Duty vs. Devotion

I love those moments when I really have a longing to spend time with Jesus. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I usually dislike my time with the Lord, on the contrary, I love spending time in His Word. Too often though, I spend my time with the Lord out of duty and not out of devotion. I wake up in the morning, get my coffee, grab my Bible and notebook, and spend time in prayer and in the Word. Honestly, this has become a routine. It feels weird if I don’t do this every morning when I awake. But, am I just doing this out of duty and not out of love?

Then, I have those moments when I look out the window and I see the sunshine (yes, not too often I know), and I just feel like I want to be out there enjoying it in the presence of the Lord. There are moments when I just really genuinely want to spend more time with Jesus, when I planned to do other things and yet my heart wants to spend it with Him.

The problem is, if I always waited until I felt like spending more time with Him, I probably wouldn’t have a very consistent devotion life. I am a sinner and more times than not I would rather be doing something else. I would rather be cleaning something that probably doesn’t really need to be cleaned (because I am known for doing that), or be on Facebook, or watch some television.  

So, what am I saying? I know that I need to daily wake up, grab my Bible, and spend time with Jesus. There is no way around that. I am not saying I should wait to be in the Word until I feel like it. What I am saying is that I want to daily check my heart. Recently there was a Children’s Ministry Appreciation Night at my church and the speaker talked about the difference of serving the Lord out of duty and devotion. I don’t want to serve the Lord out of duty, but out of devotion. The apostle Paul said that the love of Christ compelled him. I want Jesus’ love to be so on fire in me that I can’t wait to spend time more time with Him. I want to be so in love with Him that I want to spend every moment of every day with Him…because that’s how it is when you love someone. When you love someone you will do everything in your power to make sure that you get time with that person. And when you’re with that person, you don’t want to spend it checking your cell phone, looking at the clock, distracted by other things, because you want to soak up every moment you can with one you love. That’s how I want my time with Jesus to be. I want to be so in love with Him that my heart longs for our times together, that my heart longs to hear His Word sweetly spoken to my heart, that I long to come to Him and pour out my heart before Him.

I believe that when I really begin to ponder how deep Jesus’ love is for me, that’s when I will start spending time with Him out of devotion and not out of duty. I can become so legalistic and start to think of what I need to do, how much I need to read, how long I think I need to pray, that I totally make my time with the Lord about me and not about Him. When I make it about Him, and what He’s already done for me, that’s when I begin to be compelled by His love.

Lord, help me to live each day on fire for you. Please help me to daily remember how much You love me so that in turn I would love You more. Forgive me for making things about me when it’s all about You.