On Doing Devotions and Thankfulness

These thoughts were triggered by a friend who asked me, "What is it you do when you do devotions?"
If I had been asked this a few years ago, I may have replied:

Well, I read my Bible, and I pray, and sometimes I write my prayers or thoughts about what God has been teaching me in a journal.

or something along those lines.

This is the general mechanism of doing devotions for most people I know.  We take a few minutes, (maybe in the morning or before bed), read a passage from the Bible, pray, perhaps guided by a lesson of sorts from a daily devotional book. 

I think "devotions" has been prefaced with the incorrect verb--that is, I should not be doing devotions, but being devoted.  How I express my devotion is secondary to whom or what I am devoted to.

Taking the model of "spending time with God" to mean 15 minutes at the close of day is broken to me.  Psalm 1 says:

"Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.  That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither." 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Take note of some of the phrases used in these passages: "day and night", "always", "continually", "in all circumstances".  These acts of studying and meditating on God's word and praying are clearly meant to invade more than a 15 minute window of my day.

Of course, I am not saying that I will never set aside time to read my Bible and pray (i.e. "do" devotions).  But I am reminding myself that my foremost commitment and devotion is to a Person, not to a credo or list of religious "dos" and dont's".

And speaking of remembering, I was recently reminded by a friend that it is remembrance that drives thanksgiving.  Poet Bradley Hathaway's piece Short and Untitled describes a place and way of feeling that most of us have likely felt in our spiritual lives:

"They say that sometimes you are farther than the moon
and sometimes you are closer than my skin.

Indeed
I remember back when you were closer than my skin
Those were the evenings spent alone with you in bliss
Those were the mornings when you awoke me by a gentle kiss

And these are the evenings where I sit alone and wish and reminisce
These are the mornings when I awake to an alarm clock after falling asleep with the hurting thought:
Why have you forsaken me?"

There are times, for whatever reason, where we feel close to God and hear him speaking into our lives and see him leading us.  But there are also other times--dry, frustrating times where we feel depleted and lonely and tired--because we have been trying to find Him but can't, or trying to listen but can't hear over the noise in our souls. 

And it is in these times that we must remember the things God has done in the past--in our lives and in others lives.*  By doing so we can continue to be thankful even in difficult times because we can praise God for who he is, and that his character never changes.

...

*Check out Judges 2 and Psalm 136 to see why this is important.