Do you ever feel like your personal devotional life is an ongoing cycle of fits and starts that leaves you discouraged?  Does the idea of family worship sound exhausting or unattainable?  How many times have you gotten re-invigorated with new motivation and formed a plan for yourself or your family only to skid into the dirt shortly after take-off?  How many promising new devotional books have you begun only to stall after 10 pages?

This important area of our spiritual lives can become discouraging because of both our plans and our perceptions.  We often realize our deficiencies in this area and then embrace unrealistic plans - almost as if we're trying to make up for 10 years of bad quiet times or family devotions.  Early in our marriage, while in seminary, I decided at one point that I was going to translate a passage of the Bible from the original languages every day and write a comprehensive Bible study for my wife and I.  That didn't last long and I felt discouraged.  Have you had a similar experience?

Our perceptions are also the source of discouragement at times.  If someone asks how you are doing spiritually, or you reflect on this yourself, do you instinctively divide the number of quiet times you've had that week by 7 days and give yourself a grade?  Even if you don't get that scientific, it's likely that you in some ways base your perception of how God feels about you on how disciplined your devotional life is.  This can only lead to pride (if you're on a good streak) or discouragement.  We all need to be reminded often that our standing before God is based entirely upon the performance of Jesus, who always obeyed for us and died to pay for our sins.  He always meditated on God's Word and sought communion with His Father, for us.  And this Jesus is also committed (more than we are) to our spiritual growth.  Being assured that we are loved and secure, we then desire to commune with God in His Word and through prayer because we want to enjoy Him more.

If you are discouraged or lack direction in this area of life, let me encourage you toward what might be a paradigm shift if you've been living in this individualistic culture of ours:  Spirituality starts with corporate worship.

Think about this:  The Psalms that we are studying this summer, the portion of the Bible most used as the basis for prayer and worship, were written for God's gathered people to use together in corporate worship.  That was the focal point of spiritual life.  Most ancient Israelites did not have a scroll of Isaiah sitting on their bedside table.  In fact, for most of the history of the church, individual Christians have not had their own personal copies of God's Word.

Don't hear what I'm not saying.  I'm NOT saying you don't need to read your Bible on your own.  That would be a terrible act of neglect when you are able to hold God's Word in your hands and read it yourself.  Of course, you should read your Bible and pray daily, alone and with your family.

But when devotions seem daunting or you wonder what you should do, let our worship together on Sundays be the foundation from which everything else flows.  Delight in the fact that you get to participate in the worship service where God meets with His people.  Then, work on adding to that.  Read God's Word - yourself, and with your family.  Do something manageable.  Work through a book and read a chapter a day, or part of a chapter.  Then spend a few minutes thinking about / discussing what you've read, and pray about it.  Hang on to your bulletins from church and use those during your devotions during the week.  View them online ahead of time to prepare for worship together.  

Don't be discouraged, but delight in the fact that "he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).