The month of July is a 31 Day challenge at Hello Mornings. Our group enjoys taking the time to do a shorter study and for this challenge we are using Mornings In The Word by Tammy L. Mashburn. We all know we need time with God in His Word and yet the struggle is real for all of us. Jesus knew this and chose to withdraw and be alone with His Father in prayer.

“We have lost the art of lingering.”
(Tammy Mashburn)

May we develop the habit of lingering on the pages of God’s Word.

We began our mornings this week with the following:

1. 1. We must fight the distractions of our “to-do” lists. We will always have tasks to do each day. If we allow ourselves to be distracted we will miss what God has for us each day. “How wonderful to be wise, to analyze and interpret things. Wisdom lights up a person’s face, softening its harshness” (Ecclesiastes 8:1, NLT). My commentary has this to say about this verse: “Anxiety, anger, sorrow, and frustration can harden one’s face, but the enjoyment of life and wisdom will lighten it.” Wisdom comes from the Lord and He will give us wisdom, thus lightening our burdens, easing our minds, and changing our very countenance as He changes our souls.
   2. We will have high and low days. In Mark 1:9-13, we find Jesus being baptized. It says, “as soon as he came up out of the water” the Spirit descended and a voice was heard from heaven. Then “immediately”, He was sent into the wilderness and faced forty days of temptation. The spiritual high and lows can take place that quickly. Jesus experienced them and they will be no stranger to us as well. But with Jesus – who has gone before us – we can navigate these times and come through them by His Spirit.
   3. Pruning is necessary to our growth. In Luke 13:6-9, we read about a fig tree, barren and unproductive, its owner wanting to cut it down. The vineyard worker says, “Let me work with it for a year. Let me dig around it, fertilize it, pay it some extra attention and let’s see what happens” (my version). This gives us a beautiful picture of God’s grace in our lives. He works with us. He tends to us, giving us extra attention, feeding our souls, healing our hearts and minds so our lives become fruitful. He knows the abilities He has placed in us and desires for our lives to bear much fruit and bring Him glory.
   4. We must tend to the garden of our heart. Gardening is hard work. Trimming, weeding and cultivation demands our attention and time. We so look to avoid the arduous work. Certain conditions will cause the weeds to thrive exponentially. May we do the hard work of assessing the conditions and prune and weed as needed, which may be daily, if we want our lives to bear fruit. “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22, NLT).
   5. We have a Shepherd. We are sheep. We are easily led astray and have a tendency to just follow. We follow the opinions of others. We follow the latest trend. We follow the loudest voice. But there is only One who is our Shepherd and worthy to be followed – Jesus. His is the voice that will always lead us on the right path, the safe path. But we need to know His voice so we are not pulled away by other voices. “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27, NLT). We not only want to listen (or hear) His voice. We want to listen with the intent to follow through on what He is saying to us. We want hearts willing to obey and do.

How do we know His voice? How can we incorporate time, or more time, in the Word into our daily routine? What changes do we need to make for this to happen? Over the coming weeks, we’ll examine our lives and see what needs to change so our mornings are spent in His Word.

Join me the next three weeks as I’ll be sharing the lessons learned from this devotional each Monday. In the meantime, you can read more about the book on the author’s website HERE. You can also follow Tammy on Twitter.

Today I am joining … Inspire Me Monday and Booknificent Thursday .