This last week of July, I want to preach about another subject that’s near and dear to my heart. For the last 12 years or so, I’ve been writing daily devotionals, usually 500 words or so and posting them online. Occasionally, I would sit there in the morning, when I write them, what is the point of this? Sometimes, I just don’t know. And it’s hard writing them. If you remember writing essays in college and you’re like 500 words? It’s so much to write uniquely your own thoughts. What’s harder than writing the devotions though, isn’t coming up with the original words and thoughts to put pen to paper, or in my case, key to blog; it’s the practice of actually committing to doing that day what I write in my devotional that I need to do. Every day, is a new devotion, but it’s an old devotion—devotion to God and being wholly His.
This morning, we’re going to talk about what Authentic Devotion should look like in our lives. We are Christians, we are Christ followers, we need to devote our time to our God much more so than our pursuit to catch ‘em all. Or our time at the office, pursuing something that will level you empty and tired at the end of the day. You know I’m talking about a real thing because I don’t just sit there and write about the Bible every day. I don’t spend every day in church being a professional Christian. I’m a professional business man after I take off the collar on Sundays too. If you want to live a life that is differentiated and meaningful in the way God intended His followers to live, then we must authentically devote ourselves to God, and we must do so on a daily basis and not just on Sundays.
Let’s open our Bibles up to Psalm 91. We’re going to read this entire chapter in three parts. The reason we’re going to do this is because I want us to recognize how devotion works in three parts. It’s one thing to understand what the word devotion means. It’s another entirely to understand how we can be devoted to something. But really, the kicker and the thing that makes devotion to God worth our time and valuable is knowing that devotion is motion and what I want to call a dance with God.
If you’re not quite sure what the word, “devotion” means, it is simply love, loyalty or enthusiasm for a person, activity or cause. For example, I am devoted to Michelle, as my wife—you see I love her, I’m loyal to her, and I’m enthusiastic for her. When I was a kid, I was devoted to RPGs on the Super Nintendo. Then as I got older, it was devotion to the losing sports teams in New York. Then as I got older still yet, it was to Notre Dame football. I know you know, but did you know that there are some people out there who are so devoted to Pokémon, that they’ve sacrificed health and wealth to catch Pokémon? I had an employee who would stop very critical work in the middle of the work day to catch a Pokémon. Come on man. I’m not dissing the game or if you’re one of these Pokémon catcher people, all the power to you, but priorities. There are still others, and it may not be Pokémon, it may be sports teams, political parties, philosophical ideologies, causes, cars, children, houses, appearances, money, possessions, etc and etc I can go. I can rattle them off, but I know you get the picture. Acts of devotion are simple to identify: it’s you or me spending time pursuing that which we are devoted to.
With that being said, I want to ask, “how devoted are you to God?” Have we spent any time with Him since last Sunday when we prayed last? Can you count that time you thanked God for your dinner as devotion? Like, have you pursued God at all this week? The reason you may not have pursued God this week is because you don’t see devotion as a three-part dance between God that is magical and exhilarating and I really want you to see it that way.
The first part of the dance of devotion I want you to see is this, I call it the “confession of trust.” Let’s go to verses 1 and 2.
1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
Psalm 91:1-2
Let me translate this for you so that it’s not so poetic and you don’t get lost in the imagery of where the Psalmist is going with this Psalm. Verse 1: the person who stays or sits in secret place of God. This already begs the question: what is the secret place of God and how can I sit there? Will spend the night (abide) in the shade (shadow) of the Almighty, which in Hebrew is El Shaddai or God Almighty, or most powerful. I’m just in verse 1, but I want you dwell on that question that isn’t answered here but is implied we know: the secret place of God and that we can sit there.
If you don’t understand let me explain it to you right now that the Psalmist is talking about the “secret place” which is the same secret place that Jesus talked about when he was teaching about prayer, that is somewhere between you and God, in the spaces of your life that are devoid of anything but you and God. When we live in that place, we are in God’s secret place. This is a confession of trust is it not?
I’m talking about now that devotion, the pursuit of God is the aim we have in our lives to have nothing between us and God. That means we can’t multitask Him. Moreover, it means that we are devoting ourselves to being with God in public places. It needs to be a space where it’s just you and God. This can mean that your commute to work, with nothing else going on, is the shelter of God. This can mean that when you’re at the gym working out, you are in the shelter of God. This can mean that when you’re in the dark of your closet or your bed or in the bathroom, or anywhere without distraction, the park, the laundromat, wherever it may be, that is the secret place and we need to be there. We need to be there because that’s where we need spend the time we have where we’re not occupied with a million and half things to do. But I want to keep going. Look at verse 2.
Do you see that the Psalmist confesses that the reason he is here in that secret place is because God is his refuge, fortress, and he trusts God to be a refuge and fortress? Some of us don’t understand that God is a refuge and fortress because we’re not at the secret place of God. We are not devoting our time we won’t get back to being where God can protect us and save us. This is why we need to devote ourselves to God authentically. It can’t just be at church. It needs to be every time, all the time, when we have the time. And if we don’t have time, we need to make time because when we look for God in those times, He becomes the refuge we need and the fortress we can rely on. I’m going to get to more of that in a little bit.
I know I spent a lot of time here, and I haven’t gotten into what devotion looks like, but I will right now because that’s what’s really on your minds. The Apostle Paul says devotion looks like this, let’s go to Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” That is simply saying, “spend time thinking not about the world or its concerns, but about the will of God.” The will of God is to come to Jesus so that you can receive the glory of God’s love. Look at John 5:19-21 because this is what devotion to the will of God is.
19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. (John 5:19-21)
Devotion is the act of renewing our mind to see and do what God does. The only way to see and do what God does is to see and do like Jesus. Moreover, it is to ask God to show you what He’s doing—how is Jesus giving life to the people around you? What things are happening? You haven’t seen a miracle in your life because you’ve never asked God to show you, and I mean authentically show you what that looks like. You’re not the only one. Sometimes, when I take my foot off the pedal, I miss it too. I’m guilty as well. But we can’t live like this anymore. We need to be authentically devoted to God and the works of God and we need to spend time we aren’t giving to God, to God because He gave us the time and space to do so. Lets go back to Psalm 91, verse 3.
3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
5 You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only look with your eyes
and see the recompense of the wicked. 9 Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—
the Most High, who is my refuge—
10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
no plague come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
12 On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the adder;
the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. (Psalm 91:3-13)
When we devote ourselves to God, because now this is the why we need to. If being a part of God’s work for salvation through your witness of Jesus Christ on a cross and His resurrection wasn’t enough for you, then it’s because we need to understand that when we devote ourselves to God, there is a reach that God has for us. In verses 7 and 8, and you can underline this, “it will not come near you.” I’m not talking about indestructability; I’m talking about your outlook on life. This is not a prophecy about how you won’t ever be hurt or scarred or nothing bad will happen to you. No, it is a testimony about how your outlook on life will change from that of fear and everything neurotic you do in that fear, to that of which knows that God’s protection extends further than we could imagine. Doesn’t verses 11-13 look familiar? It’s because Satan uses these verses to lure Jesus out of devoting Himself to the Father while Jesus was fasting in the wilderness with God. Jesus responds to Satan at that point and says that “Man does not live on bread alone, but on the very word of God.” This is how Jesus understood life and God’s protection—he saw it as an outlook to live life. So should we. We need a frame of reference that guides how we live and that is what our actions should be based on.
Here’s why, this is part of that dance of why we need to be devoted, this is the part where we comprehend or understand why God wants us to be devoted to Him. Trust me, it’s not for His sake, it’s for ours. Go to verse 14.
14 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
I will protect him, because he knows my name.
15 When he calls to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.” (Psalm 91:14-16)
I call this the imprint. In Latin, it’s called “imprimatur” or “overriding commitment” I want you to see this because it’s beautiful. We devote ourselves when we do three things. In return, God does seven things in a series of seven first person verbs and clauses. I know my head hurts a little just thinking about this. Here are the three things we do when we are devoting ourselves to God. I highlighted it in yellow on the screen for you.
First, we devote ourselves to God by loving Him; that is doing what people who are in love do—hold fast in love. Second, when we devote ourselves to God, we know His name. We need to get comfortable with knowing God personally. That is what He is talking about when it is said that when that person knows God’s name. Some of us don’t have that personal relationship with God, and we need to invite Him into our lives. Thirdly, when we devote ourselves to God, we are calling him. We are inviting God. We are crying out to God. We are pouring over Him. We need to pray. That’s why I preached the sermon last week, “Don’t stop praying.” That’s why we stopped what we were doing at the end of our service to pray, to call to God because we don’t call out to God enough. He’s not on Instagram. We can’t find God hiding on Google Maps. There is no alert on our phone that will notify us when He is close. We need to call out to Him.
Now look at what God does when we devote ourselves to Him. Because obviously devoting ourselves to God is threefold and it’s easy for us to do considering we can all talk and express ideas and speak. Look at what God does when we devote ourselves to Him. I highlighted this in blue. Look at these seven things that God does for us when we authentically devote ourselves to him.
- I will deliver him
- I will protect him
- I will answer him
- I will be with him in trouble
- I will rescue him and honor him
- I will satisfy him
- Show him my salvation
Our lives will never be the same once we make time to devote ourselves to God. The reason our lives will never be the same is because God does far more for us when we simply do the best that our human natures can do by calling out and inviting Him into a relationship with us. We don’t love as well as God, but when we try, God certainly leaves His imprint on our lives with His love. That is why Jesus, God’s one and only beloved Son lived, died, and was resurrected for us. So that God can give us love so unfathomable and so incredible through our meager acts of authentic devotions. I challenge you to authentically devote time to God this week and see what happens around you. Because I guarantee that once you do, you will devote more time to God because of it. Let’s pray.
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