Reader, this post will begin with a verse the Lord continues to bring to my mind the past two weeks. The writer (believed to be King Solomon) writes, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). It is surreal how the Lord led me to this verse during a time when I was most discontented in my wait journey as a single twenty-one-year-old young woman. Now, being a thirty-three-year-old young professional woman, He reminds me of this verse as I am on the cusp of a new season of life. If you have followed my blog or read my “About Christia” page, then you know my long-awaited desire has been marriage. No, I am not married; however, I recently became engaged to the man the Lord deems worthy of my heart and me of his—and, yes, my fiancé was also my first and only boyfriend. In any season of life we are in, the Lord will teach us lessons, and He will remind us of lessons we learned in previous seasons. One of the key lessons/reminders we all must cling to is even when the season changes, our devotion should not.
As Christ followers, before we can grasp why our devotion should not change when the Lord brings us into a new season of life, we need to know the meaning of devotion. Devotion is “the fact or state of being ardently dedicated and loyal; strong love, affection, or dedication.” Notice how whatever we are devoted to will have our love, dedication, loyalty, and affection. Let us reflect on our wait journeys and ponder the following questions.
- Who or what had/has our devotion?
- How about when the wait for that desire ends? Does the answer to who or what had/has our devotion change?
The Lord will reveal the answer to the questions above if we ask Him. He wants our devotion to be to Him above all else, for Jesus says, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). We cannot love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength if our devotion lies elsewhere.
It is in our waiting seasons when the Lord shifts our devotion from what we are waiting on Him for and onto Him. Yet, when the wait season comes to an end, there can be a shift where our devotion turns to the gift instead of the Giver. How can we know if our devotion to the Lord changed when our season changed? Below are some signs:
- Time spent in the Word is inconsistent.
- Time in prayer is infrequent.
- Time in worship is occasional.
- Time listening and obeying the Holy Spirit’s nudges to go and do certain things for His glory are rare.
If the answer to any of the above is yes, remember the Lord does not condemn (Romans 8:1). He opens our eyes to what needs to be changed, and He walks with us to change it. Regardless of whether we are in a wait season, or the time has come for the Lord to change our season, our devotion should remain on the Giver and not the gift. The only way our devotion can truly remain on the Lord is by continuing to be intentional in spending quality time with Him through the Word, prayer and worship. No matter the season, there is always a reason to be in a posture of gratitude to the Lord. Paul writes, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Philippians 4:4).
All Bible verses are from Holy Bible: English Standard Version