Spiritual Discipline

At Bible study tonight we talked about different spiritual disciplines. A friend had read a book where the author describes different periods of life being times for different practices. His illustration was of a busy mother who found that she didn't have time for devotions anymore. He said, thats ok. Ministering to your children is your spiritual discipline. He viewed that service as her time of communion with God.

I disagree. While I do believe that God calls us to different areas of service during different seasons of our life, I do not believe that he calls us to abandon time of devotion and prayer when things become hectic. In fact, I think in scripture, and from experience, I can see that those are the times when we need to make time with God a priority, not put it on the back burner. In 1 Thessalonians , Paul calls followers of Christ to "pray without ceasing, " and in his letter to the Romans he says that one mark of a true Christian is that he is "constant in prayer." It does not say, "when it is convenient" or "when your children have moved out of the house." Without ceasing. Constantly. No qualifications. And Paul certainly had his hands full. The disciples, throughout Acts, pray despite persecution, difficult travel, time spent spreading God's word, and the threat of death, exile, stoning, and incarceration.

Jesus, while walking with men, was God in human form. He knew his time on earth would be limited. There was so so much to do, so many thousands of people to teach, to heal, to help, to feed, to disciple. In the days before his crucifixion he must have been very busy. He was preparing the disciples for life after he would leave them. But he spent time in prayer.

We are never too busy to pray. We are never too busy to be in God's Word if we desire for God's Word to be in us. I had the image of a mother with young children. She undoubtedly has her hands full, a child in each arm, trying to keep the house straightened, cook dinner, clean the baby, do the laundry, make phone calls, dress her toddler... But she will at some time have to, by physical limitation, stop and eat, or she will faint.

God's Word is called the bread of life. The metaphor is not empty. Our souls are alive and need nourishment just the way our bodies do. Our nourishment comes from time spent in God's Word and in his presence praying. Our spiritual life will become weak and faint if we do not - we will starve it.

The busy mother will stop whatever she is doing when she realizes that she must eat in order to continue on. If only we were so intuned to our soul's need for God. If we can stop and make time to eat for our bodies, we must also realize that we must stop and feed our souls.


I am guilty of being "too tired" or "too busy" to pray or read my Bible. I challenge myself to be more aware of my need, to humble myself before God to know that I am his creation and am totally dependent on him. Only his Word can sustain me.

"It is written:
Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from
the mouth of God."
~Matthew 4:4