It’s been a long day.

I left the house right after 9 to drive 2 hours. For a 1.5 hour meeting. Then 2 hours back home.

(I did get to sneak in a great lunch with a long-time friend who is also in the ministry. That was a highlight of the day).

I got home around 5:30 and then spent two hours wrangling the dog while prepping for dinner tomorrow night with a few friends. Made a chicken stock. Cut up all the veggies for a massive gumbo.

Now I’m at my desk, and it’s time to do the evening office.

It would be easy to fire up the TV. Or do something else.

But the daily office calls.

Why?

Because I’ve realized over the last few years how much the devotional life matters. Not because I serve in full-time ministry, and it’s some sort of semi-expected requirement of the job. It matters because inside the devotional life, we get formed into the image of Jesus. I want that more than anything else.

So what follows are 5 short reflections on why the devotional life matters.

Time.

Eugene Peterson wrote that discipleship is “a long obedience in the same direction”. People have used this quote so much that it is nearly irrelevant in some circles. But Peterson hit the nail on the head.

The devotional life is this odd way we Christians can fall out of the time of this bound world and into the endless expanse of time in the Kingdom of God. An eschatological foretaste. And notice I’m writing about “the devotional life,” not simply doing a devotion.

The devotional life is a posture we choose to take as we live in the Spirit-filled space of a time-bound world. It’s a transcendent space that only finds its power in our repeated steps toward it. I’ve reached the point of saturation where I need to do it several times a day. The devotional life reframes time.

It isn’t just reading your Bible.

I was lucky enough to grow up in a great example of a ministry family. My Dad is a BIG proponent of the devotional life. I remember being in elementary school and being so excited to get into the youth group. With that you got the coveted devotional binder, an A5-sized three-ring binder with these daily devotional sheets, and other papers to take notes on.

All the cool older youth group kids had them. I couldn’t wait to get mine. By the time I hit 7th grade, they had phased them out…but I begged my Dad until he found one lying around and I got it.

The devotional life is about setting the space for the Spirit to move through scripture, prayer, journaling, reading other works, and a massive amount of personal honesty. For me, it’s this dive back and forth between scripture, prayer, and journaling. Sometimes it’s a massive chain. Some sort of Holy Spirit download. Other days, it’s sticking to the plan and knowing you put in the time keeping you a bit closer to the right side of sanctification.

The Devotional Life orients our day.

Once, probably in seminary, I heard someone say the modern clock was invented to help people know the times of prayer. It was neat, but if that is 100% true, it doesn’t really bother me.

But, if I start and end my day in Christ, my day feels more full of Jesus if I find 10 minutes in the middle.

I wrote earlier I’m at a multiple-times-a-day saturation level. Not because I need it this much or else I’ll end up participating in some sort of pagan sacrifice. I want it this much. I want to keep the closeness and I’m willing to give up sleeping a bit more or watching a bit more TV at the end of the day. I’ll give 10 minutes of my lunch over a few scrolls on my phone. It’s worth more.

It has made me more intentional with my practice of faith.

Remember the story about the cool 3-ring binder and those devotional sheets? They were blank, but I remember a question at the bottom of every page: “What is Jesus asking you to do today?”

That sticks.

The devotional life forms me in always expecting Jesus to be moving, and in that moving, I will always have moments of obedience. This is the forming side. The lose ourselves to find ourselves side. I always want to approach my time with Christ with the expectation that I will face challenges and have to live out those challenges.

The devotional life is a consistent exercise of “working out our faith in fear and trembling.”

I’m a Wesleyan. Of the more classic variety. You could call me one of those holiness Methodists and I wouldn’t be mad at you. Because of this, I believe in a level of human responsibility post-justification known as sanctification.

John the Baptist called those early listeners to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance!” in Luke 3:8. I could write words upon words on that short phrase. It cuts deep. John Wesley talks about having an awareness of our own fruit in sermon #4, “Scriptural Christianity.” In it, Wesley says this;

“I mean Christianity not as a set of opinions or a system of doctrines, but as it refers to transformed human hearts and lives.”

I can’t imagine NOT having the devotional life as part of the Christian journey.

So that’s it. Go read your Bible. Pray for others and the openness of your heart to the Spirit. Go read a book by someone who lived long ago. Ask yourself the tough questions and write down the answers.

Expect to experience God.