So to catch everyone up, I am going through the book "A Place of Quiet Rest" by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. The deeper I get into this book the more and more I realize how important it is to have a devotional life. Having daily devotions is the biggest way we can deepen our relationship with our Lord and Savior. One of the ways daily devotions can help us grow in intimacy with our Lord is by helping us grow in our inner life. We cannot change on the outside until we change on the inside. So there are four purposes to having daily devotions to help us grow in our inner life.
The first purpose is for communion: God created us to have a personal friendship with Him. We should not have a devotional time just to cross it off our "to-do" list. We should have it because we long to spend personal time with our Best Friend. We should desire to come face-to-face with our Lord, especially if we have not been faithful to Him. We would need to "fix" our relationship with our Savior, and the only way to to do that is to humbly come before Him and ask forgiveness.
The second purpose is for purification: Since we live in a sinful world, we need to come back into God's presence and be cleansed. Just like the Israelites had to have a priest kill a clean animal to cleanse them from their sin we also have to be cleansed from our own sin. But unlike the Israelites we don't have to have a sacrifice made everyday, our sacrifice has already been made. God sent his only Son to be crucified just so we can be purified from our sin and have a relationship with our heavenly Father. Because you see, the Lord cannot have personal relationships with sinful, dirty Christians. Which is exactly what we are until we come before His throne and ask for forgiveness of our sins. So a daily devotional time also helps to cleanse us of our sin. We need to ask God to show us any sin that is hidden and be willing to let Him cleanse us and let Him cast it far away, so we never have to see it or think about it ever, ever again. "He predestined us to be a holy bride for His Holy Son--and one day we will be just that." In order to be His Holy Bride though we must be "washed in the waters of His Word."
The third purpose is for restoration: No matter how faithful we are to the Lord, we all get tired going about our daily lives. We are drained physically and emotionally everyday as we respond to the needs of those around us. So we need a personal devotional time everyday with our Shepherd in order to gain strength to get through another day. If we don't stop and be still and lie down by the "quiet waters," then eventually we will collapse from exhaustion. Our Great Shepherd, though, longs to give us rest. He wants us to come to Him daily for renewal in strength. He will calm our restless spirit.
The fourth purpose if for instruction: The Lord also wants to show us how to have a better relationship with Him. He doesn't necessarily care about our problems. He just cares about changing us through our problems. He is our teacher and He is there for us 24/7. He is ready for us to just come to Him with our needs and He will show us how to deal with them with His help. All we have to do is humble ourselves and ask Him to "show us His ways" and be willing to accept and follow them. He will always be there to teach us the right thing to do.
Once again we must NEVER think of our devotions as a duty. It should be a time where we are eager to meet "face-to-face" with our Best Friend. It should be a time where we desire to learn, grow, and mature in our intimate relationship with our Lord.
