Tips for Devos

First off Devos = Devotions

As I was reading this morning, with my wonderful room mate sleeping soundly in our bunk, I cracked open the blinds to spill light in on my journals. Almost simultaneous with the light spilling in the to do list of the day awoke in my mind. If you are anything like me it is often a challenge to keep your mind focussed on the Word, or any reading for that matter, when the days to-do's grab for your attention. Attention in its origin comes from the Latin base attentio(n-), or the verb attendere (attend). With this understanding of the word attention it follows that what you pay attention to you serve. So it is important to ask, "what owns your attention?" Most likely what owns your attention owns you!

I like to multi-task (I am actually writing this as my professor goes off on tangents) and the issue with a mind that is always doing ten things is that you often miss the wholeness that is sound in single focus. In fact to have more than one vision is a great breakdown to the word division or di-vision.

All of this to say! Write stuff down! When you are having trouble focussing in on the Word have a sticky note on which you can write down your thoughts and to-do's. Write it down and then shift back and let your mind be set on what God's word and all he has to say to you! The same practical trick goes with prayer, worship, and I may broaden it to life as a whole! It works wonders.

A second little breakthrough that I have had recently is to read the bible in large chunks. A reading plan is great and I recommend one as it helps you to get a diverse diet of the law, the prophets, gospels, epistles, and so forth...
but even as there is great value in meditating on short sections of scripture to mine out its treasures I have found that there is great value in reading large sections. My reason is, as any budding English major may have supposed, that as you read the bible (especially the Old Testament) you gain an understanding of the narrative, the big picture, the context of those short sections we love to meditate on.

In summery... sticky notes, perspective,

and I love you.