Not long after I discovered that daily devotions were something that common Christians commonly did, I began to hear about spiritual giants who went above and beyond the ten or fifteen minutes that the bush league church-goers invested each day.
No, these men and women measured their devotional time in hours, not minutes.
And it wasn't because they lived in the days before stressful jobs, soccer practice, and Netflix. They didn't have all kinds of spare time on their hands. These were busy people.
People like Martin Luther, who would increase his prayer time on his busiest days - from two hours to three. Or John Wesley, who was no slacker himself. He launched and organized a movement that introduced hundreds of thousands of people to Christ, all while allotting at least two hours a day for prayer and Scripture.
It was a habit he saw modeled by his mother, Susanna Wesley, who - even when surrounded by ten rambunctious home-schooled children - would sit down with her Bible and throw her apron up over her head so that she could read Scripture "in private" for an hour or two. (And don't worry - the kids knew that they could interrupt her apron time if there was a true emergency.)
If you're like me, you can't help but admire such men and women, these heroes of the devotional life.
But when I pause to consider my admiration for them, I realize it isn't directed at their incredible self-discipline ... rather, I have always admired the depth of their relationship with God.
It is an admiration bordering on jealousy.
But which came first - the extended prayer and Scripture time, or the deep relationship?
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