Thursday, August 15, 2013

DEVOTION

Good Morning, Mighty Woman of God!  I pray that you are blessed and highly favored of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 
Devotion.  What is devotion?  The word devotion is the root word of the word devote. 
Devote: To give or apply one's time, attention, or self entirely to a particular activity or cause.  To set apart for a specific purpose or use. 
Devoted:  Felling or exhibiting strong attachment or loyalty, dedicated. 
Devotion: Ardent attachment or loyalty.  An act of religious observance or prayer, when private.
 
My question to you today is, do you have time set aside that you spend with the Lord?  Is your prayer life centered around the Lord or is the Lord centered around your prayer life.  The difference is, when you have a life that is centered around the Lord, that means that whatever is going on in your life, you stay devoted to spending time with the Lord.  If you have devotion (time with the Lord) centered around your life means that you only devote your time to the Lord when circumstances in your life have the need for prayer.
 
When I first started attending church on a regular basis and participating in different ministries of my church, I had a great mentor.  I say that because she played a very significant part in my beginning to understand more about Christ, then just reading my bible.  To me, Catherine was the most humble person that I knew and I wanted to know the Lord more intimately.  I wanted what she had, when it came to knowledge of the Lord.
 
One day, while running errands with Catherine I began talking about all the things that I do in a day and how much time I spent doing things for my family.  Then she asked me, "When do you have devotion?"  "Devotion, I asked, what is devotion?  What do you mean?  "When do you spend quiet time with the Lord?"  My reply, "Well, I never thought about that.  I pray everyday".  Her reply, "Devotion time is prayer time, but it is time that you have set aside just for the Lord."  I will never forget that conversation and to this day, she probably has no idea that at that very moment, she changed my life and my relationship with the Lord.
 
Mighty woman of God, if you center your life around (devotion) prayer, you will have less 911 calls to the Lord.  If you just devote your life to prayer according to your situation or circumstances you will have more 911 calls to the Lord.  One of the definitions of devotion is, "a sense of loyalty".  Are you loyal to the Lord everyday?  Does your loyalty to the Lord depend on what YOUR needs for the day is.  Are you loyal to the Lord no matter what is going on in your life?  Are you loyal to the Lord when YOU have time.  Are you still loyal to the Lord, now that He has blessed you with a new job?  Now that things are going great in your life, do you still devote your time to the Lord?
 
Guess what happened to me on Tuesday.  Okay, I have devotion time every morning in the privacy of my bedroom between 10AM and 10:30A, depending on when my husband wakes up.  On Tuesday, I had a doctors appointment at 10A and I was not able to keep my same time of devotion.  As I sat in the waiting room, I begin to miss the Holy Spirit.  I actually sat there thinking about the doctor's appointment taking away from my time with the Lord.  Then I began talking to the Lord and all of a sudden, I felt the presence of the Lord.  And then I heard the Holy Spirit say, "You don't have to be at home.  Because you devote your mornings to me, I am here with you now".  Boy, did I smile.
 
PRAISE GOD, FOR HE IS WORTHY TO BE PRAISED!!