JANUARY 19

"Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face evermore!" 1 Chronicles 16: 11

Recently I have been really interested in how we develop the correct spiritual diet. Years ago I can recall being told that in order to keep good health we should be drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day. Well, I tried that and it didn’t work for me as I needed to go to the bathroom all of the time, which was not possible doing my job as a teacher!

So whilst the principle was right, as in we need to have a good ‘daily’ intake of water for maximum health benefits, the amount needed tailoring for each person. Reading the Gods word is as much to do with getting to know the content of the bible and His will for our lives, as it is spending quality time with our creator.

Like any good relationship it is based on being sensitive to the other person's needs, and to do that, you must make the relationship a priority and spend time together. The difference between 'catching a few moments' with the Lord and spending quality time with Him is like the difference between driving through McDonald's and spending the evening at a fine restaurant. At McDonald's you drive up, shout into a microphone and drive around to a window where they hand you a bag of food. In a fine restaurant you sit down, savour every bite in a relaxed atmosphere, and leave satisfied and nourished. Too many of us live on spiritual fast food and never experience the banquet God has for us. The Bible says, 'Seek his face continually.'

Have you learned how to stay in God's presence and enjoy it? When it comes to prayer, we all face at least two challenges:

1) Lack of desire. We complain about lack of time, but the truth is we make time for what we truly care about and enjoy. If you want to build an effective prayer life you must be willing to forfeit some things.

2) We don't know how. Find a place with no distractions. Take your Bible and a notepad with you. Use a CD player with worship music to help you. Worship will change the atmosphere around you. Just do what works for you. And be patient! Sometimes it takes weeks or months before you develop a pattern, so stick with it--the rewards are worth it.

And remember, prayer is a two-way street. It's not about seeing how much you can tell God; it's about learning to hear from Him as well.

Parts adapted from Word for Today.

Our song today, “My life, my love, my all” by Kirk Franklin.  Click on the picture to listen.

     Housekeeping details for you

     The point of this short blog will become clear if you decide to use this reading in the way we intend it. Netherfield Seventh-day Adventist Church believes in healthy churches. You can see what that means if you head to the relevant Healthy Churches page of the website. We also want other churches to be healthy. That means you can join in our campaign to create healthy churches, with healthy people serving the people in those churches.

     A healthy church is one where Jesus comes first. A healthy church is one where the people work together to put Jesus first. One thing we are doing is to join people together to spread that news. I would like you to look at our prayer partners page. This will explain how we want you to use this short devotional. Very basically we want you to find a like-minded Christian friend who you will join with to : choose to pray together every day, decide together on a way to serve other people together, to help them grow as Christians - and to invite the Holy Spirit into your life every day. This blog that you will receive every day simply gives a common spiritual purpose. If you are a newcomer and want to join the blog with this object in mind click here