Structure of & Preparation for

Review of Previous Week: Necessity and Timing of Devotional Disciplines

0:05 I shall make a decided effort each week to keep our review to a very reduced minimum, and I'm aiming at between three and five minutes for myself, and that's no easy discipline, but I shall try to submit to it. And what we began to consider last Lord's Day morning was this matter of the personal habits of devotional reading and prayer, what we might call the disciplines of the private means of grace. Now, in doing this, we are not setting up a new legalism. We must never think of prayer as a man thinks of shaving.

0:44 If he's shaved in the morning, he's done and can forget it for the day unless he has a heavy beard, and if he's going out at night, he may have to shave again. But in between those two times, he's shaved, it's done, he can forget it. Now, we must not regard the private disciplines of the Christian life in this way. Well, I've done it. I've prayed, I've read my Bible, that's done.

1:05 Now I go on to other things. No, there is a doctrine of praying without ceasing, a doctrine of ejaculatory prayer, of meditation upon the law of God day and night. And what we consider in these sessions together is in no way a negation of those broader concerns of the Christian life. However, both the Scriptures and human experience bear eloquent witness to the fact that no man will long live in the habit of continued prayer, ejaculatory prayer, constant meditation, who does not have some structured disciplines of specific times of prayer and specific times of reading and meditation upon the word of God. And so, our concern is not one at the exclusion of the other, but that both disciplines may be understood and practiced so that we may...

2:01 in the strictest sense of the word, be Bible Christians in this regard. Well, last week we addressed ourselves, we had time only to address ourselves to two questions. Question number one was, is such a time for private reading and meditation of the word and private prayer, is such a time, is such a discipline necessary, and if so, why? And you came up with the answer that yes, such a time is necessary, and in answer to the why, you said, we had the explicit commands of Scripture, we have the example of our Lord, we have the general teaching of Scripture, and we have the example of the lives of those who have been most fruitful in the Church of Christ.

2:45 And the second question to which we addressed ourselves was this, how to determine the time and place where this discipline may be exercised. And you suggested, and I think rightly so, that the amount of time must be...

3:02 Measured by a number of variables, your legitimate duties in life, your responsibilities laid upon you by the word of God, so many variables, so that we came to the conclusion, none must legislate for his brother or sister. And say, if you do not spend half an hour in the private disciplines of grace, or the disciplines of private prayer and study of the word, you're not spiritual, or if you spend an hour, that indicates you are. No, no. We must never establish a new legal, legalism.

3:32 The amount of time is to be determined by your present growth in grace, your circumstances, etc. And then the precise time. Some make a god of the morning hour, and they take a text like Psalm 5, 3, In the morning, O Lord, thou shalt hear my voice. And they say, see, if you don't pray in the morning, you don't really pray.

3:53 Others perhaps would make a sacred cow of some other time. Well, in this again, there must be flexibility. We must seek to secure the time, that is fitting with our other legitimate responsibilities, when our minds and spirits are most alert. But even doing that, there must be the exercise of self-denial and rigorous discipline, if we are to maintain any consistency.

4:16 And then we closed our study with dealing with the question of, what are the tools that we bring to this time? Having established that such a time is necessary, having, I trust, established for ourselves what amount of time, and what percentage of time, precise time will be most fruitful, we come with our tools of the Bible, a hymn book, and we trust a heart that is seeking after God, what then do we actually do? And that's covered our review, and we did it in a little under five minutes. Now the third question to which we address ourselves is this.

The Question of Structure in Devotional Time

4:53 Having established that we ought to have a time, the principles to guide us, how much time and when, the question today, is this. Should we have a general plan or structure by which to use that time that we've set apart? We've established we ought to. We've determined that in the day, split up into these 24-hour segments, that such amount of time will be used at such a place in the day.

5:25 Now then, when we come to that time, let's take out one of these blocks, it's a segment of an hour. When we come to that time, when we come to that time, the question is, should there be a plan or structure to that time? Or should we, as some would say, simply follow the leading of the Spirit? And if we feel like praising, spend the whole time in praise.

5:45 If we feel like reading, spend the whole time in reading. If we just want to do some holy browsing and sort of flip through our favorite verses, do some holy browsing. Should there be some general proposal of structure for the use of this time? And if you answer yes, I want you to give your reasons why.

6:05 And if you answer no, I want you to defend your reasons. Okay? There's our question then. Should there be structure to this time?

6:13 Yes or no? And if so, why?

6:21 You see, the thing that's got you hung up is that second condition. Now, if I just ask, how many of you are convinced there ought to be structure? Say yes.

6:30 Raise your right hand. Wiggle your ears. All right. Now, I know the problem is you're fishing for reasons.

6:37 All right? Someone ready to defend it with reason. I think Mr. McCoy had his hand up first.

6:40 Yes.

Reasons for a Structured Devotional Time: God's Order and Sin's Effects

7:03 All right. So the answer to the question you are giving is that if this principle that we discovered last week is a general principle of our Constitution as image bearers of God. God is a God of order who works by order and plan. As image bearers, we should have order and work by order.

7:21 If it's true of life in general, if it's true of setting apart some time in general, then it is also true in the specifics of how we regulate that time. Very good. All right. Any other reasons?

7:37 Is that what you were thinking, Mike? I'm sorry. All right. If we don't have structure, when we do, we begin to faint.

7:54 Very good. All right. So reason number one is the general principle that as image bearers of God, we function more efficiently in a structure that has some semblance of order. Your second reason is because of the tendency of fainting, which is rooted in what?

8:10 All right. It's rooted in the problem of remaining sin. Is it not? Will there be any fainting in the maintenance of communion with God in the everlasting state?

8:27 Would there have been any had Adam never sinned? No. All right. So this then is the problem that is rooted in the reality of remaining sin.

8:37 So you're saying one of the ways we check the tendencies of remaining sin that will carry themselves with us, is that it's not true. Would to God, we could leave the remains of our corruption outside the closet when we go in the closet. What a delight it would be to leave all the residual elements of Adam outside the door of the closet when we go in to pray. What a blessed thing it would be.

9:02 But we don't. We carry it with us. And one of the manifestations is a spirit of fainting, a spirit of dullness, a spirit of distraction, a spirit of confusing thoughts. And you're saying, and I think right now, rightly so, the way to counteract that, at least in some measure, is to have some system, some order, by which we discipline these elements as they would rise up.

9:27 All right? Any other reasons? Yes, Rod, and then we'll move over.

9:36 Say that a little.

9:40 Why not?

9:54 Yeah. But isn't that in the same ballpark? That sin has made us naturally lazy? Sin has given us this tendency to indolence?

10:03 So I think we're in that same basic ballpark. All right? Then there were several hands over here. All right.

Reasons for Structure: Overcoming Discouragement and Analogies to Life

10:20 Here we come back. Here we come back again, I think, to the first principle. It's like the housewife who gets up in the morning and has no plan for a day. And she sees a messy living room.

10:28 She sees a mess of dishes in the sink. She sees a pile of ironing. And there's all this...

10:33 And she has no plan and no order. What happens to that type housewife? She lives in a constant pile of mess. And her poor husband and kids have to live in it, too.

10:41 Now, thank God, as far as I know, I'm not thinking of any specific illustrations in this church. And I better not think too long because I just might come up with some. But...

10:50 But as far as I know, there are none of you... But I've been in homes like that.

10:53 It was obvious. And the poor person, when there's...

10:56 Well, there's just so much I can never get... What's the problem?

10:59 There's no plan, no order, no specific day to change the sheets, no specific time to clear the table, do the dishes. None of this. There's no order, no structure. So there's hopeless confusion that is paralyzing.

11:10 And I think this is what Ralph is saying. When we come, there's so much to pray for. There's so much that God says in the breadth of His Word. We just feel this mountain before us.

11:20 And we just... There's the discouragement.

11:24 Discouragement before the mass of duty and privilege that is there. All right? Any other reasons? Jim.

11:31 And then we'll move back to John. To be spiritually remembering that the Word is oftentimes spoken like bread and milk.

11:47 We wouldn't sit down at the table and just begin to throw down the meat and the sugar and the tea and the... The meal is ordered.

11:55 You know, first it's prepared and then the meat and the table is a set and then the arm is a set. So, in that sense, in Peter's sense, the diet is the same as the milk of the Word. And then further on, Paul uses the word of meat, strong meat. All right.

12:11 So you're saying the general analogy that exists between the assimilation of physical food and the assimilation of spiritual food warrants that there be some semblance of order in the consumption of both. Isn't that what you're saying? Yes. All right.

12:27 Okay. Some other reasons. John? I find things much easier during the day as part of our meditation on the Word so that it will give much more fruit in our lives during the day than it would just because we meditate at the point of the process.

12:59 All right. So here again, we come back to how God's put together the human mind, the law of association.

13:06 It's just that simple. Ephesians chapter 2, I hope, brings to remembrance something vaguely related to the idea that we're dead, but God did something. There's a law of association, you see. And again, we're back in that first general category of how God has made us.

Reasons for Structure: The Nature of God's Word and Christian Liberty

13:22 It has to do with our being image bearers of God. All right. I think we've covered the basic reasons as to why this time ought to have a generally proposed structure. Now notice how I'm using my words carefully.

13:36 I did not say a legalistically binding structure. For in the ups and downs and in the various phases of our Christian experience, there are times when you could no more lift up your voice in unbounded praise to God than you could create a world. And all you can do is groan. And there is a Bible doctrine of groaning.

14:04 Why are thou so far from hearing me and the words of my groaning? I cry in the daytime and in the nighttime am I not silent? And though that found its only perfect fulfillment in the sufferings of the Son of God, it was run out of a historical fulfillment in David. And so we're talking now about a general structure.

14:26 We're not binding ourselves so that we say if I don't do this, somehow I'm sinning against God. I've been preparing two lectures to give on Monday down in Baltimore at a Sovereign Grace Minister's Fellowship on the doctrine of Christian liberty and how my heart has rejoiced to see how clearly the framers of the Westminster Confession pounded out this doctrine. And God alone is Lord of the conscience. And no man can intrude and bind your conscience with rules that God has not given.

14:56 And God has nowhere said that time must be so structured that... But we've looked at general principles that are from God and do bind us.

15:08 But they bind us with liberty. Because the same God who gives us those principles has taught us there is latitude and flexibility in their application. So then, we have as our reasons the general principle that we are made in God's image and we function better when there is structure. We have the problem of remaining sin.

15:29 And then a third one that none has mentioned but I'm sure eventually would come out but in the interest of time I'll mention it. It is the nature of the Word of God itself. What is the Word of God? What are the Scriptures?

15:43 Are they just a collection of random little spiritual things of tidbits? A little promise here? A little command here? A little historical account and example here?

15:56 A little bit of exhortation here? Is it sort of like a poor man's spiritual almanac? A poor man's almanac just with little aphorisms and the rest just all thrown together willy-nilly? No.

16:10 Sometimes you'll see a book quaint sayings of such and such. I went to a school where the sayings of its founder were placarded on the front page of every wall. Literally. Dr. So-and-so says and there were his sayings and you could get little books on sayings of Dr. So-and-so and there they were. No connection between them just little pithy sayings sort of little proverbs all thrown together. Well, is that what the Bible is?

16:36 No. There is structure. There is order. There has been a wise providence guiding the collection of the various books.

16:45 It's not without purpose that Genesis is where it is. It's not without purpose that the book of the Revelation is where it is. So if we're to catch something of the message of God in the overall structure of the Scriptures, looking at the Scriptures as one whole unit, revealing God's mind to us, or if we're to look at the individual parts or the individual sections within those parts, there is relationship. There is progression.

17:16 There is some semblance of system. There is a system. There is a system. There is a system.

17:19 There is a system. There is a system. For instance, of course, a classic example in the New Testament is the book of Romans. You don't pick it up and say, well, I like the devotional thoughts of chapter 12, so I'll meditate on that, and then I'd like to get a little clearer view on how bad men are, so I'll just slip back to chapter 3.

17:35 No, you see, the Apostle has been developing a line of thought, so when he comes to chapter 12 in verse 1, he says, I beseech you therefore by the mercies of God in the light of all that is unfolded. Well, if you've not been made sensitive to what's been unfolded, you won't feel the force of the exhortation based upon that unfolding. You see? Likewise in the book of Ephesians.

17:57 Chapter 4 begins, I beseech you therefore as the prisoner of the Lord to walk worthily of the calling wherewith you were called. What calling? Well, that's what he's been unfolding in the first three chapters. The magnitude, the glory, the wonder of the calling that is ours in Christ Jesus.

18:14 So these three fundamental reasons answer in the affirmative should we have a general plan or structure to our time alone with God? Yes. If so, why? And I think these suffice.

Confirming the Need for Comprehensive Engagement with Scripture

18:27 Now, is there any other real profound one we've overlooked and you're just bursting at the seams to add it to the list? Well, I will give you that opportunity. Yes. I don't know.

19:02 You tell me.

19:05 Then we go through the entire word. These things finally come up and God can speak to us in changes and facing them. Amen. We'll come back to that when we come to the actual reading of the word what plan to follow and when we bear down on it must be some system that covers the whole.

19:36 This was one of the texts I had written into the notes. So it's good that we've underscored it now. We'll come back and underscore it again later on. All right.

Transition to the Components of Devotional Time

19:43 So we've answered the three fundamental questions introducing this whole field of practical concern. Question number one is such a time necessary? We've established yes and why it is necessary. Secondly, when?

19:57 When shall we come to that time? What is the best time and what is the proper amount of time for us individually? And now thirdly, should there be a plan or structure to that time? Now, our next question is what should that plan or structure be?

20:12 In answer to that question, I'd like you to collate your answer under two headings. A, a general outline of what should be included in that time and in what order. And then B, we'll descend to the next time. To the specifics.

20:31 Spess.

20:35 There you go. In other words, what we're doing is simply looking...

20:39 Did I... Wow.

20:42 My framing is so poor up this close I can't even read my mistakes. In other words, what we want to do is to look at the overall time. Here's the time we've marked out, convinced there should be order and structure. What are the general ingredients of that time?

21:05 Whether they agree or don't agree or whatever they are. That's our first question. Then what we want to do is take each one of these.

21:12 Two, three, four, how many there are. There's one. And then we want to expand. All right?

21:19 Move from the general to the more detailed. And I hope in this you're also learning something about how to approach problems and think them through. Don't get lost in the details of one facet of the problem. Back off and get your general principles then descend to the particulars.

21:35 All right? This is what I'm fishing for now. In the structure of our time alone with God, what things should be included and generally speaking. Now again, just generally speaking, in what order?

General Ingredients of Devotional Time: Preparation, Prayer, and Reading

21:47 Here's the first one. I'm asking you. All right? Great.

21:51 I think as you said last week there should be a territory time in which we bring our minds and conform it to the word out of the mundane things of the world that we've been in. And then we bring our minds to God. We may be standing up at Him, reading a sermon or something of that nature. All right?

22:09 So you would say there must be included in this time some specific preparation of what?

22:21 Mind. What do you carry your mind and heart?

22:33 In your body. So you can't leave this out. It may mean some preparation of some of you. That may mean a good hot cup of coffee.

22:42 It may mean splashing your face with cold water. It may mean a jog around a block. You see? And one of the curses of pagan philosophy that is still very much with us as Christians in certain areas is this demeaning of this part.

22:55 You don't come to your quiet time pure mind and pure spirit. If you could, it'd be great. You could leave your body in bed for another hour and then when you got up feel wonderful that you had the extra rest plus had an hour with God. Wouldn't that be great?

23:10 We could just sort of split the thing apart but you can't do it. All right? So there must be some specific preparation of mind, heart, body. In other words, there must be some specific preparation to speak more biblically of the whole man.

23:25 What does the psalmist say? With my whole heart will I seek God. That's why David's not at all ashamed to say my heart and my what? Cry out for the living God.

23:42 That's strange language, isn't it? My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. And there are many psalms in which the psalmist hunger for God. He expresses it almost in terms of physical concepts.

23:56 There is this pain of longing after God. All right? So there must be specific preparation. Now, these things we'll not go into.

24:04 I think each of you know that that is necessary for yourself. But now, Mr. Hargan has suggested some details. Can we hold off on that?

24:12 See, we've got the general principle. Let's hold off on how we do the preparing until later. Okay? So right now, all we're trying to do is fill up this block of the ingredients of that time.

24:24 We'll get them in any order. Then we'll try to rearrange them. Then we'll descend to specifics. All right?

24:28 What else must be included in this time? Gee? But now we want general. So, all right.

24:42 The actual engagement of God in prayer, which as we shall see, involves the various matters of what? Give me four or five elements of prayer very quickly just so we can get them in our minds and we'll come back to them.

24:58 All right? Better have hands raised then. All right? Jeff?

25:02 Praise. Thanksgiving. Petition.

25:07 Intercession. Adoration. Confession. Okay.

25:12 All right. Here are the various elements. All right? What else must be in this time?

25:16 Preparation. Prayer. See, you've even got an alliterated outline here. Okay.

25:20 Yes.

25:23 Okay.

25:30 Actual exposure of our minds to the words of God written. All right?

25:40 Does this cover the general ingredients? Yes. Bob?

25:44 Meditation. All right. May I take the liberty of making that a subheading under this? That the only kind of Bible reading that will be productive of godliness is that which includes meditation.

25:58 The mere threading of the verbal symbols of the Bible through our eyeballs registering on the retina and sending a signal to the brain has no magical power to our sanctification.

26:12 You see, that would be a superstitious regard for the word. Just like the poor Roman Catholic feels that looking to the crucifix and letting that image register on the retina and send a signal to the mind has some magical power so there are Christians who actually feel that the thread of the words of the Bible through their eyeballs has some sanctifying effect upon them without any meditation by which the word is fused to the mind and to the spirit and its implications are seen in the totality of life. All right? So with your liberty, Bob, we'll make that a specific under this general heading.

26:48 Yes.

26:57 Yes. That would be another thing. How do we read the Bible to our prophet? Well, we read with meditation.

27:02 A part of which is the matter of application. And we'll have a whole session on what Bishop Paul called the holy art of meditation. He wrote a treatise on it. Yes.

27:14 All right. Well then, wouldn't that subsist under Bible reading? How shall we read the Bible? With what helps?

27:50 And how much? Both the benefits and the, what should we say, the negative aspects of reading devotional literature, pre-prepared devotional literature. I think that these are the basic elements. I don't think we've omitted.

28:04 These are the broad principles and anything else that is what we would call really vital to this time subsists under one of those headings. So there must be some preparation of the mind, the heart, the body, the whole man for the engagements of this time alone with God and then the time is broken down into the reading of the word of God and all that that involves and into prayer and all that that involves. All right. Any question at this point as we move on?

Ordering the Ingredients: Preparation, Reading, then Prayer

28:32 If we're going to descend to specifics, we've got to take them one by one which demands that we must put these things in some kind of order.

28:44 Now, number one is obvious. At least I hope it's obvious to you. All right. What should come first?

28:51 Of these three. All right. Preparation. The very word itself.

28:57 Pre, before. Okay? Preparation. Then, should we pray and then read the word?

29:04 Or should we read the word and then pray? Now, be careful of what answer you give because whatever it is I'm going to challenge you. All right? Okay, Mr. McCoy.

29:13 Ah, you're sneaky.

29:21 Okay. Explain what you mean by that sneaky answer.

29:48 All right. So that in terms then if we're talking about the bulk of our time, we would say that reading of the word comes here. But the first thing, now you see how we keep descending very naturally to particulars. The first thing about true Bible reading is that it is prayerful Bible reading.

30:08 And we'll come to that. It is Bible, Bible reading in the acknowledgement of the need of the spirit of illumination. Therefore, there will be prayer with reference to the reading. But you would agree, would you not, that the reading of the word should come before the major engagement of our time in prayer?

30:25 If so, I mean, how many of you would agree with this? All right, why?

30:31 Some reasons.

30:38 What do you mean by the... Well, it's not much good to read until you have sought the Lord for being the spirit of illumination and understanding in His Word.

30:52 All right, yes. We're not discussing this formally now, why there should be prayer before reading, but why reading of the word in a prayerful attitude is what we'll come to. Why the time in the Scriptures should precede our more lengthy time of intercession and supplication.

31:18 All right, so... All right, so what you're saying is then that it's the reading of the Scriptures that will give directive to and fuel for the actual engagements of prayer.

31:29 If one of the elements of prayer is praise, where do you get fuel for praise? By reading the Word, seeing the God that's there, the duties He lays upon us, the standard there, the glory of His Son, so that Scripture reading then becomes the fuel which makes our prayer what it ought to be. All right, anyone else want to contradict that or add to that? Let's see.

31:52 All right, Kathy?

31:55 And if you're going to meditate, you must have something to meditate upon. See, we don't believe...

32:07 And the thing we meditate upon is what we've... Yeah.

32:15 Where's the only place we know the goodness of God in Christ?

32:19 In the Word. So, whether or not we actually have our Bible like this when we meditate or whether we're, you know, looking out at the birds or something else, it's still meditation upon the God who is revealed here in His Word. The only thing we know about Him for certain. We can't even read what He reveals about Himself out there unless we read it through the glasses of the book, right?

32:42 Okay. I think...

32:43 Yes, Paul? I find it personally that I'm finding it a good lot of times that He's deriving benefit from us. All right. So, and we're not controverting that, but it's prayer then specifically directed to what?

33:04 It is. To war my heart and then I read the Scriptures. Okay. All right.

33:11 So, again, you see, we can't... And can I give chapter and verse to say He's sinning and doing it that way?

33:17 See, here's the flexibility. But I think you will find, Paul, and that's the readout we're getting here, that generally speaking, the average believer and average is simply taking people at both ends and bringing the mean, which means you've got some out here who are otherwise and some who are completely otherwise over here. And God didn't, you know, put us out cookie-cutter fashion. Finds that His prayer runs with heavy wheels unless there's come upon it the oil of the illumination of God's presence and truth through the reading of the Word.

33:49 And in Christian biography, I think you will find this element coming through. George Muller, of course, almost made this into a form of legalism. And if anyone had the right to, he would have. That he would never pray until his Bible gave him perspective for prayer.

34:06 And I think, without even knowing it, you're bringing biblical perspectives to bear upon your praying if, as we shall see, it's true biblical praying. So I'm glad you've mentioned that you find in your own discipline. But it could be that maybe the Lord has some aspects of that He wants to alter through our study. That's another possibility, too.

34:24 Right? All right, Greg. We see the outworkings of these principles that we've read. And then coming to the Word in our devotional time, bringing these things that we've had from the past onto the Word, from the providential earth, from some blessings that we've gotten from the Word that we've seen over a long period of time, different things that we've read being infused into our hearts.

35:02 So I wouldn't think that you'd have to come to the Word with something you've just specifically read that day. No. No. No, absolutely.

35:10 In other words, you see, again, we're descending to particulars. And I want us to resist the temptation at this juncture. What specifically will govern our prayer? We are not saying that our prayer should only find its roots in what we've read that day.

35:26 That would be terrible legalism. That would be terrible. That means there's no accumulation of understanding and perspective. That would violate everything.

35:33 But the assertion that I am making is that I think the average Christian finds that there is little freedom and liberty or present fuel for prayer if there is not, first of all, some definite exposure to the Word of God written. Now, that's just a general statement. But I think that how many would say you find that true in your own light as a general principle? All right?

36:01 See, I think it's accurate to say that's a general principle. So, and all we can do here, because we have no directives, if I were to speak on how, why, how wives are to relate to their husbands, how husbands are to relate to their wives, I can go to specific passages and exegete them, expound them and apply them, and bind your conscience to them. But I can't bind your conscience in the name of King Jesus to how you should have your time with God. Therefore, we can only lay out the general principles from the Word.

36:34 You must then seek to apply those principles by trial and error in your own dealings with God. You see, this is the whole, application of the doctrine of Christian liberty to this very area. And you'll get little books on the devotional life and the rest, and some of them just establish a new legalism. And you just wonder, if I can't do it that way, there must be something wrong with me.

36:53 No, no, no. God forbid that we establish any new legalism. But I think, again, it's a general principle, and Psalm 119 is the great eloquent testimony to this. That all of the praying, and the Psalm 119 is an extended prayer.

37:08 You see that that prayer has its tap roots in the mouth. Man's heart, relationship, and dealings with the precepts of God. Oh, that my ways were directed to keep thy precepts. Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

37:25 He's grieved and prays for the wicked because he sees them departing from the testimonies of God. I think this general principle will hold water.

37:36 All right, anything else that you pretend? Now, all we're getting, remember, is the general order. That's all we're doing. Let's resist specifics.

37:42 Yes, Ted? Or read first. I always think of in my talking and reading and his speaking that sometimes we need to just listen. And sometimes there's something we've got to say to God before we can even listen.

38:03 All right. And I think that I believe it's in Isaiah chapter 6. There's a rather beautiful outline for worship where we are first to adore Him and then later to confess our sins and then to seek forgiveness and then to repent and then finally to dedicate ourselves. And if we use a guideline like that, it doesn't really matter whether we read or pray first as long as the first thing we do is adorn ourselves.

38:33 Yes.

38:34 That's a good point that there are times before we can read with any degree of mental freedom, we've got to clear our minds by prayer of the thing that would hinder us. Right. Absolutely. Remember, we introduced this by saying in the ups and downs of the Christian life there'll be times when the general order will be thrown altogether backwards.

38:53 But, the Christian who's planning to come at 7.30 tomorrow morning from 7.30 to 8 o'clock from 6 to 6.30 to spend some time with God should have some general way of approaching that time.

39:07 If he has no general framework, he will never make progress in the exceptional times. You see, and that's all we're asserting and all of these qualifications and exceptions and variations, every one of them absolutely true. And we must, if we assert any general framework, do so in that particular context. But I think the average Christian will find that if he has some basic structure to this time, looking back over a month, he may find that 20 times out of the month there was a few minutes of specific preparation in certain ways that we'll deal with.

39:44 There was then brief prayer that God would illuminate the mind and open up the scriptures. There was 15, 10, 15 minutes spent in the reading of the word and we'll see how it should be done. Then he was engaged in prayer. Now another 10 of those days and maybe one morning when the heart was so prepared, the person spent the whole time in prayer and the only kind of prayer he engaged in was praise.

40:06 Maybe there was a wonderful deliverance the day before or maybe in the middle of the night the person was awakened and in the night seasons as the psalmist speaks, he was meditating on God's goodness. When he got up the next morning all he could do was weep for joy before God and spent the whole half hour doing nothing but praising God. Maybe another one of those 10 days there was such a tremendous burden laid upon the heart because of a need in his own life, the need in the family, the need in the wife or a child that all the person could do was get up in the morning and couldn't even read the word, could just groan out the burden of his heart before God and maybe at the end turn to some well-proven promise, put his finger on it and say, Lord, this is your covenant pledge, fulfill it. Maybe another one of those times this order was completely botched but I think it is safe to say that as a general rule the basic ingredients of preparation reading and prayer should follow this general outline in most circumstances. All right? Is that definitive but broad and flexible enough?

41:09 Did you see?

Specifics of Preparation: Singing, Meditation, and Devotional Reading

41:11 Okay, all right. Now then, let's descend to particulars.

41:17 Between losing my chalk and losing my watch, I have a great time here. Okay, all right. Because believe it or not we've only got 12 minutes left. I don't know where the time's gone but it's up and went again.

41:26 All right? Now then,

41:31 assuming that this is not binding us but that generally speaking preparation of heart is necessary, what are the ways and let's not theorize here if we can maintain a climate of honesty where we trust one another and where we are not seeking to impress one another, what are some of the things you have found helpful in the preparation of your heart for time with God? All right? Several of these have already been mentioned previously. Let's mention them again and articulate them.

42:02 Yes, Kim?

42:05 All right? Singing hymns.

42:10 I don't mean to be irreverent but is the Lord too much concerned with your vocal abilities? No. No. He reads the heart and what is there about the actual singing of praise that prepares the heart?

42:27 I don't understand it. I've often asked what is there about the vocalizing of praise that brings edification, preparation of heart in the way that even the silent singing and reading of hymns does not. But there's a doctrine in the book of the Psalms particularly about the vocalizing of our praise and our prayers. You can't get around it.

42:48 O Lord, in the morning thou shalt hear my what? Voice. Now the psalmist does say my meditation shall be sweet of him. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart.

43:00 There is the acting of the heart in worship and praise that never is articulated upon the lips that is known to God. But there is a doctrine of the vocalization when we come to prayer. I want to really underscore this. I found many people whose prayer lives have been revolutionized by the simple suggestion start praying out loud.

43:20 Now I'm not praying so loudly that you wake everyone else if they're sleeping. But articulating with your verbal apparatus your prayers and your praise. And I've had people who were in bondage to a terrible spirit of defeat because there was wandering of thoughts. It all got cured when they started to vocalize their prayers.

43:39 I don't understand it. There's something about the relationship between the mind. I don't understand it but I know it's so and there's rootage in scripture. Well this is true with regard to our praise.

43:48 Now is it a duty to sing praise to God?

43:53 I approve it.

43:56 Chapter and verse.

44:01 Give it to us.

44:05 Alright. Psalm 95 in verse 4. Is that the one oh let us bow down before the Lord our maker?

44:11 Okay. Psalm 95. But suppose someone cops out and says oh yeah we do that when we gather in public worship. That's a psalm calling the nation to public worship of God.

44:23 Yes sir. Very good. Written to the believers. Hebrews 13 it's verse 15 isn't it?

44:39 Yes. By him that is through Christ let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually the fruit of our lips making confession to his name. Alright. Another passage that lays upon us the duty of praise.

44:53 Yes.

44:55 Alright. That's laid upon all that are obligated to praise God and to do so with singing. Come before his presence with singing. Isn't this what you're doing in a very special way coming into the presence of God?

45:16 And again there is a Bible doctrine of God's omnipresence and his special presence. Do not I fill heaven and earth? And yet the scripture says let us draw near. Let us draw near.

45:28 Well isn't he near? In him we live and move and have our being. Let us draw near. So in that drawing near in the special sense there is to be the drawing near with praise.

45:39 Yes. Louise? Alright. Here's one of the functions of praise that it causes us in Psalm 40 to look back and acknowledge God.

45:55 Yes. Did you have something Nicole? Alright. Let you out.

46:06 Am I saying that every time you have your devotions you must start by singing? Am I saying that? How many of you feel that's what I'm saying?

46:18 Yeah. All we're saying Nicole is that as a general principle an excellent way to prepare the heart in most circumstances is by the singing of praise. Now we're establishing that such praise is not only a matter of the preparation of our hearts that's looking at us. It is our great privilege and duty.

46:41 No beast can consciously and volitionally praise God. All of God's creation praises him but it has no will in the matter. That's why it continually praises him. Only man who has a will in the matter ceases to praise his God and fails to praise his God.

46:55 But we have that privilege along with the seraph and seraphim and cherubim and the angelic host to praise him. And the singing of praise to God is his due.

47:08 Pastor Blaze often refers to it as the morning sacrifice. The evening sacrifice of praise. And we have that very clear teaching in 1 Peter that we are building together as living stones in the temple of God. Then he changes the figure and says we are a priesthood within that temple to do what?

47:24 To offer up sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. God has made you a priest. And what is a priest without a sacrifice? And you must ask yourself when you come to be alone with God what am I as a priest with no sacrifice to bring to God?

47:40 Now God doesn't ask you to go out and find a little lamb or a bullock or get a dove or a chicken or a pigeon and wring its head off and bring none of it. But he does say bring this spiritual sacrifice of praise. So the singing of songs and hymns is a good means of preparing the heart and freeing the mind from other thoughts and fixing the mind upon the God into whose presence we are coming. All right?

48:06 Yes?

48:15 That's right. It does. And I think here's where we err again you see. The whole man praises God.

48:20 When God saves you he saves the whole man and he wants the whole man the whole woman to be engaged in his service in the spiritual service of praise. All right? What else is a vital element or is it you have found helpful in the preparation of your heart and mind for a time with God? Yes, Louise?

48:44 All right. So meditation upon his past mercies.

48:52 There's the command of Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his mercies.

49:02 And this will come in perhaps more particularly in the area of praise in our actual engagement in prayer but certainly the preparation of our heart the remembrance of his past mercies. May I just interject something biographical? There are times when my heart is lacking in any degree of warmth and I've come to meet with God I just stop and think and say what in the world are you doing here? Why are you here to pray?

49:28 You've got no heart to pray you feel dull and cold but you're here wanting to have a heart to pray. Now how in the world did that ever happen? Then I just start thinking back of what God did in bringing me out of darkness into marvelous light and where I'd be if he'd not arrested me where I'd be in life where I'd be in eternity and it is it isn't long before I have a heart to praise him I have a heart to seek him a heart to apply myself to his word. So the meditation on past mercies can be a great assistance in the preparation of the heart and again may I just assert that a well prepared heart will accomplish more in ten minutes of prayer and Bible reading than an ill prepared heart in an hour.

50:10 Yes you can throw all the seed you want on concrete it ain't going to bring much fruit but if you have to take some time to break up the concrete and cultivate the soil then just two seeds may bring forth a hundredfold. Alright and this is Martin you had a so I think what someone else has mentioned is the reading of devotional material

51:11 not as a substitute for prayer and Bible reading but as a catalyst and here we come back to what we mentioned last week that Pastor Blaze has done for years the reading of a sermon to get all the cobwebs out of the mind and to get the the wheels turning not as one's devotional exercises but part of the preparation. Now granted those of us who live of the gospel who are called upon to labor in the word and in doctrine we don't set what we are able to do as the norm for others and that's why I've deliberately tried to steer clear of any unrealistic standards. I could just kick some preachers in the shins who've got you know eight to twelve hours a day in which to do what others have got to squeeze into half an hour and then they lay on these unreasonable standards and whip the people of God until their consciences are rubbed raw and it's just not right. It's not biblical it's not wholesome and I'm deliberately resisting that temptation because someone has said there's a Pope in every one of us who would bind men to our own consciences in matters but the reading then of devotional materials can be helpful. How many of you have found this helpful in your own? Alright see so this is something that some of you may want to try.

Further Preparatory Helps and Avoiding Rut-ism

52:27 Alright? What other things can be helpful in the preparation of the heart and the mind the whole man?

52:33 Pro? Alright thinking about your own needs now some of us would find this very crippling but there may be times when it's helpful and this is what we're doing we're just sharing now this is a forum we're sharing what we find helpful. Alright other things yes Don?

53:16 Meditate on the God to whom I'm coming right? Thinking of what this is all about alright very quick we have time for just one or two others and our time is gone yes Priscilla? Part of the preparation may be not as our formal Bible reading as such but the reading of a psalm in order to move the mind Godward and heavenward alright?

53:49 The reading of a psalm. Any other things that some of you have found helpful? Yes.

54:08 Alright? The tragedy of not having a heart to seek him alright? Well I hope from this you've seen that probably the things that we find helpful in this general area of preparation are as diverse as we are.

54:23 So we'll be kept on the one hand from legalism on the other hand we'll be kept from rut-ism. You know what rut-ism is?

54:31 Like a dear man of God said a rut is nothing but a grave with the ends kicked out.

54:36 And there are times when we get in a rut. Maybe times when you find that singing no longer gets the wheels of devotion moving. Alright, remember we had a session here where somebody in the church found that reading Jay's Morning in Evening or Spurgeon's Morning in Evening or reading a sermon of flavor was helpful. Give it a try.

54:57 Try it. You'll like it.

55:02 Don't be inflexible in these things because what happens is you see if the enemy cannot keep us from some kind of structure and we're determined to have structure then he'll get us to make a sacred cow of that structure until we get in a rut and we're lifeless. And then the structure becomes the very thing that is undercutting fruitfulness. So here are some of the things. Try these various things alter them and perhaps under God you will find that the blessing of the Spirit this area of preparation is more that there is more contribution of true preparation to your time with God.

55:39 Well our time is gone and the Lord willing next week we'll take up what do we actually do when we come to the Word. Alright? And you be prepared to share with us the things you have found helpful. Let us commit our thoughts to God in prayer.