Making A Commitment

In implementing this strategy in your life, we recommend that you start small. Often, we try to do too much too quickly and soon become frustrated when we fail to meet the high standards that we have set for ourselves. A good place to start is to spend a limited amount of time in each aspect of the devotional time. For example, spend one minute in focussing on God; one minute in praise and worship; read one chapter of the Bible; spend 5 minutes in reflection and journalise your thoughts; and 4 minutes in praying through the Word (one minute in each of the four aspects of prayer: worship, confession, supplication and thanksgiving). This would mean spending about twenty minutes of balanced investment into your spiritual life. That may sound like a lot of time; it may sound like very little. Whichever the case, we encourage you to start small with the suggested time pattern. It is better to establish a balanced strategy in our lives in a way that we can maintain before expanding the boundaries. The benefits of establishing a shorter, regular devotional time are greater than having a longer, irregular devotional time.

In addition, make a commitment to meet with God in this manner for a specific number of times during the week. Again, start small. We recommend that you commit to three days per week initially. If you meet with God in this way more than three days per week, all well and good, but identify the minimum commitment that you are prepared to make. Write down your commitment on the Personal Worksheet. You can ask the other members of your small group to support, encourage, and hold you accountable to this commitment. Remember that you are not making a commitment to impress anyone else, but a commitment that you will keep.