Saturday, January 3, 2015

How Do I "Do" My Devotions?


Here is a recent conversation I had on Face Book with a great friend in Michigan. Mike is a dedicated cop with a great testimony! I truly appreciate him.

Mike Lee How do you like to study individual books? I’m always looking for new ideas. Currently I read a passage/section/chapter (have been in Psalms) and then reflect on, think about, and study a phrase or thought that pops out of the text at me. What do you do?

8 mins · Edited · Like
https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-xaf1/v/t1.0-1/c14.14.172.172/s32x32/181405_1699190292692_5946359_n.jpg?oh=b73cf760ff652c7c77d4181b2df679f6&oe=553B4C6F&__gda__=1425983269_19ad106cf978dc07b2bde244530ce90c
Gregory D Metcalf Do mean "study" devotionally or "study" for preaching? If you mean for my devotions, I started using the program One Note in Windows 8. I created a "notebook " called Gregg's Quiet Time.

I then take a new page for each day of my devotion. I label with the reading for the day, which is usually a complete unit of thought or a paragraph.

I then start with a heading - Reading To Understand.

Under this heading I begin to type everything I observe, questions I have about the text, in a sort of outline form. I answer questions such as who is speaking who is being spoken to, what is being said, why it is being said.

 I then make an additional heading, "Meditation on Reading" I then meditate or think through the unit of thought I just observed, drawing out the principles and truths in the paragraph.

After I draw out the truths and principles, I make another heading called "Prayer on Reading and Meditation"

Here I list the things I need to pray about as a result of reading the passage. Things I need to do, not do, don't understand, appreciate, praises come at this time, etc.

Then I make a final heading called “Contemplation on Reading, Mediation, and Praying.”

Here I look for the application for my life - what do I need to do or not do. I use something I made up called SPEECH.

Is there a:

Sin to Confess,
Promise to Claim,
Example to Copy, and
Error to Consider,
Command to Complete,
Hypothesis to Construe?

2 mins · Like
https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-xaf1/v/t1.0-1/c14.14.172.172/s32x32/181405_1699190292692_5946359_n.jpg?oh=b73cf760ff652c7c77d4181b2df679f6&oe=553B4C6F&__gda__=1425983269_19ad106cf978dc07b2bde244530ce90c
Gregory D Metcalf After all that I take one devotional commentary and I read it on the section I just finished for any additional insight or correction to my thinking. Does that help?

Mike Lee Love it!


4 mins · Unlike · 1

No comments: