IBS Application for Psalm 119:11/Mark 1:35

“I have stored up Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, He departed and went out to a desolate place, and there He prayed.”

It seems clear to me what the message in these passages is about: having a good devotional life. Both the Psalmist and Jesus kept good practice in their devotional time to the Father. They both spent time reflecting on Scripture and in prayer to have a good relationship with the Father.

And having a relationship with the Father is ultimately the goal of devotion time. It is time we set apart for God to spend time with Him. We spend it either in prayer or studying His Word, or both.

It is by spending time with God that we learn more about who He is to us, and who we are to Him. Spending time not only in study of the Word, but also in relationship with God, is very important to our growth. If we were to only take in Truth and not meditate on it with God, how could we say that we’re in relationship with Him? How could we be certain that what truth we glean from the Word is actually the Truth without guidance from the Spirit? Simply put, we cannot. Being a disciple of Jesus is about more than simply studying the Word; it’s about meditating on it while in communion with the Lord.


My application for this one will be to commit more time to prayer when I do my devotions, and to do a devotion in the evenings before I go to sleep as well as the ones I already do in the mornings through the end of this week.

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