Jump starting your devotional walk with God

A few years ago a good friend of mine told me that she was experiencing a prolonged “slump” in her devotional walk with God. She expressed that she was kinda bored, kinda frustrated, kinda in a “broken record” mode. A little bit of everything mixed in. After listening to her for a few minutes, I sensed she was sincerely trying to break through the slump, but she just felt stuck. Stuck in a rut. Just plain stuck.

Some people may describe a devotional slump as “going through a valley”, “going through a dry season” or it feels like God isn’t nearby and “my prayers are hitting the ceiling” and falling back to the ground. I suppose each devotional slump may be a little different for each person and may have resulted from something that person was doing (good, neutral or bad) or even God Himself. I’ve observed that sometimes God loudly speaks to us (which we usually like), sometimes Gods speaks softly (which we sometimes miss – either because we’re busy talking or not listening) or sometimes God is just silent (usually to test our obedience, faith, resolve, etc etc). I’m not going to dive into the mechanics of “why” we may go through a devotional slumps, just how to get out of one.

First off, before you dive into the possibilities of revamping your current devotional walk lineup, get with God and ask yourself a few simple questions. Do you have sin in your life? If so, repent and get that out of your life. Has God told you to do something that you haven’t done or already started doing? Maybe God is waiting for you to obey Him. Is God getting the left-overs of your week? Maybe you need to schedule some consistent devotional time into your schedule (morning, afternoon, evening, etc). Do you always finding yourself doing the “right things” because you “have to” not because you “want to”? You might need to ask God for more passion about the things of God. Get with God and ask the “gut-wrenching” questions about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. You may find something wrong in your life *other than* your actual devotional routine. After you’ve done that and still feel that you’re in a devotional slump, then some of these suggestions might be for you.

A devotional walk with God is generally composed of three main areas: a) reading and studying the Word, b) communicating with God in Prayer and c) exalting and acknowledging God in Praise and Worship. I’ll spend the majority our time discussing the first two. Personally, I’ve found that if these first two devotional areas (Prayer and Word) are where they need to be, that my desire to Worship naturally follows as a result. Sometimes I try to shake things up though by getting a heavy dose of Psalms and/or willfully choosing to praise and worship God in a different way than my “usual” praise / worship words / actions. Sometimes I may hop around, wave a white hanky, or walk around the altar during a worship service. Sometimes, as I’m driving back and forth from work I may crank a worship CD and just “make a joyful noise”! Sometimes I sing a song to the Lord in the morning that He put on my heart. I’ve found that the more I understand / experience “who” God is, the more I want to find a way to worship and praise Him.

Your devotional walk with God is your spiritual life-line. It’s what keeps us spiritually alive, healthy and strong. You can’t cut corners on your natural-life health and you can’t with your spiritual-life either. Preserving our spiritual-health is that much more important because our souls will live on for eternity, long after our mortal bodies are gone. Eternal is for keeps. Eternity knows no length and knows no measurement. Regardless of how you try to describe it, it’s a LONG, LONG time of either a) pleasure in God’s presence or b) suffering / misery in a fiery judgment. The final destination of your eternity will be a direct result of the state of your devotional walk with God and your obedience to His Word. It’s important!

Einstein once said that, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Sometimes we can shake up our “In the Word” rut by changing the methods of how we study the Word. Compliments of some random devotional website, here’s a few study methods, along with my own personal commentary:

1. The Devotional Method - reading a passage, meditating upon it’s meaning to us and finding it’s application in our lives
2. The Chapter Summary – reading an entire chapter, understanding it’s context: Who? When? Where? Why? How?
3. The Character Quality - studying verses / passages to learn about a personal characteristic – “the guts of who we are”
4. The Thematic Method - studying verses / passages to better understand a particular theme (love, grace, hope, etc)
5. The Biographical Method - studying verses / passages to learn about a Bible character in detail – the “people” microscope
6. The Topical Method – is similar to a Thematic study, but also investigates the relationship between themes – it’s more of a “bird’s eye view”
7. The Word Study Method - studying verses / passages to learn about a particular Biblical word – its meaning, origin, context, etc
8. The Book Background Method - an entire book, learning it’s context, message (exa Jonah – Rebellion, Repentance, Restoration, Revival)
9. The Book Survey Method, 10. The Chapter Analysis Method, 11. The Book Synthesis Method, 12. The Verse by Verse Method, etc etc

I’d suspect that most people stay at the Devotional - Chapter Summary level of reading and studying. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Reading any part of the Bible for any amount of time with a desire to draw closer to God is never a bad thing. Though if you “feel” like you’re in a rut and your current reading is not drawing enough depth out of the Word, then be encouraged that there are other study methods available. Shake things up. Study about Christian characteristics. Study about a Biblical word, theme or principle. Or about a Bible character that you most relate to, or would like to become more like. Study about the armor of God or the fruit of the Spirit. Take your pick.

If you think that these study methods are too complex or over your head, wander over to your neighborhood Christian bookstore and browse the bookshelves or ask one of your church leaders for suggestions of new resources. Pick up a Strong’s Concordance or download E-Sword. Maybe test-drive a different Bible translation or transliteration (I enjoy the Amplified or The Message) - though be warned that some translations can deviate from the purest, original meaning of verses. Regardless of what resources you end up reading / using in your efforts to stir up your “In the Word” devotional walk, don’t get caught up in always reading books about the Book. Make sure any “changes” you make point you back to the Word.

Also, when you are in the Word, keep a devotional journal or note-card bookmark handy to quickly scribble down things that God may show you. If your Bible has wide margins and you’re comfortable doing so, scribble notes down there. Don’t let a faulty memory let a potentially life-changing insight slip through your fingers. Just because the Word is forever settled in heaven, doesn’t mean your memory is. hehe

Well, on to communicating with God in prayer. People have written a TON of books on the topic, much has been said. How can a person shake up their “Prayer walk”? That’s certainly a loaded question. Here’s a few possibilities to help. Want to increase the quality of your prayers? Try praying the Word more frequently; by praying the Word you are assured that you are weaving God’s promises and blessings into your life and spirit. You are also praying wisdom and understanding into your daily life decisions and actions. Find yourself running out of things to say and praying the same phrases or requests over and over again? Before you go to pray – write down 5-10 things on a note-card you’d like to pray about. Then just start verbalizing your concern, request, or thanksgiving to God. Spend a few minutes on each point and before you blink an eye you will have covered a LOT of quality ground without wandering aimlessly through your prayer time. Remember your prayer list isn’t law; if you feel to linger on a particular point just keep praying about it. If you don’t cover all the points, don’t lose sleep. You’ll be able to come back to them some other prayer time.

Sick of struggling with the same hindrances and battles? Study up on spiritual warfare and learn to battle in the Spirit with your prayers. Identify your allies and enemies. Investigate the battles to be won and how the Bible says they can be won. Get passionate about praying. Pray your guts out. Intercede, as the Spirit compels you. Get serious about shaking the heavens with your prayers. Bind in heaven and bind on earth, loose in heaven and loose on earth. If your battles aren’t being won on your feet, it’s possible that you haven’t fought enough on your knees.

Do you feel like your faith is weak? Read about the promises and blessings of God and ask God for a deeper level of faith. Faith is a key component in a successful prayer-walk. God responds to faith, so if it’s lacking in our lives we need to take the necessary steps to build / rebuild it. Do you feel like you’re not as passionate about your relationship with God as much as before? Thank Jesus for the cross and the price He paid. Pray about how He redeemed you with His blood and pulled you out of the miry clay. Pray back into *your* remembrance all the things that God has done in your life. Do that long enough and your love / passion for God will be rekindled like never before.

Don’t hear much from God in prayer? Make time to be quiet and give Him a chance to talk! He’s not going to talk over you if you’re always busy talking. Communication is a combination of two factors: speaking *and* listening. If you sense a lull in your own prayer, stop talking for a little bit. He may be wanting to show something to you. Prayer is two-way communication! That means you get a chance to talk and He gets a chance to talk. He listens to you, so take time to listen to Him. If you like talking 100% of the time, write a book or start a talk-show.

Don’t get stuck in the “Thank God – Ask for Stuff – Thank God – Ask for Stuff” cycle. Shake things up. Venture out into the deeper waters of prayer. Become more focused and passionate about communicating with God. Identify the weaknesses of your “Prayer walk” and shore them up with appropriate changes. Remember any break-downs in a prayer-walk isn’t because of God, it’s because of us. Apply some of these principles and you should sense yourself eventually breaking through that “Prayer walk” slump.

Remember these are just a handful of simple suggestions to help you break out of a devotional walk slump. There are many, many more suggestions and ideas out there.

Just some food for thought….