10 Tips for Devotional Times

It took me quite a few years to figure out how to spend time with God effectively, and even now I still have to fight to keep it like that. Here are some tips from what I have learned:

1. Do it in the morning if possible – if you do it before bed you will often be too sleepy or go to sleep, and if you do it at other times there will be too many things on your mind, interruptions and other things to do. Having said that, for some people it works fine for them at other times, like David Wilkerson who switched his two hours of evening TV time to a prayer time instead.

The other benefit of doing it in the morning is that if for some reason you don’t manage it, you have the rest of the day to try and fit it in somewhere. What it comes down to with me, is, ‘What is the best time of my day?’ M’Cheyne said, “I ought to spend the best hours of my day in communion with God. It is my noblest and most fruitful employment, and it is not to be thrust into any corner.”

2. Make it into a daily habit – then you will do it even if you don’t feel like it. The Devil is against it and you often won’t feel like it.

3. Structure everything else in your life around it, not the other way around – that’s because it is the most important thing you can do and if you have a right relationship with God, He will help with all the other things that need to be done.

4. Set a length of time – it is good to start with 10 minutes a day, and gradually make it longer when you can make time and want to do more.

5. Work out what your problems are and then pray and try to solve them – for example, using two alarms if one doesn’t get you out of bed; laying all your clothes out the night before (I always do this); praying really hard at bedtime that God would help you get up in the morning; and going to bed at a good time.

6. Make sure you’re concentrating – it is best to be alone with no distractions or noise, and awake! I used to find myself going to sleep, so I started having a cup of coffee every morning while I was doing my devotions, or having a shower before it rather than afterwards. If you’re married then you may be able to do devotions together, depending on how much you can keep from being distracted by talking!

7. Apply the Bible to your life and learn from it – it’s easy to read it as a duty and not get anything from it. Instead it is good to think: What does this mean? Is there a command to obey or a promise to claim? What can I learn from this? How can I apply it to my life? I have learned the most since keeping a spiritual journal and making myself write down what I learn from the Bible each day.

8. Use the Bible to pray – that way you apply the Bible to your life, and also pray according to God’s will, which is a good thing since there is a promise that if you ask anything according to God’s will it will be done for you. George Muller said that when he started to read, meditate and pray through the Bible it transformed his prayer life.

9. Make a prayer list – this requires effort, but it’s worth it because it means it’s easier to keep your mind on what you’re praying for. Also you can persevere in the same prayers – and sometimes God doesn’t say yes to a prayer the first time, only the tenth time.

10. Have a systematic way of reading the Bible – If you’re stuck on what to read in the Bible, you could pick a book and go through it, keeping a bookmark in it. Or you could use a reading calendar like I use which gives you two to four chapters to read every day and mixes Old Testament and New Testament. Proverbs has 31 chapters so some people read it through every month, reading the chapter that corresponds with the date.

If you haven’t read anything yet, it is a good idea to start with John, and then familiarise yourself with the rest of the New Testament and Psalms before you start with the Old.

If you have other tips, please share them in the comments!