Beautiful, Randy. "I have no moral authority to scold pastors who struggle in this area. I have no noise canceling sheets to sell nor sure-fire methodologies to offer. But as you long to hear the voice of Jesus, I urge you to keep pressing forward in that direction until you do." Thank you. For the encouragement. The urging.
TRUTH BOMB, Randy! Been there — done that — doing that! I have communicated “pride” about my quiet time. Paul David Tripp says something to the effect that “good” things can become “great” things and eventually “ruling” things. Such has been my periodic challenge of my devotional time.
As a young Pastors wife I religiously got up early every morning to have my “quiet time,” underlining and highlighting special verses. I would then close my Bible, feeling accomplished, and go be mean to my husband.
Yes, but the wrong is not necessarily where we think it is. I will never suggest that there is a magical one to one connection between our devotional disciplines and our outward behavior. Perhaps it was that steady, albeit pride filled, practice that God used in slow, imperceptive ways, to change you, to shape you to see what you were doing. And perhaps that took years. I mean, yes, it was wrong to be mean to your husband. And it is wrong to invest our devotional practices with pride. But I don't want to suggest that those devotional practices are nevertheless devoid of value and wrong thereby.
Beautiful, Randy. "I have no moral authority to scold pastors who struggle in this area. I have no noise canceling sheets to sell nor sure-fire methodologies to offer. But as you long to hear the voice of Jesus, I urge you to keep pressing forward in that direction until you do." Thank you. For the encouragement. The urging.
TRUTH BOMB, Randy! Been there — done that — doing that! I have communicated “pride” about my quiet time. Paul David Tripp says something to the effect that “good” things can become “great” things and eventually “ruling” things. Such has been my periodic challenge of my devotional time.
As a young Pastors wife I religiously got up early every morning to have my “quiet time,” underlining and highlighting special verses. I would then close my Bible, feeling accomplished, and go be mean to my husband.
Hmm. Something wrong there, ya think?
Yes, but the wrong is not necessarily where we think it is. I will never suggest that there is a magical one to one connection between our devotional disciplines and our outward behavior. Perhaps it was that steady, albeit pride filled, practice that God used in slow, imperceptive ways, to change you, to shape you to see what you were doing. And perhaps that took years. I mean, yes, it was wrong to be mean to your husband. And it is wrong to invest our devotional practices with pride. But I don't want to suggest that those devotional practices are nevertheless devoid of value and wrong thereby.