Articles
Devotional Time on Difficult Days
Whatever plans we have for our spiritual growth, these can fall apart on days that are especially difficult: those that are unusually busy or stressful or disorganized. What should we do on these days?
(1) WE SHOULD DO THE BEST WE CAN TO MAINTAIN OUR DEVOTIONAL DISCIPLINE. If at all possible, we need to go ahead and read our Bibles, pray, etc. just as we always do. Yes, that will require SACRIFICE, but if we only do these things when it is easy, what do we do more than others? Anyone can do what is easy. The question is: can we do what is HARD? Do we love the Lord enough to give Him what is NOT EASILY GIVEN? That’s what separates the men from the boys and the women from the girls.
(2) IF IT IMPOSSIBLE TO DO WHAT WE USUALLY DO, THEN WE NEED TO GET BACK TO OUR USUAL ROUTINE AS SOON AS WE CAN. The problem is not an occasional break in our discipline; it’s the tendency to give it up altogether once it has been broken. We shouldn’t let that happen. After a break, we need to REESTABLISH OUR ROUTINE as soon as we can.
(3) WE NEED TO LEARN TO SPEND “SMALL MOMENTS” WITH THE LORD ON THOSE DAYS WHEN WE CAN’T SPEND ANY MORE THAN THAT. There is great value in learning how to pray and meditate in the “cracks” between our other activities, however small those cracks may be. If we can’t pray for thirty minutes, then thirty seconds is better than nothing at all.
In other words, we need to be FLEXIBLE. The Lord knows that our days are not all alike, and He never asks of us what is impossible. What He does ask is that we give Him what we CAN . . . and He asks us to define “can” in terms of love rather than laziness.
