As Promised...

Several weeks ago I said that I was going to post my devotional habits, but that promise has not been fulfilled until now. Before I describe my morning ritual I want to clearly say that our "devotional lives" are far more than our quiet times. If we define "devotions" as those things we do in order to immerse ourselves in Christ, then I need to recognize how dependent my devotional life is upon the body of Christ, especially Andrea. Christianity is unequivocally corporate!

Having said that, typically I get up each morning at 5:30 and do school work until 6:45/7:00 when Andrea leaves for work. I have trouble having my quiet time without being alone and Andrea and I live in a one bedroom apartment, so having your own space means being alone in the apartment. My devotions usually last a little over an hour. I always begin by praying through a Psalm in order to get my heart set on the Lord. After that what I do varies. Last month I was reading through Matthew and working on memorizing Philippians. This month I follow the Psalm up with Mark Dever's book The Gospel & Personal Evangelism, then I continue to work my way through my Philippians memorization (I'm in the middle of chapter three). Finally, I take out my journal and make my prayer list for the day. The first items are always the same: (1) Meditate on what I have read in the Word, (2) Pray for my marriage, (3) Pray for Andrea. After that I usually pray for the things before me that day and people in my life. It is rare that I don't pray for all the authors of this blog and their wives, as well as those in my small group.

For time purposes, the majority of my prayer time is done while I shower and get ready for the day/eat breakfast.

Now, how often do I actually do the above. I would say it is very rare for me not to do the above on weekdays. Now, the weekends are another story, it is rare Saturday or Sunday when the above happens. Still, I don't lose any sleep over this, I'm not trying to earn my standing before God through my quiet time.

Hope that this is of some help. Thanks for sharing your habits guys!