A Hymn
Our Devotional
Burden and Distress - Introduction
The Bible
Prayer List
How to have devotion
First I must say, devotion may vary for many. Everyone doe not have devotion alike. Also everyone does not have devotion at the same time of day.
The fact yet remains it is important to have devotion. Because devotion connects us with God. It puts us in the right frame of mind to start our day, and a good start in most cases produce a good end.
Through devotion we gain access to all the resources and promises that God has promised us. We learn his voice. We learn to entertain his presence. It gives us a daily encounter with God. It gives us strength for the battles ahead. It teaches us what intimacy with God is like and what it means to be the apple of his eye.
Our outline for devotion is not one written in stone, but it is a good start in the right direction for a better relationship with our creator, and a better relationship with one another as believers.
We have provided you with a simple format that you can build on as you like, with the hope that you will learn more about our heavenly Father and bring glory to his name.
Pastor Ricky Ricardo Morris
The Church of God of Chesapeake
201 Providence Road
Chesapeake, VA 23325
(757) 390-4476 or
(757) 390-0561
Monday Daily Devotion - 11/2024
"Pilgrim's Progress Devotional"
Part 1 - Burden and Distress
Introduction
Isaiah 64:6-8
6 But we are all as an unclean thing,and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.7 And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us,and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.8 But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
Revelation 20:11-15
11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
2 Peter 3:9-10
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
John 16:7-11
7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 of sin, because they believe not on me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; 11 of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
Part 1 - The Burden and Distress
As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a den, and I laid me down in that place to sleep: and as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed; and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back. I looked, and saw him open the book, and read therein; and as he read, he wept and trembled; (Ps. 38:4, Isa. 64:6, Luke 14:33, Heb. 2:2-3) and, not being able longer to contain, he broke out with a lamentable cry, saying, “What shall I do?” (Acts 2:37).
In this plight, therefore, he went home, and refrained himself as long as he could, that his wife and children should not perceive his distress. But he could not be silent long, because that his trouble increased: wherefore at length he broke his mind to his wife and children; and thus began to talk. “O my dear wife,” said he, “and you the children of my bowels, I, your dear friend, am in myself undone, by reason of a burden that lies hard upon me. Moreover, I am for certain informed, that this our city will be burned with fire from heaven. We shall all come to ruin; unless (which yet I see not) some way of escape can be found, whereby we may be delivered.” His family was amazed; they thought some frenzy had seized him. Therefore, it drawing towards night, and they hoping that sleep might settle his brains, with all haste they got him to bed.
But the night was as troublesome to him as the day; wherefore, instead of sleeping, he spent it in sighs and tears. So, when the morning was come, they would know how he did. He told them, “Worse and worse.” He also set to talking to them again; but they began to be hardened. They also thought to drive away his distemper by harsh and surly conduct to him: sometimes they would deride; sometimes they would chide; and sometimes they would quite neglect him. Wherefore he began to retire himself to his chamber, to pray for and pity them, and also to console his own misery.
He would also walk solitarily in the fields, sometimes reading and sometimes praying; and thus for some days so. Now I saw, upon a time when he was walking in the fields, that he was (as he often did) reading in his book, and greatly distressed in his mind; and, as he read, he burst out, as he had done before, crying, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30-31). I saw also that he looked this way and that way, as if he would run; yet he stood still, because (as I perceived) he could not tell which way to go.