So I just finished my first full week of summer break and I am going through the book by Nancy Leigh DeMoss called A Place of Quiet Rest. It is a book on finding intimacy with God through a daily devotional life. Now I have only gone through three chapters so far, but let me tell you, it is exactly what I needed. So many truths that totally apply to me own life. Because I know that for some Christians it may be hard to get up in the morning to do devotions, I thought I could share with you guys what I learn from this book and maybe it will help you too. So I hope you enjoy and I truly hope this is as big a help to you as it is to me.
The first thing I learned and found really helpful was that the author mentioned how Jesus too got up early in the morning just to have personal time with His Father. It says so in Mark 1:35--"Very early in the morning...Jesus got up...went to a solitary place where He prayed." So many times I tell myself that I WILL get up in the morning so I can do my devotions and I set my alarm to get up earlier. But morning comes, the alarm goes off, and what do I do? More often than not--I hit the snooze button. So why then is it so hard to wake up in the morning to do devotions? Do you have the same problem? I think that one of the reasons is because Satan so desperately tries to sabotage our relationship with God so He can win the battle. Another reason is probably because we have such busy days, that once we get a chance to rest we take it no matter what. But in order to REALLY restore ourselves properly we need to have our daily devotions.
So how can we get ourselves to get up in the morning and do our daily devotions? Well let's first ask how Jesus did it. Jesus was human just like us--so He got tired, hungry, thirsty, etc., just as you and I do. But the Key that we can learn from Him can be found in Mark 1:35; Jesus made a choice to get up early in the morning, before anybody else and go pray and spend time with His Father. Now since Jesus was also tempted like us; He was probably tempted to sleep in since He has so many busy days and all, with healing the sick, casting out demons, preaching. But He did not give into that temptation. He still GOT UP! All because He knew He needed that time with His Father in order to restore His body and be able to go on in another day.
So what does this all mean to us?
Well we clearly see the importance of having a daily devotional time with God in Jesus' own life. We see that in order for him to face another day, He needed that time alone. So, just Jesus; we ALL need that time alone with God everyday so that we can replenish our bodies, so that we are ready to go out and do God's Will during that day. We NEED to spend that time with our Lord in order to strengthen our relationship with Him.
So the next time you want to hit the snooze button and go back to sleep, just think of how Jesus was able to get up early in the morning to do His "devotions." If He can do it so can we!
Don't skip out on that time with your heavenly Father! He wants to spend time with you too!
