, not one of those glowing ones that hurt your eyes. This will make your time spent much more efficient and productive, while making it more comfy and enjoyable.
2)Tangent Devotion
This is for you guys who are off the wall thinkers and cant turn your mind off, (don't worry, I share your burden) Letting your mind run wild tends to hinder your devotional tim rather than help it. When I first started I could never stick to one verse or stay on one subject of prayer, I would fly through verses and topics so by the end I could barley remember what was done or said! when approaching devotional time, have a plan as to what you will do, start with a scripture and write it down so you remember what your looking at when you look back through your notes. Don't just reed it and then move on, take time over it, read it a few times reflect on it and see where your mind takes you. An active mind can be an amazing tool when put in the right environment, it can take you to places and things you cant imagine, but before you let yourself loose build some boundaries and place yourself in the right place before you let the guns fire and what you think of will surprise you, I promise.
The same applies to prayer, put yourself in the right place, think about where you want to start, if you need to think about the prayer structures shown in the bible, like the lords prayer, don't just chant them, but use them as a guide and relate them to your life at that point, then see where your mind takes you, then you wont end up praying about chocolate spread and the price of video games as I often have in the past, set yourself properly on the track before you set off and you shouldn't leave it.
3)God Direction
This applies when you have taken the first two into account, when you are in your devotional time, you have distanced yourself away from electronics and gizmos and you have put yourself on the right path you need to remember why your in that position, its to here from god, listen, and pray for god to supply and help you in that. Obviously there are other reasons you come to god, for example praise, adoration, provision, but these things should all stem from the first, you need to know when you come to god you need to give him room to move, there is no good going up to someone saying, "hey i was just wondering if you could help me, you se i have this problem, and the way to sort it is to do this this this this and this, can you do that for me pall? thanks bud" and walk off, he wold probably hit you in the face. The problem is we often treat god like a vending machine and we often don't even realise it, we reed the word and do good deeds, and then expect god to give us what we ask, and we forget we are there to do gods work and hear from him, not to tell him what to do for us, that is sometimes why we can be disappointed in our prayer life, we pray for solutions rather than the actual problem, we need to be directed by god, and leave him room to move. Yes read the verses that are relevant to your problems, but why should your devotional time be soul about you, you need to give glory to god not your problems, i have made this mistake day in day out for years, but from the day i started leaving my problems at the door and just focussing on god was the day i started to see more breakthrough than ever before. God knows your problems and he will help you out for your diligence, you don't need to pester god about it, if something needs sorting he will provide, he doesn't need you reminding him every day about it, however he does need you every day to look out for people in need, reach out to the lost and the lonely, thats what devotional time is about, bringing heaven down to earth, not taking your problems up to heaven.
To sum this up, Make way, take yourself out the struggle of life and the choppy sea of work, but also make room, move yourself out the way of Distractions, Tangents, but most of all, give god direction in your Devotional time, don't let it just be about you, but let it be about god and his kingdom, hope you benefit from this :)
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