My Devotional "System" for 2012

Whether it is getting up in the morning and getting the kids to school, getting the bills paid on time or getting regular exercise, everyone I know benefits from having a plan or system for taking care of the routine needs of our life.  It's the same for the devotional life:  Here too, I benefit from a system for regular Bible reading and prayer.

As part of our Covenant Renewal focus for January,  we'll be talking about growing our life in areas of spiritual discipline like Bible reading, prayer, service and the like.  But I won't talk a lot during that time  about systems for doing those things.  That's because I know that while a heart that is seeking God can benefit from a system for regular spiritual disciplines, no system of spiritual discipline can overcome a heart that is distracted.  We'll be preaching to the heart in January because that is where the real need is and that is where the Gospel of grace changes us.

Still, systems have their place.  So I thought I'd share mine for those that might be interested.  Let me begin by saying that my system is helpful for me, but I suspect it may not be helpful for most people.  People are different.  I'm a task-oriented, tech-friendly, driven sort of guy.  You can see that in my system.  Different people will need different systems that fit their own needs, habits and goals.  I'd rather have a conversation with you about what works for you than squeeze you into my system, but I'm happy to share where my heart is finding strength each day.

2012: The Year of the iPad

I'm loving the iPad my family bought me for Father's Day last year.  I'm moving my entire Bible reading and prayer system to it for the New Year.  I benefit from changing locations for devotions, regular structures, and interactive note-taking.  The iPad is raising all of that to a new level.

Bible Reading

YouVersion.Com - I've been recommending www.youversion.com as a helpful website for finding a personalized Bible reading plan.  They offer a variety of plans, a variety of Bible translations and paraphrases and great mobile apps. 

Prof. Horner's Bible Reading System - The plan I am using this year, "Prof. Horner’s Bible Reading System," is meant to be

an intense foray into every part of the Bible. This system will have you reading ten chapters each day if followed properly. The intent is to read quickly through each chapter, being careful not to “skim” or “dig-deep” into any single section.

We'll see how this goes!  I often do a "through-the-Bible-in-a-year" plan, but this one gets me through the entire Bible in eight months.  I'll figure out what's next in September.  Already, I am liking the way the plan has me reading from ten different parts of the Bible each day.  After reading start to finish many times before, this will be a new sort of "mash-up" approach.

The Story - I was given a copy of Zondervan's new "condensed Bible" called The Story.  It's part of a larger collection of resources - dare I say marketing campaign.  Using primarily the NIV text, they have edited the Bible down to 31 chapters of 8-12 pages per chapter.  Since January has 31 days - like the Book of Proverbs I might add! - I'll read a chapter each day in January to get a quick, broad sweep of the Bible in one month's time.  Three days in, I've just finished the highlights of the entire book of Genesis.  Don't hold me to it, but I may even try to read The Story one chapter per day for several months.

Prayer

I do a good bit of "free-form praying" - scripture meditation, prayer in the spirit, singing, contemplative prayer - through the course of the day, but list-based intercession is the backbone of my daily prayer routine.  It's the task-oriented part of me, I suppose.

PrayerMate - I'm using an iPhone app called PrayerMate to maintain several daily intercession lists - Christ Covenant people, Christ Covenant ministries, Other Ministries and churches, etc.  I can enter the various people and ministries, then arrange how often they show up on my daily intercession list.  It is the best way for me to pray specifically and regularly for the people the Father has called me to shepherd.  I can add notes to each entry as needed as well.

Heavenward - This daily prayer blog by Scotty Smith has been revolutionary for my own daily prayer life, so I can't recommend it highly enough.  It has given me a "Gospel of grace" vocabulary for honest praying.  Even better, it arrives by email each day, often when I am most in need of some Gospel refreshment.  I've been handing out his book of prayers for each day of the year, Everyday Prayers, and finding many people experience the same encouragement as me.

 Again, I do believe that everyone benefits from some sort of system for their spiritual disciplines, but I don't need everyone to use my system.  I'm happy to give people a look over my shoulder at mine, but my goal would be to have each person at Christ Covenant get a sense of their own needs, abilities, time and season in life and develop a fruitful pattern of devotion.  My next post will be a brief overview of different resources that may support that.