Today we look at devotion to God. I want to prevent you from falling into a trap that thinks of devotion as merely time set aside to read and pray. If you define devotions as "time spent," you will fall into a legalistic approach that will most likely fall by the way side. Instead I want you to think of devotions as an attitude of the heart that is based on love for God. Jesus told us in Matthew 22:37: "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." The word "love" is agapao and it means to esteem, love, indicating a direction of the will and finding one's joy in something or someone.
The Albert Barnes New Testament Commentary explains this love as: "The meaning of this is, thou shalt love him with all thy faculties or powers. Thou shalt love him supremely, more than all other beings and things, and with all the ardour possible. To love him with all the heart is to fix the affections supremely on him, more strongly than on anything else, and to be willing to give up all that we hold dear at his command."
Over the next few days we are going to look at devotions as a matter of love from the heart. This will be different from the idea of spending 15 minutes praying or 15 minutes studying. The focus is going to be on developing a heart motivated by a supreme love for God that will cause your private time of "devotion" to leave the area of duty and travel to a place of love that is red hot for God. Today, get alone with Him and no matter how awkward it may feel, just tell Him that you love Him. Don't have an agenda or a prayer list of what you need (He already knows anyway); just focus on how lovely He is and how thankful you are that you belong to Him.
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