“Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me.”
(Ephesians 3:8) 

You may wonder how I know so much about people who have anemic devotional lives.

Well, I’m a pastor, see.  I counsel the depraved.  These despicable worms slink into my office and confess their filthy…ah, well, actually…no.

The real reason I know so much about these lowly vermin is that I was one of them.  In fact, for the first fifteen years of my ministry, I laid guilt trip after guilt trip on my congregation, urging them to practice the very thing I myself struggled to do.

Do I sound as though I was a hypocrite?  I didn’t mean to be. 

What would happen is, I would start spending, say, two hours each day in personal devotions.  I’d get a pretty good run of several weeks going – during which time I would pulpiteer on the priceless virtues of intimate connectedness to God.

Then I’d get so busy that I’d fall off the wagon for several days or a week or two. 

Aaaargh! 

I’d be so devastated by my inconsistency that I couldn’t preach another word on the subject.  I’d stay absolutely quiet about quiet time for six months.

Then I’d get on another daily devotional roll, think I’d finally found the moral character I once lacked – and the cycle would start all over again.

I have just shared my personal, private prescription for creating a magnificently dysfunctional congregation.  But when I tried to patent this powerful procedure, my application was turned down. 

“Sorry,” they said.  “Ninety-five per cent of the churches in America are run this way.  You’ll have to come up with something a little more unique.”

Bummer.  I was sure I had finally found my place in leadership history, my own special area of pastoral giftedness.

And then, on one of my “good days,” I stumbled across a passage of Scripture that contained a totally unique devotional technique.  I’d never heard of it before.  Desperate, afraid to hope, I tried it. 

It worked. 

It worked for one month, then two.  Unbelievably – holding my breath day after day – it worked that entire year! 

Then another.  And another.

That was more than a quarter-century ago. 

In the years since, God has continued to take pity on me – leading me into an increasingly vast treasure of Biblical “techniques” that light up my devotional life with such bright, blazing light that I can’t wait to hang out with Him again the next day.

I know.

What a terrible confession! 

It kills me to admit I need all this firepower just to do what every Christian should long to do without any encouragement whatsoever.

But I’m not alone, am I?

I’m convinced there are millions of us who need all the Biblical help we can get to become everything Jesus created us to be.

Every day.

Welcome to Lazaroo.
_________
2 Corinthians 1:3-4; Jeremiah 29:13

 

 

What is Lazaroo?

Take Me Deeper