One hour a week

Devotional

Imagine spending one hour a week with your family. How strong would your family be? Now, if you are employed, imagine working one hour a week. How strong would your income be?

Or imagine focusing on your health for just an hour a week, then consuming anything else you want the rest of the week. How strong would your body be?

This is what happens to our souls when we separate Sunday from Monday and the “spiritual” from the “secular.” It’s what happens when we focus on religion only when we are at church on Sunday morning and occasionally during the week (even with devotionals like this one).

God can only lead us where we’ll follow and can only give what we’re willing to receive. When we “seek his presence continually,” as our verse calls for, we experience his presence continually. We experience the leadership of his omniscience, the provision of his omnipotence, and the blessing of his unconditional love.

This is one reason our Enemy partners with our secular culture to compartmentalize our lives. Even going back to the ancient Greco-Roman world, we have been taught that religion is a transaction with God or gods. Place a sacrifice on their altar so they will bless your crops, or protect you in war, or do whatever else you want them to do.

People in that day did not want a personal, intimate relationship with the gods atop Mount Olympus. They did what the gods required so the gods would do what they required.

Christianity is completely different: it is about a full-time, unconditional relationship with our Maker. It is about seeking God’s constant presence in prayer, Bible study, worship, and other spiritual disciplines. It is about knowing Christ and then making him known as the focus and purpose of our lives. We spend time in God’s presence not to earn his love and favor but because we already have it.

Part-time discipleship is a contradiction. It is like being partly pregnant or partly a parent. You either are or you are not.

Let’s respond to today’s verse by seeking “the Lᴏʀᴅ and his strength” and seeking his presence “continually.” Let nothing stand between you and a full-time, unconditional commitment to your Lord.

Timothy Keller was right when he wrote this in The Meaning of Marriage: “To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.”

You can experience a love like that with your Father today. Connect with him as we spend time in guided prayer.

today’s devotional is written by Jim Denison