Going through seminary, students are taught to study the Bible and uphold its doctrines about God while also being encouraged not to neglect their devotional times with God. Yet during my own devotional time I, and probably many others, often asked myself, “Is this the best way to grow spiritually, or is there a better way? What could I do differently? Should I incorporate my studies with my devotions?”
In this series I ask a different scholar two questions about how he or she spends time with the Lord and continues to love him with all their mind, strength, and heart. While no one method or style is “the only way,” we can draw on one another’s experiences.
This week I have asked Dr. Greg Welty if he would share his thoughts with us.
1. How do you spend your devotional time with the Lord?
Each morning I pray that the Lord would give me insight into his Word, and then I read two chapters of Scripture: one OT, one NT (if it’s a weekday), or two OT (if it’s the weekend). That enables me to get through the OT once every two years and the NT once every year. Essentially, I follow the schedules available here and here. I’ve been a Christian for 38 years now, and for the first half of that timespan I tried just about every reading schedule I could find. My main problem was trying to do too much. But two chapters a day has worked out, for me at least, to be just the right amount.
There is nothing automatic about spiritual growth through intentional times of Scripture reading and prayer. Whether God blesses these times is up to him. But I can say that, in the long run, being committed to a regular schedule of Bible reading has changed me spiritually. I delight in the Scriptures as a resource I can go to in any situation. (My wife is committed to the same schedule, and there is a lot of opportunity to talk about what we have read.)
In recent years I have become aware of the need in my own life for active engagement with what I am reading. Without that, it is too easy to ‘check a box’ on the reading list and move on. So I’ve added two more things to my daily devotional time.
First, I memorize a verse of Scripture every week. I was inspired to pursue memory of entire chapters of Scripture after reading a pamphlet by a local Baptist pastor, and through the personal example of one of my colleagues, Dr. Ben Merkle. (Ben and I were students in seminary together). In the past several years, I’ve been able to memorize the book of Ephesians, the book of Jude, and the first nine chapters of Matthew. I’m currently trying to memorize Matthew 10:6, which is pretty short! I review two chapters a day, since otherwise I just forget it all. I used to despair about memorizing Scripture in any meaningful way, until I realized my problem was that I was (once again) trying to do too much. A verse a week is just about right, for me. And it’s important not to be legalistic about any of this. God doesn’t command anywhere a certain daily rate of reading or memorizing his Word. If the verse is particularly long or difficult, I’ll give myself another week. If some passages have faded away, I’ll stop new Scripture memory entirely and work on reviewing those. The point is not to etch a plaque for yourself; the point is active engagement with Scripture where you are doing something more than merely reading.
Second, I write haiku summarizing my Scripture reading. Some of your readers may laugh at this, but for me it’s been a good practice that promotes my spiritual health. I had already written multi-paragraph summaries of every chapter of the Bible, but once that was done I had to come up with another idea for active engagement with the text of Scripture. My goal is one haiku a day. Sometimes I get carried away and write five or six. The average is about two or three. But it’s a great way to review what I read the day before. I’ve finished writing haiku for the OT, and I’m trying to finish up the NT. I’m not sure what I’ll do when I’m done!
I want to stress that these are two practices that I’ve chosen for myself, and other Christians with different temperaments or schedule opportunities will be led by the Lord to do something different. My wife is an excellent journal-keeper about Scripture, whereas I’m terrible at that. But she likes listening to my haiku. For me, writing Scripture summaries or haiku, or memorizing whole chapters and books of Scripture, is a way of meditating on the Word of God, something mentioned throughout the Bible (Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:2), especially in Psalm 119 (vv. 15, 23, 48, 78, 148).
There’s no one way to accomplish this meditation; there are many different devotional practices that have been used in the history of the church for the past two millennia. These are the ones that I have found useful to bring me to the throne of grace, and to the great and encouraging record of God’s creative, providential, and redemptive works in history. I learn more about how God is for me, and what he wants me to be for others, when I do these things.
2. How do you practically seek to deepen your love for Christ?
I’ve been married for 27 years. My wife and I tend to read Scripture and talk about it at roughly the same time every day (just after breakfast, definitely with coffee). It is also a time we can share our spiritual struggles, challenges, and failures with each other, sometimes provoked by the chapters we have just read. I will say that she provides me accountability and encouragement that helps me to persevere in the Christian life. Her insights and questions give me a balancing perspective, and help me to see that I am not alone in my spiritual challenges. I try to do the same for her.
This then leads me to recount for myself all of my blessings in life, memories that a complaining or burdened spirit tends to suppress. In general, one of the surest ways to kill your love for Christ is to avoid other people, and to try to live without them. And I have found that I am reminded of the great love of Christ when someone else has opportunity to remind me of it in some way. So, seek out wise and gentle fellow-travelers with Christ, and you might find your love for Christ increasing. We love Christ by way of loving one another, and we cannot do that if we insist on being alone. The church can deepen our love for Christ.
Greg Welty is Professor of Philosophy and Program Coordinator, MA in Philosophy of Religion at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS). He has written books on the problem of evil and Alvin Plantinga, contributed to books on the history of apologetics, essays against Open Theism, Calvinism and middle knowledge, and more, and is the co-editor of The Big Ten series. Find him on TGC here.
Thank you, Dr. Welty!
Other Scholars’ Devotions
- Andrew Abernethy
- Holly Beers
- Michael Bird
- Craig Blomberg
- Darrell Bock
- Gerry Breshears
- Denny Burk
- Mitch Chase
- Andrew Das
- Stephen Dempster
- Jason DeRouchie
- Kyle Dunham
- James Edwards
- Rebekah Eklund
- Matthew Emerson
- David Firth
- Stephen Fowl
- Norman Geisler
- Benjamin Gladd
- Michael Gorman
- Joel Green
- Sigurd Grindheim
- Robert Gundry
- Nijay Gupta
- Jim Hamilton
- Matthew Harmon
- Michael Haykin
- Charles Lee Irons
- Dru Johnson
- Dru Johnson 2 (extended edition)
- Kenneth Keathley
- Craig Keener
- Edward (Mickey) Klink
- Melissa Kruger
- Darian Lockett
- Tremper Longman
- Ernest Lucas
- Ken Magnuson
- Scot McKnight
- David Moffitt
- Jonathan Moo
- Jeffrey Niehaus
- B. J. Oropeza
- Amy Peeler
- Nicholas Perrin
- Madison Pierce
- Patrick Schreiner
- Tom Schreiner
- Brandon Smith
- Aida Besancon Spencer
- Douglas Stuart
- Frank Thielman
- Robert Wall
- Bruce Ware
- Rikk Watts
- Trevin Wax
- Cynthia Long Westfall
- Ben Witherington
- Kevin Youngblood
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
spoiledmilks 