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?

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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?

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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!

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