The purpose of Devotion: To change one’s life.
A change in life can take place only when you apply the text, God’s Word to your life. Unless applied to yourself, the devotion would be fruitless, lifeless and dead.
The main question to ask while doing a devotion is: How can this passage apply to my life? In what ways is God talking to me through His Word?
*It could be and should be exciting to dig deeper in to the Word and find interesting facts and truths from the passage, but the PRIMARY goal doing the devotion should be answering the question: How can this passage apply to my life?
The purpose of devotion in Four Areas:
- To develop relationship with God
- To gain maturity in the God’s Word
- To develop relationship with others
- To develop relationship with Church
1. Pray before devotion. Ask the Holy Spirit God to illuminate the text to you. Without God’s help, there is no way to understand the life-changing Word of God.
2. Ask: What is the passage saying? If you do not understand the passage, your application will be wrong.
3. Based on the evaluation, identify whether the passage is talking about a timeless truth or a temporary truth. Meaning, can this passage be applied for our lives, or is it given to a specific situation in that point of history?
Jot down some timeless truths from this passage that could apply to you.
4. Compare other references. If you use reference Bibles, you can see other related passages. This will allow you to understand the meaning of the passage. Not words, but passage. In other words, how can the text you just cross-examined helps you understand the current passage in study? This is also known as “inter-textual” study.
5. Determine how the passage can be applied. How can this passage be applied in our contemporary situation(s)?
Applying the Devotion:
Meditate on the passage; Answer the following questions:
- Any promise to claim or praise to offer to God?
- Any example to follow or to avoid?
- Any action or attitude to change?
- Any command to obey?
- Any error to avoid?
After checking these 5 points above with the passage, then write a specific, practical way(s) the passage can be applied.
Memorize the Verse: If you see any verse that touches your heart, memorize it. Write it down by looking at about 3-4 times, then write it down without looked at it another 2-3 times. This will help you not only memorize but retain the verse.
Finally, put the application into practice. Do not rush doing the devotion; take time, be prayerful while reading the Scripture. If you want to be Christ-like, then you must do the devotion with reverence, obedience, and with a teachable spirit.
Note: I used some content by LifeWay
