Daily Devotional for Tuesday, January 16, 2024

The original devotional I wrote I feel is too long for one reading. So, I am going to break it up into two parts. Yesterday I wrote about how I structure my quiet time each day with God. All of this is from a book I wrote for teens for our Southern Baptist Convention years ago, titled, Time Alone With The Captain, I used a nautical theme of sailing to explain everything. There is only reason I am so insistent about all of us having a daily quiet time. 

Look at Mark 1:35, “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, He (Jesus) departed and went out to a desolate place, and there He prayed” (ESV). If having a daily quiet time with God was that important to Jesus, shouldn’t it be for us also? Notice Jesus started each day early in the morning prior to anyone needing Him and getting caught up in His day. To think we do not need to do this is arrogance and pride. As we say, “Pride comes before the fall.”

Bible Study is much like a ship’s captain who studies his navigational charts. It determines his course and direction from these charts. The charts tell him what to do. Bible study is where we let God speak to us. The Bible is like a navigational flag in that it doesn’t bear witness to itself. The American flag is not America. It only represents and points to or bears witness of America. A flag only communicates the message. It is not the message itself. In the same way, the Bible will navigate you in the right direction because the Bible is where God speaks to us. It is where God sends His signals to us.

Below are some practical ways to study the Bible (i.e. how to let God speak to you):

Read the selected passage 3 times. If it is a long passage, then select a section to read 3 times Why?

• First time is to get a general idea of what is taking place.
• The second time is to get who is involved and/or specific details involved.  Here you read it slower.
• The third time is to make the passage come alive for you. It is here that you receive God’s signals. You do that by asking questions.  Yesterday, I gave you around 10 questions you can ask when you are reading God’s Word. 

Having a daily quiet time was Jesus’ daily routine and it needs to be ours as well. After I have read my Bible text for the morning (7-9) minutes, I then turn to prayer. I have always used an acrostic to help me pray: A.C.T.S. If you use this acrostic as your model, then you are looking at around 9-10 minutes of prayer. You may think, “That is a long time. How can I pray that long?” That is where the acrostic of A.C.T.S. helps you with this. So, let me break it down for you. 

See this section as “tacking” through spiritual waters. “Tacking” is a sailing term which means to change the direction of a sailing ship when sailing.  Webster defines tacking as, “turning the bow to the wind and shifting sails as to fall off on the other side at about the same angle as before.” Here in Wilmington, we live by the Atlantic Ocean and many people own sailboats and sail. Do you know how to change the mast in order to tack?

Have you ever had to solve a problem and had no idea how to do it?  Your goal is to get the answer, the right answer.  This requires a certain amount of knowledge.  You must know the “how to” part (i.e. truths, principles, etc.) and how they work with respect to that problem.

Imagine that you are on a ship in the Arctic.  The waters are icy and full of icebergs. Your goal is to reach San Francisco without sinking your ship by hitting one of those icebergs. Your problem is not just where you are to go, but how you are to go. In the same way, we are often told to meditate, to study the Bible, to pray and memorize Scripture. We know that. The problem is that we don’t know how to do these so that we really grow, and really become Christlike. Here it is:

 A.C.T.S

• A = Adoration > This is the first spiritual navigational flag or signal we should send to God in prayer. This is where we acknowledge Who He is. This is where we pray to God.  
  • You might say something found in Psalm 103:1, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! (ESV). 
  • Or, Psalm 104:1, “Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, You are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty” (ESV). 
  • Or, Isaiah 6:3, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” (ESV). Your goal is to remind yourself Who God is in comparison to you. God is not your “buddy, pal, dude.” He is God and we are in no way on the same level in comparison. The Bible is full of titles and descriptions about God you can use to remind yourself who God is and you are not. A simple Internet search will help you with that also. The point is to recognize who God is first.
• C = Confession >   This is the second spiritual navigational flag or signal we should send to God in prayer.  
  • The Bible states in Psalm 66:18, “I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (ESV). Because God is Holy and Righteous, our sins separate us from Him. Look at Isaiah 59:2, “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear” (ESV). 
  • Going with our navigational theme, sins are like “mines” in the water. Until we remove them, then we are sailing in very dangerous waters. What confession does is to remove the “mine” from the water and our lives. We may not take our sins seriously, but God does. Jesus’ death by crucifixion demonstrates this and our confession expresses our grateful humility for what He did. To skip confusion of sin is to spit on Jesus as many did on the day He was crucified. 
  • Read what King David wrote when he sinned agaisnt God with Bathsheba in Psalm 32:2-5, "For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. (4) For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.. (5) I acknowledged my sin to You, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You forgave the iniquity of my sin." (ESV).
  • 1 John 1:9 states, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (ESV). Confession is more than saying. “Lord, forgive me of my sins.”  If confession is more than this, then how do we get this signal of confession to God? Another acrostic. See it below:

Just like a sail-boat needs air to move through the water, your need A.I.R. also in your confession step. There are three steps to confession:  A.I.R.

• A = Acknowledgement: This is where we agree with God that we have disobeyed Him.  You can say something like, “Lord, I have disobeyed you, I’m sorry.” 
• I = Identification: This is where you name or identify the sins.  You say something like, “Lord, I lost my temper at my wife today,” or “I lied at work today” or “God, I got mad in traffic today and used this curse word” (name it). These are only examples. The reason we name the sin is so that we will feel ashamed and not want to do it again. You specifically identify your sin so that it shows your humility, agreement with God and are ready for the next step.

Think back over the times as a child when you have disobeyed your parents. Have you ever had them to tell you to look them in the eyes and answer this question, “Why did you do that?” Usually we just bow our heads. We feel ashamed. We know that we have let them down. Because we have let them down, it is very hard to look them in the eyes.

Naming a sin to God is just like that. It is where we face our wrong and accept the responsibility for it. It is where we agree with God that our short-term sin experience could have have long-term consequences.

• R = Repentance:  This is an old fashioned word. It actually means 180 degree turn.  You are going in one direction and you turn and go the opposite direction.  Repentance is where we show the sincerity of our confession. This is where our words of acknowledgement and identification become actions.

Tomorrow I will give you. the steps to rependance. I pray this helps you in your prayer time of your daily quiet time.

Scripture to Meditate On: Psalm 46:10, "Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (ESV).

Prayer to Pray: “Dear Jesus, I am so sorry I do not take prayer more seriously. I am so sorry that I make excuses for not praying. God, I see a way that helps me pray each day right after I have read Your Word. God, I seem to have plenty of time to watch TV, be on my phone, and even social media. God, I need You. I want You. And I want us to each day converse. First, You through Your Word to me and then second, me to You through the gift of prayer. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”