Devotion!

August 6th, 2024| Topic: aBeLOG, Interviews | 2

Recently, I answered a couple of questions for a series A Scholar’s Devotion on a blog maintained by a Southern Seminary student. His request:

I ask scholars and seminary professors: 1) how they spend their devotional time so that seminary students (and anyone else, really) can grow in their devotional life and become more enamored by Christ amidst the rigor of seminary academics (or, just the rigor of life); and 2) how they continue to love him with all their mind, strength, and heart.

1. How do you spend your devotional time with the Lord?

As a single guy (single by choice, for life, unto Christ, in community), and one who is not necessarily gregarious in orientation—I’m pretty content being by myself—my “devotional time with the Lord,” to be honest, encompasses everything I do when I’m alone. That means all my engagements in life are done very consciously acknowledging the presence of God with me. And I try to be in conversation with him all throughout my day (no matter where I am or what I am doing).

But to your question, for which I guess you expect a more specific answer, I engage in lectio divina (reading devotionally) of the Psalter. Having just completed a three-volume, 1000-page commentary on the Psalms, that’s what I’ve been doing for the last several years: reading a psalm without any academic intrusion of parsing, or side-referencing, or checking translations, or seeking the wisdom of other commentaries. It helps that I translated all 150 psalms myself, and I submerge myself in those songs, reading a psalm daily, often praying through it.

I have also maintained quite a comprehensive prayer list for the last several decades, praying through it daily. A new list is created every Thanksgiving season. (It is also a terrific experience to periodically scan lists from prior years thanking God for what he has been doing in my life.)

2. How do you practically seek to deepen your love for Christ?

My easy answer is that I seek to “deepen my love for Christ” by solitude, writing, listening to Bach, watching cricket, reading, napping, traveling, etc. But the more difficult answer is that it is God’s word that is slowly shaping and molding me into the image of Christ. Proactively, whenever I preach, I seek to give my listeners a specific, concrete, first step towards accomplishing the call of the text. And, invariably, I myself engage in that activity usually even before I preach that passage. (I tell my preaching students that doing those applications is one way to discover specific application that is creative, concrete, and compelling, which can then be shared with others.)

Keeping myself in the love of God (Jude 21) as I serve him has grown me tremendously in my love for God, as I see his reciprocal lovingkindness and blessing in manifold ways in my life.

Participating in the activities of my local church is another active engagement, though that is somewhat limited because of my travel schedule and engagements out of town.

Engaging in the spiritual disciplines is key for me. Celibacy, solitude, silence, prayer, study of Scripture, are, of course, a given for the single hermit that I am. Giving of my financial resources to the work of God is also a discipline I have worked hard to cultivate, and it is something I greatly enjoy. As well, preaching and exhorting whenever I have the opportunity, and being on the lookout for opportunities to share the gospel with unbelievers.

All of these activities, facilitate my “knowing” the love of Christ that “surpasses knowledge” (Eph 3:19).