Do Your Devotions Feel Like Drudgery? Consider This. (Part 2)
In a previous post, I considered what might be the cause standing behind our experience of devotions as drudgery. Boiled down, I proposed that the problem stems from asking the wrong questions when it comes to devotional practice. When we consider Scripture reading and prayer, our minds tend towards a question like “How long?” rather than the more basic question, “Why?” Going with the latter. I spelled out two basic questions:
“Why should I be reading Scripture?”
“Why should I be praying?”
Dealing with the first, I summarily explained that reading Scripture only takes on the visage of a reading assignment if we think that reading Scripture is a mere ritual, that we simply read for the sake of reading. To the contrary, I explained that God has inspired Scripture to reveal Himself to us and that this purpose has been extended to the majority of people throughout history who have be unable to read the Scriptures for themselves. This suggests that, while we cannot have a healthy devotional practice that is uninformed by Scripture, it is possible to have a time of devotion that does not feature reading the Scriptures.
Now, I wrote that last part with some hesitation - I never want to discourage people from reading Scripture. However, drawing from my own experience as one who has grown up his whole life in the church, I felt compelled to write what I wrote because as Christians we often fail to view our reading of Scripture functionally. Instead of viewing Scripture reading as a means to an end, we often view it as an end in itself. This is a high view of Scripture, but the height is misplaced, and treated in this way it will grow tiresome and burdensome because it can give no satisfaction to our restless hearts. Here it is that we must remember the purpose for which Scripture has been given: to reveal God.
Scripture likewise reveals the truth about ourselves and how we are to relate to God. Considered as a narrative, the possibility of human relationship with God started off at wonderful heights before crashing to devastating depths. In the Garden, Adam and Eve could have enjoyed an afternoon stroll with the Creator of the Universe. After betraying God, we lost such intimacy. In the Temple, the Jews tied bells to the ankle of the high priest, lest their ritually sanctified representative be struck dead before God’s presence in the Holy of Holies. The relationship was tenuous; God was present, but there could be no touching.
And then God became a baby.
This was quite surprising, but he was driving towards this all along. Jesus offers full and complete reconciliation, providing in himself a way to the Father. He does this in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, whereby he now intercedes as our great High Priest before the Father. The promised end to all of this looks very much like the beginning, except even better, as we will enjoy living together in a perfected Creation with God forever.
This is all well and good (and awesome!), but where does it leave us today? How do we enjoy relationship with God between the third day and the Last Day?
Well, we enjoy it in Jesus Christ, which means...we pray! During his earthly ministry, Jesus showed us what it meant to enjoy the divine relationship as human beings. Considering Jesus, God the Son, is himself divine, one might think he would not bother with praying. And yet we find Jesus constantly praying and encouraging prayer! As he does this, he is revealing the Trinitarian mystery of the one God who is three in persons, as the Son prays to the Father in the power of the Spirit who descended upon him at his baptism. As he does this, he is modeling for us what it means be in relationship with God as a human being. In Jesus, we see the Trinitarian relationship, that has been enjoyed for all eternity, carry on, even as the Son takes on human flesh.
The pieces begin coming together when we consider a few verses. Just before his betrayal, Jesus offers this prayer for his disciples (including us):
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. [John 17:20-21 ESV]
As he prays, Jesus reveals that our belief in him is meant to lead to corporate communion with God, that we are invited into the same relationship the Father and Son have enjoyed for all eternity! At this point, you might wonder where the third person of the Trinity (the Holy Spirit) is in all of this. Paul and Jesus tell us:
(Paul) But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" [Galatians 4:4-6 ESV]
(Jesus) Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. [John 16:7 ESV]
(Paul) Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. [Romans 8:26-27 ESV]
Where is the Spirit? The Spirit is sent into our hearts! For what purpose? So that we might call upon God the Father as his children. There are numerous ways in which the Spirit helps us, but as Galatians seems to suggest, perhaps the principal way the Spirit helps is by prompting us to call upon the Father in prayer. And as Paul says in Romans 8, we need this help in prayer. He puts it bluntly: “For we do not know what to pray for as we ought.” Paul himself is included in that assessment. It’s a good reminder that if you think you’re the only who doesn’t know how to pray, you’re hardly alone - none of us know how to pray on our own!
Let’s answer that second question: “Why should I be praying?” We could rightly say we should be praying because God holds all things in his hands and is the Giver of all good things. It’s true and logical, but something essential is missing from the equation that stands out in everything I’ve laid out above. Namely, what is missing is our relationship with God. From the beginning, God has desired for us to be in communion with him and his salvific mission has always had that end in sight. The full consummation of that communion is still yet to be realized, but God has drawn near to us in Christ so that we might be drawn near to him as we live between the times. The Father has made us his children in Jesus and we can begin enjoying this relationship that we will enjoy for all eternity through the present ministry of the Spirit. In other words, we are saved to call upon God as Father. We are saved to pray.
Unlike the reading of Scripture, prayer is an end unto itself. Prayer’s ultimate object is not the meeting of our temporal needs (however important), but our communion with God, which is our eternal need. When devotions are reduced to reading assignments and calling a repairman, they rightly become drudgery; we were not saved for this. The Word of God is grist to the mill of the Spirit, given so that we might know how to pray, and we pray so that we might be in communion with God, a relationship which gives birth to divine and often human action. If you haven’t noticed, our God is always on the move. The Father sends the Son, the Son sends the Spirit, the Spirit sends our prayers, and we are sent out to the ends of earth with Good News. Our relationship with God was never meant to stay private; this communion is meant to go global. And our mission begins as we enjoy our fellowship with God by participating through prayer in the divine action.
While not easy, my exhortation is simple: don’t get distracted. Devotions become drudgery when we become distracted, when we lose sight of the eternal purpose, which is that we would know God and be known by him. Positively, call on the Father with eagerness, fix your eyes on the Son through whom we have been adopted as God’s children, depend on the Spirit for realizing a communion that exceeds human powers. When you do, your devotions will have nothing in common with drudgery. Instead, you will be met with a palpable taste of eternity, the presence of the divine embracing human weakness, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.
Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.