Devotions and Bible Studies

How often do we go into a church setting like a Sunday morning service or a college group with the expectation of getting a spiritual high?  A high that will make us feel good, convict us a tiny bit, and overall leave us with a feeling of satisfaction and general happiness. Then we leave and basically forget all that we heard. We continue on with our week almost in a spiritual low looking forward to the next service. Do we get involved in several ministries so we have these "highs" throughout the week? If our only times of prayer, study, and worship only happen in a corporate setting we are missing out on the most rewarding one on one times with our Savior. He loves when we come and spend time just being in His presence and learning from Him. We need to be filled daily with the Word through our devotions and prayer. Corporate meetings serve as a catalyst for studying throughout the week. Do our daily devotions stem off what we have heard or are they not connected at all? When we do this our devotions will grow deeper and the messages that we hear throughout the week will impact us for more than thirty minuets. Here is how I think we should approach church meetings/Bible studies.

Before:

• Prayer for the Spirit to work in our hearts and give the speaker the words to say.
• Remember the previous week's teaching and the lessons learned.
• Thanksgiving for what God has done since then.

During:

• Praising God for who He is and what He has done for us.
• Focus our mind completely on the teaching.
• Write down key points, application, and references to look up later.

After:

• Prayer for God's working during  the following week.
• Discussion with others about the message and service.
• Prayer for the church body.

There is one more area I want to address that goes along with all of this. We should apply this to the conferences and retreats we go to.  Personally when I have gone to different conferences or retreats I hear so many good things, but a few weeks later I can't really remember what they were and they have not done much for my personal growth. The reason for this is because after the conference we go back into our daily routine and forget about it. Invest follow up time to go over what you learned.


I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge -- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:16-19