Recovering Devotion
(6 minutes)
"I want to recover another word that has been stolen by American Christianity, and I'm here to snatch it from their grubby hands. That's devotion. I want to restore the word, devotion. Devotion is not fifteen minutes with Oswald Chambers while your mind is distracted by a million things, and then you can tell people that you had your devotion. Devotion is, 'I'm willing to burn everything else down in my life just to have one thing, His face.' Devotion is me tearing everything else down that's biting for my attention. When we talk about devotion, we're talking about what drives your heartbeat, what drives and motivates you, what causes you to run after it." (Pastor Tim)
We're going to have to recover the word, devotion. It has been so watered down that we've lost the heart of the whole thing. We've reduced devotion down to something we do half-heartedly for a couple of minutes a day, mostly out of a sense of obligation instead of fascination. Devotion is when we become so passionately in love with someone or something that we devote ourselves exclusively to that person or thing. What we're devoted to will always rise to the surface. We will have a great amount of enthusiasm for the things that we're devoted to. Devotion is the dedication of our lives to pursuing and being loyal to one thing.
Let's face it, that's a very different definition than the one that we were handed. When we look at devotion in this light, what are we truly devoted to? What do we burn everything else down to the ground in order to obtain? What have we given our lives to, exclusively?
Pastor Tim mentioned that this word, devotion, is very similar to the Greek word, peripoiesis. It's one of Pastor Tim's favorite Greek words. It literally means to live exclusively for another. In English, we would translate this word to be weird, because exclusivity is strange in our world. "When you do belong exclusively to Jesus, you will look weird to other people. If you work 60 hours a week, we'll applaud you. You can work 60 hours a week in our society, your friends and your family will say, 'He's a hard worker,' and they will applaud you, but if you were to pray two hours a day, you are a fanatic. If all you ever talk about is your love affair with Abba, you are a fanatic." (Pastor Tim)
"Peripoiesis is the Greek word and it means one who belongs exclusively to another. We see this in marriage all the time. We demand it in marriage, but we don't bring those principles over into our relationship with Abba, with the King, the Lord of lords. We demand our spouses to belong exclusively to us, but we buck when someone says, 'Yeah, but Jesus requires the same from us.'" (Pastor Tim)
The truth is that American Christianity lowered the standard when it comes to devotion, and Yahweh wants to raise the standard back to where He intended it to be. He wants devotion to be seen in the light of a covenant marriage, not a fifteen-minute-a-day exchange that never touches our hearts.
As you take the walk with Abba today, let Him redefine devotion. Let Him speak to what He means by devotion. Let Him paint the picture of what devotion looks like on His end of the relationship. Remember, whatever Abba is inviting us into, He is already feeling towards us. We love because He first loved us.
Abba, show us what devotion looks like in Your heart towards us, and let that be the standard for devotion in our lives.
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Worship: "Build My Life" by Housefires
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
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