Improving Our Devotion

Occasionally, far more often than I'd care to admit, I would rather watch television than read the Word of God.  And from time to time, sadly all-too frequently, I prefer to check my emails instead of spending time in prayer.  And sometimes, perhaps more than some, I feel more like staying home and relaxing than going out and serving.  And sporadically, maybe more regularly than that, prayer is something that I can do later until later never comes.

Truly, humans are far-more apt to neglect God in favor of ourselves.  We are expert excusers that can reason themselves in and out of anything.  So, while my musings of indifference towards God may be slightly caricatured, perhaps we are all guilty of preferring things other than the Lord.  Many times we may be afraid of sounding "too spiritual" or "obsessed with God." When, instead, we should be far more afraid of being indifferent or lukewarm in our devotion.

To be sure, God and the things of God are worth more than anything this world could offer.  No gold or  silver or trinket or gadget or relationship is more valuable than knowing the Lord and being in His presence.  Simply a taste of the goodness of the Holy Lord is of such satiation that we would nare seek any other satisfying source but Him.

But there are at least three distinct enemies to our devotion, which lurk around to distract and to pull us away from the presence of the Lord Almighty.  The first is our own selfishness, our pride.  It is pride that hinders our humility.  Pride prevents us from service because it is constantly self-seeking instead of self-denying.  In this case, the remedy to such a malady as pride is a sincere and constant reverence in fear of the Lord.  For if we recognize our minuteness before His awesomeness, we cannot but help to be humble in response.

The second and oft-overemphasized adversary to our devotion is Satan.  Satan is but a fisher with a tackle box of lures to entice humans to sin.  And when they fall prey to his seductions, he plays the accuser who prosecutes and persecutes those who have sinned.  The power that Satan possesses is neither omnipotent or infinite.  His power is both finite and contingent.  He only has the power to entice us if we give him that power.  Let us then not fall prey to his adulterous and idolatrous seductions by recognizing that he has no power that is not given to him by God and by ourselves.

The third opponent to our devotion is perchance the most dangerous of the three: our own penchant for indifference.  It is our comfortability with lukewarm devotion that is the greatest devastating enemy of all.  In truth, it is our own allowances and excuses that keep us away from the ardent devotion that God asks of us.  This is a challenging hurdle for us to overcome.  However, if we are to become the Christians that God asks of us, we need to take more seriously the call towards wholehearted devotion.  Far be it for us to ever grow weary of seeking the presence of God!  Let us then seek to cast aside every weight of pride, of Satan's enticements, and our indifference so as to draw closer to the Holy Lord in faith!