I was thinking about my personal devotions. I had finished reading the New Testament and was wondering where I should go next. Typically, I read a portion out of my One Year Bible, think about it and then write in a Daily Planner my thoughts about the text and what God seems to be teaching me. I use a Daily Planner as my devotional diary because it has enough space to write for each day, is dated so I can see at a glance if I am falling off the wagon and not spending my quiet time with God as I should. There will be blank dates where I missed. So it keeps me accountable.
I tended to avoid devotional books because in the past I found I would read the one little verse they had at the top and what the author had to say about it, but I never really meditated on the passage or read the verses around it to glean what God would want me to learn. I relied too heavily on what the author of the devotional had to say. So, I was given a Table Talk devotional guide by a friend last week and I wondered if I should use it or not as a devotional guide for a while or if I should just go back to reading through the Bible, using it alone. I finally came up with a workable solution. R.C. Sproul seems to be going straight through the book of Matthew. So this is what I do. I read the whole section of scripture that R.C. Sproul is commenting on first. I don't read anything Sproul has to say about the passage until I first read the passage and meditate on it myself...I write in my devotional diary what I am learning from the passage and what I think God wants me to take action on before I ever read anything Sproul has said. In this way, I am learning from God's Word first before I read what a human author has said and preventing myself from becoming spiritually lazy and letting someone else spoon feed me.
Books by Marsha
http://www.lulu.com/Marsha-Iddings
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