Chapter 11. Establishing Your Devotional Hour. We first make our habits, and then our habits make us. John Dryden. All ways of life that tend to nourish, raise, and fix our affections upon Him are to be reckoned as so many helps and means to fill us with devotion. William Law. When we read the biographies of spiritual giants, we find that almost without exception they steadfastly maintain a daily devotional hour. So one of the most important secrets to living the kingdom life is to establish such an hour.
In fact, I can almost say without exception that without such a devotional hour, you won't go very far in the kingdom life. Incidentally, when I say "devotional hour," I don't mean that it has to be a full 60 minutes. Eventually, you'll probably want to spend a full hour, but there's nothing magical about 60 minutes. In the next few chapters, we'll be talking about how to make your devotional time a rich spiritual experience.
In our discussion, I will address matters as though you are alone during this devotional time. This is because we all need some personal, one-on-one time with God. Nevertheless, if you are married, you will no doubt want to do some of these things with your spouse and with your children. When should you schedule your devotional hour? Most people will find that the best time for their devotional hour is first thing in the morning. David wrote, "O God, You are my God; early will I seek You." Psalm 63:1.
Job rose early each morning to offer sacrifices for his children. Under the law, the priests offered up a lamb every morning, and the high priest burned incense on the altar. Exodus 29:39 and Chapter 30:7. We read concerning Jesus. Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place, and there He prayed. Mark 1:35. Many people find that their minds are freshest in the morning, and their hearts are the most undistracted at that time.
Starting the day with a regular prayer time is one way to keep Christ and His kingdom foremost in our lives throughout the day. Andrew Murray wrote, "The kingdom should be first every day, and all the day. Let the kingdom be first every morning. Begin the day with God, and God Himself will maintain His kingdom in your heart." However, some may find that morning is not the best time for their devotional hour. Instead of being the freshest in the morning, your head may be full of cobwebs.
Perhaps morning is the most hairy time in your home. If you're a mother, you may be busy getting the family dressed and fed, and getting your children off to school or ready for homeschool. If you're a man, you may be rushing off to work. Some would suggest that you should simply get up earlier so you can have your prayer time before all the commotion starts. Perhaps so. But getting up earlier may only cause you to go through the day extra tired. For years, I tried to develop a regular devotional hour each morning.
I scheduled it in the morning because almost all devotional books insist that one's devotional hour should be the first thing each day. But I'm not a morning person. I'm a night owl. I do my best thinking, my best writing, and my best praying at night. Nevertheless, for years I tried to force myself into the morning devotional hour mold. One day, I finally realized that the Scriptures nowhere command us to have a morning devotional hour. In fact, they don't require us to have a devotional hour at all.
The devotional hour is simply an important aid to living the kingdom life. So I was unnecessarily forcing myself into a mold that didn't fit me. I eventually realized that I needed my devotional hour to fit my life and not someone else's. When I moved my devotional hour from morning to evening, it changed from being a dutiful chore to being a joy. To be sure, you should always begin your day with prayer. But it can be a shorter prayer time. You can then reserve different parts of the day for your devotional hour.
Choose the time of day that best fits you. Some people may find the best time for them is during their lunch break. If you're a mother with small children, you may find your best devotional time is in the afternoon when the children are taking naps. The important thing is to find a time when you will not feel rushed and when you are unlikely to be interrupted. Schedule your devotional hour for a time when you can clear your mind of the cares of the day and truly focus on God. Does it need to be an hour?
As I said earlier, there is nothing magical about 60 minutes. In fact, if your devotional life has been spotty or nonexistent, I don't advise you to suddenly start praying and reading for an hour each day. If you try a lengthy devotional time before you're ready, it will almost certainly be a drudgery. Instead, start with a five-minute special prayer time, followed by five minutes of Bible reading. Once you have established this devotional time each day, examine the quality of your prayer during this time.
Is your prayer time dry and mechanical? Do you have difficulty filling up the five minutes? Are you mainly praying out of a sense of duty? Would you rather be doing something else? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then there's no point in making your prayer time any longer. Instead, focus on improving the quality of your five-minute prayer time. Ask God to help kindle a desire in you to pray.
If you persevere, eventually you will find that you have no trouble filling the five minutes with meaningful prayer. In fact, you will come to love this five minutes with God and will look forward to it each day. When you have reached that point and are consistent with it, then increase your prayer time to 10 minutes, followed by 5 or 10 minutes of Bible reading. Ask yourself the same questions about your 10-minute prayer time.
When you find that your 10 minutes of prayer are fruitful and something you cherish, try increasing the time to 15 minutes and so on. Finally, there is nothing that limits your devotional time to one hour. In fact, you might want to begin the day with a devotional hour and end it in the same manner. Where should I pray?
Jesus said, "When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly." Matthew 6:6. The word "secret" here doesn't mean that no one else can know where it is. It means secluded or hidden away. Jesus not only gave us the command to pray in secret, but He also set the example. He often sought quiet places of solitude to pray.
Before He began His ministry, He spent 40 days alone in the wilderness praying and fasting. Matthew 4:1-2. He spends an entire night alone praying on a mountain before selecting His 12 apostles. Luke 6:12-13. Both after John the Baptist's death and after feeding the 5,000, He withdrew to solitary places. Matthew 14:13 and verse 23. In preparation for His arrest and crucifixion, He sought the solitude of the Garden of Gethsemane to pray.
It's true that He had His 11 faithful apostles with Him in the garden, but He withdrew a distance even from them in order to have complete solitude for His prayers. Matthew 26:36-46. So find a solitary place for your devotional hour. The ideal is to have a room or corner of a room set aside in your home or business for this very purpose. William Law makes this suggestion. As far as you can, always pray in the same place.
If you are to reserve that place for devotion and not allow yourself to do anything commonplace in it, if you are never to be there yourself but in times of devotion, if any little room or, if that cannot be, if any particular parts of a room were thus used, this kind of consecration of it as a place holy unto God will have an effect upon your mind and dispose you to such a mental state as will very much assist your devotion.
For by having a place thus sacred in your room, it would in some measure resemble a chapel or house of God. This would dispose you to be always in the spirit of Christianity when you were there and fill you with wise and holy thoughts when you were by yourself there. Of course, you may not be able to set aside such a place. Don't let that trouble you. Jesus had no place to call home, and so He had no one special place of prayer. He had to seek out a solitary place wherever He happened to be.
Finally, if you have no choice but to pray in public, then do so. Just don't do it to be seen by others. When Paul and Silas were in jail in Philippi, they had no choice but to pray and sing publicly in the presence of the other prisoners. The Scriptures say, "At midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them." Acts 16:25. Up to this point, we've talked about when and where to pray. But what should we pray about?