{"id":445,"date":"2013-12-29T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-29T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/?p=445"},"modified":"2013-12-28T12:32:11","modified_gmt":"2013-12-28T17:32:11","slug":"what-does-the-bible-say-about-the-importance-of-your-devotional-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/2013\/what-does-the-bible-say-about-the-importance-of-your-devotional-life\/","title":{"rendered":"What does the Bible say about the importance of your devotional life?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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And not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God?\u2026. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above…. (Colossians 2:19, 3:1–4—NKJV)<\/cite> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I fear that the horizons of our devotional lives are in danger of being fenced in by the great societal changes occurring within western civilization. Christians are losing the rudimentary concept, and the critical necessity, of individual devotion to God. I do not mean devotional reading, but I do mean original thought. <\/p>\n

Speaking as an American, there is a lesson to be had from our pioneering ancestors. They saw what they called a \u201chowling wilderness\u201d as a land full of opportunity, to be explored and searched out for the resources from which to build a life. They chose a direction to go. They gathered up all the people that were near and dear to them—their families and like minded individuals (sometimes it was their whole church)—and they endured in the pursuit of their dream, come what may. They settled their chosen land, then they settled their towns, their territories, their states, and they built something. They built their personal world, and along with it they had a part in building the world of those who were their fellow travelers. They left a legacy for their children and their children\u2019s children. There is no denying the significance of what was called \u201cManifest Destiny\u201d and there is no denying one of the motivating facts underlying it—missionary zeal. <\/p>\n

Christians, like lonely castaways, are engulfed, awash, and set adrift by very real pressures to think differently than even our father\u2019s generation. We are to think \u201cglobally,\u201d be politically correct, beware of thought crime, yield what is precious to us to the \u201cgood of the many,\u201d be a good \u201cworker\u201d rather than an employee, be interconnected (yet emotionally distanced by our technology), feel guilty about every aspect of our \u201cstewardship\u201d of the earth and its resources. Rugged individualism is replaced with fear of some unheard-of law or trivial lawsuit. We are to sacrifice ourselves for something called \u201cthe greater good.\u201d (Biblically, militarily, and rationally, the act of ultimate self-sacrifice for the \u201cgreater good\u201d is only to be utilized when all other options are exhausted and there is no other way to rescue, as our Lord demonstrated upon the cross of Calvary!) <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t fall for the world\u2019s way of diminishing the significance of the individual in your spiritual life! Believers must find their marching orders from the inerrant and unchanging Scriptures. There were many familiar organizations which the Holy Spirit could have chosen to describe the believer and his place in society. He could have chosen the illustration of a nation-state with every strata of society from Caesar on down to the lowest slave. He could have chosen the ever-present Roman military with its legions in martial orderliness. He could have chosen the strictures of the various business guilds found in every Roman city. God brushed all those \u201ccommand-control\u201d possibilities aside and He chose an illustration of God\u2019s design: the human body. <\/p>\n

Every Christian, upon his conversion, is placed like a member (joint, ligament, organ, etc.) into the \u201cbody of Christ.\u201d Jesus Christ is the head of the body, directing the function of all the individuals within the body and utilizing the body as He sees fit. When one \u201cmember\u201d is out of joint (Galatians 6:1ff) the body suffers. When the \u201cmember\u201d is fully functioning, individually thriving, doing the things unique to himself, he has done his part so that the body can perform like an athlete—fluidity in motion (Ephesians 4:16)! <\/p>\n

In the spiritual realm, every believer\u2019s individual uniqueness, effectiveness, and giftedness will only function if it is energized by, and in coordination with, the headship of Jesus Christ. Your personal devotion to God, and devotions with God, are critical to your healthy function in any body (whether family, church, society, or nation). Our text speaks of what every joint nourishingly supplies (to fully outfit and provide—2 Peter 1:5) and knits together (coalesce, join, unite). Your spiritual thoughts lead to your beneficial actions. <\/p>\n

In this world where the significance of the individual is lost rather than celebrated, rugged, godly individualism is shamed, and (even within the church) individual soul liberty is an antiquated doctrine, be challenged with the following reality: <\/p>\n