Guest Post! – by Amy Lynn
When reading one of the Lenten emails that Betsy sent out, I was struck by a comment she made about “feasting” on the word of the Lord and how hopefully we would “begin looking forward to praying and reading scripture, out of joy rather than obligation.” As usual, this triggered in me a knee-jerk guilt response of “I must not be a very good Christian” because often I do feel like I am doing my scripture readings out of obligation and not joy.
Don’t get me wrong, as I read scripture, I do enjoy certain books or passages, or a particular verse will speak to something I am feeling or struggling with…but on an average day my response to my bible reading or devotional is more like: shoulder shrug, big sigh, “I guess I’ll go do my reading now…if I HAVE to…” Basically, I feel a lot more ambivalence, resignation or sense of duty than I do excitement. I began thinking about the reasons I feel that way and realized that sometimes I think I just get into a rut; feeling like I am re-reading the same things I have before without getting much out of it.
As usual, it seems like God realized before I did that something needed to change and so He provided a unique opportunity to break out of the same patterns and experience my devotions in a different and refreshing way. (There are lots of different ways and ideas for getting out of spiritual melancholy, but I am just going to describe one that has recently helped me).
I recently took a vacation with my mother (who I consider one of my best friends) and the trip roughly coincided with the beginning of Lent. She brought with her a Lent devotional book that was created by her church in Dallas (my home church growing up). The book has a scripture reading, a devotional written by a member of the congregation, and a short list of individuals to pray for each day. Without much discussion or planning, my mother and I began reading the scripture and devotional each day on vacation and praying together for our churches. Immediately, it was obvious how much we were both enjoying the consistency of doing the devotion each day and that more than that we enjoyed the fellowship of doing a Lent devotional together.
Although we both returned home from our vacation after a week traveling together, it quickly became obvious that neither of us wanted to give up our partnership in our daily devotional despite the long distance. The first couple of nights back from the trip we would be talking on the phone and invariable one of us would say, “Hey you want to do our devotional?” And then we would do the readings together over the phone.
In so many ways, the idea of doing a daily devotional with someone else has been refreshing and spiritually beneficial (for those of you out there with spouses you may have already experienced this). The accountability of someone else expecting to do a daily devotional with me has helped to keep me consistently in the word each day, whereas on my own, scripture reading can be sporadic depending on how busy my days and weeks become. I am also enjoying getting the thoughts and perspective of another person on the scripture and devotional passages that are assigned each day. God reveals different things through my mother’s wisdom and experiences in her own walk with the Lord that I might not see in my own life. In addition to my mother’s discernment and wisdom, she is also an awesome prayer warrior who has provided an amazing example in the spiritual discipline of prayer and whose prayers have been refreshing and uplifting to my own.
I realized from this experience that changing up my devotional practice, doing things a little differently and experiencing devotions in fellowship with another person has been a refreshing and spiritually uplifting change of pace. It has helped me break out of the spiritual “rut” I was in, held me accountable to reading and praying every day and has resulted in me being excited and looking forward to reading scripture. So if you ever start to feel like you just can’t seem to stay committed to reading your bible or just don’t feel like you are getting as much out of it as usual, consider trying something a little different and get a close friend or trusted acquaintance to join you in your devotions for a period of time (this is not to suggest this as a substitute for personal quiet time with God). It may give you the slight change in perspective you need to refresh your spirit and rediscover the joy of spending time in prayer and the word. God bless!
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