Devotionals

A Morning and Evening Devotional Time Part 1

by Jerry Walch
08/20/19
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“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

(Joshua 1:8 KJV.)”

As Christians, we need to form the right habits if we are to enjoy the lifestyle of true over-comers. Growing up on our three family farms I learned early on in life how important forming the right habits was to succeeding in life. Back in those days a farmer's life consisted of endless long days, even for young boys. Like my aunts and uncles who raised me I was up at 4 AM every morning, 7 days a week and didn't get to lie down again until 10 or 11 at night. Those were long days and to make it through those endless long days, we had to start our days off with a truly hearty breakfast. While most of the other kids were starting their days off at a much later hour with a bowl of Wheaties, “The Breakfast of Champions,” I was starting mine off with Ham (or some other breakfast meat), Eggs, potatoes and a huge stack of pancakes. Oh, yeah, there was a huge pitcher of orange juice and a bottomless pot of coffee to wash all that delicious farmhouse food down with. To make it to lunchtime we had to have a hardy breakfast and eating a huge breakfast became a habit with me, a habit that has survived even to this day. Even at 75 years of age I consume more food at breakfast than most people consume at dinner time. As Christians, we need to form the habits of spending quality time with our Lord first thing in the morning and the last thing every night before retiring.

Forming New Habit

In a study conducted at the University College of London by Phillippa Lally, a health psychologist, and published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, it takes two months of repeated practice to form a new habit. She discovered that takes 66 days to be exact for a new behavior to become a habit. Although 66 days was average, she discovered that it might take as long as 254 day for a new behavior to become a habit depending on the individual's personal make-up. In other words expecting it to take you two to eight months to make having a morning and evening devotional time a habit is more realistic than the 21 days that some say it will take you. So make having a morning and evening devotional time a habit one of your long term goals but to achieve that long term goal you must make having a morning and evening devotional time one of your daily goals as well.

I (We) Just Don't Have the Time

Whenever I bring up the subject of daily devotionals the thing I hear most often is “I (we) just don't have the time.” They tell me that they have barely enough time in a day to do everything that they need to do let alone enough time to do everything they want to do. That's their first mistake, a mistake in prioritization. Spending time with God doesn't fall in the “want to” category but in the “need to” category. As Christians, as true lovers of Jesus Christ, no matter how busy our days may be, we need to make time to spend with our God, our first true love. It may mean getting up an hour earlier than usual and going to bed an hour later than usual but if that's what we must do to fit God into our busy days than that's what we must do. If you are honest with yourself you will see that you already do that for many other reasons, none of which is a good a reason as to do it so you can spend time with the Lord. But before I go any further let me state emphatically that it's not the length of time you spend with God that is all important but the quality of the time spent with God. Listening to what He has to say to us through His Word and speaking to Him through prayer.

An Appointment with God.

Another thing that I hear all the time is, “But, Brother Jerry, you are retired and have nothing but time on your hands. Having a morning and evening devotional time doesn't encroach upon the time you need to spend earning a living.” Boy, are they surprised when I tell them that my life became far busier after I retired from that 9 to 5 drudgery. My days are just as full of activity as they were when I had to work for a living, if not more so now. But that's what appointment calendars are for. I set a time to spend with God every morning and a time to spend with God every evening and I keep that appointment faithfully. I'm flexible in my appointment times though because unforeseen life events may cause me keep my appointment with God a little earlier or a little later than the time I set, but I keep it none-the-less. Sometimes I have to make my devotional times a little shorter than the time I had slotted for them, but, remember it's not the length of time spent with God that really matters but the quality of the time.

Where You Have Your Devotional Matters

Many years ago when I was bitten by the “Writer's Bug,” which happen almost simultaneously with me encountering Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I was told to find a place to write where I wouldn't be disturbed. For me that wasn't easy because I was serving time in a federal penitentiary and prisons are noisy places with little or no privacy. So I set my alarm to wake me up two hours before the bells rang at 6 AM waking the General Population up for the day and went to bed two hours after the final standing count and quiet bell rang at 10 PM. OK, I'll confess that I could gt some sleep during the day when the other inmates had to be at work because I was the facility's duty electrician and only had to work at night and on weekend and holidays when an electrical emergency arose and the civilian electrician wasn't on site. After my release I had the spare bedroom that I used as a home office to use. I told everyone what I was doing and that I was not to be disturbed unless it was a life or death situation and you need to do the same. Of course the best way to do that is to get them involved in participating in your devotional times with you. More about that later in this series.

Set a Time Frame

To start out with a 15 to 30 minute time frame will work well for you, then as you begin looking forward to this time spent in fellowship with God, start to extend the duration of the time frame. In prison I spent an hour every morning and an hour every night in fellowship with my God. Today, being both free and retired I spend even more time with God—one to two hours in the morning and another one to two hours at night before retiring for the night. Spending time in a devotional has become such an ingrained habit for me that I no longer have to depend on my appointment calendar to remind me of my appointment with God but I still set them anyway, that has become a habit too.

A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place

Just as important as having dedicated times and a dedicated space to have your devotionals is having all the supplies you need on hand before you begin your devotionals. If you decide to use your kitchen able perhaps you can dedicate one of the drawers in a kitchen cabinet to hold your supplies, If you use the sofa in your living room, perhaps a drawer in an end-table. Here's what you will need for each person in your devotional :

• A Bible


• Bible safe highlighters


• A notebook


• Pens or pencils


• Bible Reading Plans


• Bible Study Guide

Coming Up Next

In Part two of this series I will discuss Bible translations, Bible Reading Plans and Bible Study Guides.