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15. No More Inconsistent Devotions! 6 Game-Changing Tips · Gen Truth | Conquering Adulting through faith in Jesus

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  Hey friend, welcome to Gen True Podcast show.
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  My name is Daniel Pemgol.
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  I am loved by God.
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  I am called and gifted by God to teach his word.
• Would you be kind to allow me to speak into your life as we journey through the setbacks, the opportunities? and the mysteries we encounter as young adults.
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  I will be exploring timeless truths in God's Word that would strengthen us through our adulting journey.
• If you're ready, I'm ready.
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  Grab your earpiece and let's go for a walk as we talk.
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  Hello, welcome to Gentruth podcast show.
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  my name is Daniel Mpemgo today we're looking at a question how is your devotional time going? You know, sometimes when I chat to people, people are like, yeah, I want to be more consistent in my devotional time.
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  The intention is there.
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  But we get distracted and struggle in being consistent today I want to walk you through six recommendations that could help improve your devotional time.
• Father, we thank you for the opportunity to speak to your people.
• And thank you for the opportunity that we get to grow, so we can spend more time with you we ask for wisdom, Holy Spirit give each person clarity in areas or things that they need to move around so that they can make more room to spend time with you.
• We love you, we thank you, in Jesus name, Amen.
• So if you're new to this,, if you're new in your walk with Jesus, there's something we call devotional time, or some people call it quiet time.
• It's a time period that is dedicated to the Lord.
• I call it, quality time.
• See, The Lord is always with us.
• But we devote ourselves, like we heard last week, Acts 2 verse 42, the apostles, preached the gospel, people responded and became, saved.
• The Bible tells us those new believers, devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer.
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  Their commitment to Christ altered what they used their time for.
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  And so it was seen in their daily life.
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  A few verses, further down, you would see every day they gathered together.
• And so this shaped their spiritual growth, their spiritual formation.
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  So devotional time is quality time.
• It's a time period we dedicate to the Lord.
• And this time we give our full attention to Him.
• We're not busy with all the things we are dedicating that time to give our full attention to the Lord.
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  This is important.
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  Because for any relationship to work, in every relationship we have quality time and quantity time.
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  Quantity time, refers to time spent overall together.
• You know, you can be in the same lounge space, you're not talking to each other, but you're just in the same space.
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  You're reading a book, and the other person is doing something else.
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  That's quantity time, but time where you spend together having conversation, intentional time that your full focus is on the other person.
• That's quality time.
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  Our devotional time is quality time with the Lord.
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  It's time we put away all the distractions and we give that time to be focusing on the Lord, during devotional time, people do several practices.
• Common practices people do is reading the Word, it's prayer.
• Some people journal.
• So the different practices that can occur in that time.
• It's important that we set ourselves up to be able to give our full attention because we live in an age of distractions, we wake up and we're distracted, we're going to bed and there's lots of distractions, lots of things, lots of notifications coming in here and there.
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  And so, devotion time, it's a really critical time that We invest into our relationship with the Lord where we spend time, with Him, we get to, be intimate with Him, we get to hear from Him, we get to focus all our attention on Him.
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  I would encourage everyone, to have a dedicated time during your day.
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  To spend with the Lord and some people ask, does he have to be in the morning? Can he be at night? Can he be in the evening? It just, it depends on your schedule and what works for you.
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  But I would say, always try to give your best time where you have the best energy.
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  It's not leftover.
• You're not just tired and going to tick the box.
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  Do it during the best time, your best energy where you're able to be present and give him your full.
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  And so that works differently for different people.
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  So, but it's important.
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  I would say it's important to, start your day with a devotional time, when you start your day with hearing from God and spending time with him, it has a ripple effect throughout your whole day.
• And so I would encourage everyone to.
• Have a devotional time at the beginning of your day.
• I know there are people who have shift work and so your days look different or nurses who work different, hours whatever the beginning of your day looks like, jump straight into it.
• why is devotional time important? The Bible says he that walks with the wise shall be wise.
• Whoever is shaping your identity, speaking truth to you, they get to rub off on you.
• When we hang out with God, god rubs up on us.
• We get to think like he does.
• Be renewed in our mind and be formed.
• Spiritual formation happens when we spend time with God.
• It's an amazing opportunity for us to spend time with the Lord.
• You know, back in the old covenant, people didn't have access to that, but as New Testament believers in this new covenant We have access the Bible says we should come boldly to our father What an opportunity that we get to meet with God and have a relationship with him there's no distance with him.
• We can approach him and talk to him So let's look at six recommendations that can help you.
• Be more consistent in your daily devotions.
• The intention is there but it's about consistency.
• Sometimes we do it, you know, beginning of the year, we're like, yeah, I'm going to get this thing done.
• And as the year starts to move on.
• We sleep, and go from one day, we skip one day, to two weeks, to three weeks, and then sometimes it's months, I want to give six practical things I've learned Number one.
• Get rid of your phone.
• I don't mean chuck your phone away.
• I mean, do not take your phone into your bedroom every night when you're going to bed.
• Put your phone in another room.
• If you don't have the ability to put your phone in another room.
• Maybe put your phone at the door.
• let's say your bed is a bit far from the door, put your phone, somewhere far that it would take you a couple of steps a couple of efforts.
• To actually get to your phone.
• What we want to do is we want to make the decision before the morning of what we're going to do.
• most of us sleep with our phone next to us.
• We go through social media before bed.
• when we wake up, we scroll, scroll, scroll.
• And so in order for us to not try to make that decision in the morning, what we can do is we can put the phone somewhere else.
• That way you have your Bible and whatever you're using for your devotional time next to you so that It is the first thing that you can easily get to.
• No excuse, no temptation.
• You can start your day by spending time with God.
• Before you talk to anyone, before you get on with anything, you can just do that.
• No phones, no tablets before bed and no tablets in the morning until you've done your devotion.
• Go, it's similar to number one, but find a devotional, pick up a devotional.
• There's so many devotionals out there.
• I use one that helps me read the Bible, throughout the year.
• It gives me a summary of the chapters they say it takes about 15 minutes to read, the Bible throughout the year.
• So 15 minutes a day and you can read the Bible.
• Get a devotional.
• Why a devotional? Sometimes we're like, I don't know what to read.
• Sometimes we're just, you know, when your brain is trying to figure out what to do, you're most likely not going to do that.
• But if there's a plan in place of this is what I'm going to read, I'm on day 35.
• I'm just going to jump straight into it.
• It means this is another decision that you don't have to make in the morning.
• So that's number two and get a paper based devotional so you don't have to go on your phone or your tablet I know easy, but get a paper one and just put it right next to you.
• You just open it up Don't go Digital until you your devotion.
• I'll say that again.
• Don't go digital until you've done your devotion so number three is have a prayer plan.
• Again, some people don't know what to pray about, or how long to pray get a prayer plan.
• I use, I think it is Church of the Highlands.
• They have a prayer guide.
• So you can get it on, you just Google Church of the Highlands prayer guide or prayer plan.
• And it will be the first thing that comes is a PDF.
• You can just download it, it has the Lord's Prayer there, it has the Tabernacle Prayer, it has about five prayer models.
• And so what happens is you can literally pick one each day of the week, to kind of keep your prayer time fresh.
• Again, these things are not in themselves the goal, they're just an opportunity.
• For you to encounter God.
• So, once I pick it up and I start, sometimes I get to go in a different direction or they're quite flexible you can add things to it.
• So, but it's just a plan.
• It just means that on the days where you don't feel like it, you can go through this prayer plan and you can pray and.
• At the end of the day, you would feel like it.
• And so again, it's paper, you print it out and have it there.
• don't go digital until you've done your devotional time.
• number four is have a plan B.
• So many people have a plan A.
• They're like, okay, this is what I'm going to do.
• This is what I'm going to read, but have a plan B.
• For when things don't go according to plan.
• So you have a interruption in your day, a disruption in your day, in your morning, and it doesn't go according to plan.
• What is your plan B? So have things in place and come up with your plan B before anything happens.
• If I don't get to have that time in the morning, what am I going to do? So one of my friends, shout out Labake, I remember her preaching once and she talked about how, if she has a late night, When she got home, she would literally do her devotion, once she got home.
• So that she knows that the next morning it's going to be a quick one, so she might not have the time to get it done.
• And that's a, that's a plan B.
• I like that.
• For me.
• Sometimes I write my prayers.
• Some days I'm like, okay, cool.
• The energy is not there, but I just start to write and I love it.
• It's intimate.
• It's powerful.
• It is as powerful as me speaking.
• Sometimes my, my son is sleeping, next to me and so I can't.
• I like to be vocal when I pray so, but I found that when I journal my prayers, it's powerful So that's, that's a plan B for me.
• Another plan B is.
• listen to worship.
• Sometimes you wake up and again, you're in your feelings we go.
• Okay, cool this is what we're doing.
• So you listen to worship.
• I have an alexa I just say, play this playlist for me.
• I already know the playlist.
• I don't need to go on my phone.
• It just plays it and I start to worship.
• And as I start to worship again, I get the inspiration to keep going and keep pressing on and praying.
• Another thing is a game changer.
• Shout out to my church, Revelations Church.
• at the beginning of the year, we do a combined, prayer and fasting.
• And one of the things which I really like is we do a Bible reading.
• So before we pray, someone reads about three chapters in the morning and then also at night when we pray, three chapters.
• And so you can just follow on as they're reading which is amazing.
• I took that on days where I don't feel like reading, which I have some of those days.
• I would just say, Alexa, read Genesis 52, or read Acts 3.
• And so I would follow my Bible plan, and it would read, and I would just follow through.
• It works as powerful as that.
• And so those are some of my Plan B, if I am not feeling it, but my determination is that I'm going to devote my time to the Lord, and I'm going to do it.
• And so, whatever plans I can put in place, To help me in that space, it's very important.
• So develop a plan B.
• And then number five is, you can miss one but don't miss two.
• I like that.
• I picked up from a book on habits.
• Atomic Habits.
• So you can skip one, but you don't skip two.
• So let's say something happens and you miss a devotional time, make sure that you don't, it doesn't turn to two.
• Because once it turns to two, then it can turn to three, and then before you know it It could be months.
• So always, always try to get into it straight away.
• And then finally, number six, which is I think one of my favorite recommendations is you don't have to do perfect.
• that's the way I like to study the Bible.
• This is where I like to spend my devotional time.
• There's an amount of time I like to have, which.
• For me, it's an ideal time.
• And sometimes I don't have that.
• so oftentimes it's like, Oh, when I get that time, I would do this, but I've just learned.
• To just do it, do it in a non perfect way.
• It doesn't have to be perfect.
• It doesn't have to be ideal.
• Sometimes I could be feeding my son and I do it.
• I could be doing something, but I'm not going to pass on getting.
• Some quality time and it might not look like quality, but I'm not gonna mess up on spending time with Lord However, it looks like I'm going to spend time with him I think that's powerful But when we have those things in place because sometimes you're like, oh, I didn't have my ideal morning So I skipped it.
• It doesn't have to be ideal You just have to get into it.
• So devotion, remember, is a delight and many times we're delighted to be in there.
• But sometimes a discipline and we have to get that discipline in place because not feel like it and the might not be ideal, but we have to, like the early believers, And we can devote ourselves in prayer, worship, we can devote ourselves in reading the word, and those things help us in maturing as believers.
• I hope this has blessed you.
• Again, I want to end with the question I asked, how is your devotional life going? And from these things I've shared, how can adjustments to be intentional about spending time with God daily? Thank you all and I pray God blesses you and I pray that your devotional life will be revived.
• It'll be something you look forward to.
• It won't be one that you sleep or hit you not off, it'll be one that really sets you up on fire for God.
• I love you guys have a great day.
• Hey friend, I hope this episode has impacted you, encouraged you, and enlightened you in some way.
• If so, would you please share this episode right now with a friend? I also would love you to please take 30 Seconds to leave me a review on Apple Podcasts.
• This will be a double blessing to me because I get to hear from you and also to hear how this show has impacted you.
• Lastly, please follow me on Instagram TikTok.
• My handle is Daniel and Pam go and I pray that our God will fill your heart with peace right now.
• In Jesus name.
• Amen.
• Thank you for listening.