by David Baker | Download PDF | Purchase Hardcopy

If you desire to be a genuine and fervent seeker of the Lord, you will need to pray in the secret place. And more than this, you will need to maintain a devotional journal. Many Christians, who have been doing this over many years, could testify of this truth. A devotional journal is an essential tool in helping us understand the will of God. I’ve been inspired for some time on a little passage about King David. He said concerning the tabernacle and his own life, ‘All this … the Lord made me understand in writing by His hand upon me’. 1 Chron 28:19.

In the lead up to this statement, David had been addressing the whole assembly. He told them that Solomon would inherit the throne and build a house for the Lord. He then addressed Solomon personally. ‘As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him.’ 1 Chron 28:9. David was giving Solomon his mandate, which was to know God and to serve Him. This is the mandate for every Christian. Knowing God is the fruit of your life in the secret place. It is your personal relationship with the Lord. Serving Him is what you do throughout the day. You are renewed, refreshed and invigorated by prayer in the secret place. You then proceed from the secret place to serve the Lord in all the day’s activity. David was encouraging Solomon towards this. When we meditate on the life of Solomon, we think of his wisdom. It is amazing to consider that Solomon could have requested anything from the Lord, and yet he asked only for wisdom. Evidently, David had instilled something in Solomon from his youngest years. He had taught him to seek for wisdom and understanding. We read in the book of Proverbs, ‘By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established’. Prov 24:3.

There are several modes that God employs towards us. In the first instance, He is actively seeking for us. He takes all of the initiative. ‘For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the whole earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His’. 2 Chron 16:9. Another mode is where He tells us that He will meet us when we seek Him. We’ll recall the words of Jesus, ‘Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find’. Matt 7:7. Of course, He does not simply meet us commensurate with our asking. He wants us to ask and take the initiative. However, as Paul said, He then gives to us ‘abundantly beyond all that we ask or think’. Eph 3:20. Finally, the Lord employs a third mode. David said to Solomon, ‘If you will seek Him, He will let you find Him’. 1 Chron 28:9. In this instance, you are looking for Him, but He is simply ‘letting you’ find Him. He is not stepping back from you or being elusive. He is not making it hard for you. However, He is not making it easy for you either. He is forcing you to be persistent and persevere in seeking Him. To me, that is commitment to a devotional journal. It doesn’t come easily, but if we apply ourselves to it, the Lord lets us find Him. We find the treasures of darkness. We gain understanding.

The great King David continued by saying, ‘Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary’. 1 Chron 28:10. Consider! As a group of people, do we take the time to consider? Personally, do you take the time to consider? Often we are very busy, and taking time to consider can be a challenge. If we have taken the time to think about a particular course of action, it is not a big problem if it fails. If we make a mistake, at least we know why we made it. However, it is a dilemma if we are making mistakes simply because we haven’t taken the time to consider our approach. We’ll all recall times when someone has pointed something out to us and we’ve said, “I never thought about that”. So we begin by taking time to consider, then we need to be courageous and act. ‘The Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be courageous and act.’ 1 Chron 28:10. This was David’s advice to his son. Consider, be courageous, and act. I liken ‘being courageous’ to ‘knowing God’. In the secret place, you find your strength. It is where you overcome your fears. In the secret place, the Lord is able to quieten your heart and give you courage. From the secret place, you are able to be courageous and act. You find strength to serve the Lord. However, you are going to need to plan before you act. We need to make plans by consultation. Likewise, we need to make plans by considering and writing. 

We read that David ‘gave to his son Solomon the plan of the porch of the temple; its buildings, storehouses, upper and inner rooms, and the room for the mercy seat’. 1 Chron 28:11. I love to think of that as being a description of the tapestry of life. We have a porch where we are welcoming people. We have outer rooms where we are being hospitable. We have upper rooms where we have more intimate gatherings with friends and family. And then we have inner rooms, where we withdraw to pray. ‘When you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father’. Matt 6:6. The plan of the tabernacle could be a description of our relationships. We have interactions with all sorts of people in our outer rooms, and intimate relationships in our inner rooms. However, it is also a description of the phases of life. A driven person will tend to think of life on a line. Everything is perceived to be in a sequence so that one thing must follow another. Accordingly, they will push for outcomes. Conversely, a phlegmatic person will be happy for life to be ‘this way and that’. They will be more content to take life as it comes. However, the plan of the tabernacle portrays life as neither of these extremes. King David came to understand life as a tapestry of rooms, times and seasons. Each room was a phase to be ‘filled up’. He then looked for doorways to enter new rooms or phases in his life. A man of understanding will view life in this way. When David spoke of ‘all this’, he meant a lot more than the structure of the tabernacle. He was speaking of the entire tapestry of his life. ‘All this, the Lord made me understand in writing by His hand upon me’. 1 Chron 28:19. I don’t think that means that the Lord’s hand was guiding David’s pen. The Lord was not forming the shape of the characters on the page. Rather, the hand of the Lord was upon David’s life. And David was writing down the activity of the Lord’s hand in his life. By this means, he was coming to understand the Lord’s hand.  

Writing can be difficult. Sometimes all your thoughts can be a blur. However, it is amazing how you begin to sequence and order your thoughts by writing them down. When you put pen to paper, it helps you cut to the heart of the issues at hand. This is the beginning of gaining understanding. What are the issues? Why am I doing what I’m doing? David testified, ‘The Lord made me understand in writing’. 1 Chron 28:19. In a sense, the Lord had said to David, “It’s going to be hard, but there is no other way. You will need to write. If you want to understand, you must put pen to paper. I’m going to make you understand all this in writing”. We know David did commit himself to writing. The psalms are the evidence of his rich prayer life and his commitment to a devotional journal.

There are many other instances in the Old Testament when men were instructed by God to write. From this, I have identified four primary components to a devotional journal. Firstly, we need to write the observations of life. This will give us insight. Secondly, we need to record the highs and lows of life. This will give us memorial and remembrance of the Lord’s hand throughout the years. Thirdly, we need to write down the specific words of the Lord. If we do this, we’ll establish the non-negotiable pillars of our lives. And finally, we need to write down our meditations. This will give us inspiration. It will become the birthplace of initiative in our lives.  

Recording your observations of life is the beginning point. Joshua said to the sons of Israel, ‘How long will you put off entering to take possession of the land which the Lord the God of your fathers has given you? Provide for yourselves three men from each tribe that I may send them, that they may arise and walk through the land and write a description of it according to their inheritance and then they shall return to Me’. Josh 18:3, 4. When the Scriptures speak of the Promised Land, it refers to the extent and borders of our inheritance in life. It is everything about our lives. To begin possessing their inheritances, these men needed to walk through the land and write a description. When it says ‘arise’, I think of ‘getting up in the morning’. We arise to walk throughout the land, or we could say, walk throughout the day. And we write a description of this walk. What do we observe? I’m not talking about the popular notion of a ‘Dear Diary’ entry. It is not that type of diary. Although for a young person, a simple description of the day’s events is the best place to start. As we grow older, we should aim to record our observations of life. Why do we do certain things? Why do we react certain ways? If we right down our observations, we’ll quickly gain valuable insight. 

We then move to recording the highs and lows of life. The Lord instructed Moses to do this after the Israelites prevailed in battle against the Amalekites. Moses had said to Joshua, ‘Choose men for us and go out and fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand. And Joshua did as Moses told him and fought against Amalek; and Moses, Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill. So it came about when Moses held his hand up, that Israel prevailed, and when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed’. Ex 17:9-11. These are the highs and the lows of life. Think of ‘Amalek’ as representing life in general terms. There will be times when you feel like ‘life’ is prevailing over you. We will all be familiar with those times. At other times, we will feel that we are prevailing over life. We feel on top of the world. It’s equally important to record both. If we maintain devotional commitment, then regardless of life’s circumstances, we will prevail to gain understanding. Paul wrote to Timothy, ‘I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands’. 1 Tim 2:8. However, this is not always easy to do. In this account, we read that Moses’ hands became heavy. We’ll all be familiar with this situation. Our hands are heavy. We are weary, and life is prevailing over us. ‘Moses’ hands were heavy. Then they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands.’ Ex 17:12. In the highs and the lows of your life, the most important thing to write down is when someone comes and puts a stone under you. You know when someone brings an encouraging word to you. It is like a stone. It is something firm and solid that you can sit on. You can sit down and find rest. Write these instances down, because they are precious little gems. And write down when your family and friends support your hands in the work that you are doing. We can thank the Lord during these times. ‘So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua”.’ Ex 17:14. If you do this, you will have a testimony. In the highs and lows of life, you will be able to confess, ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil’. Psa 23:4. When we’re in the valley of the shadow, we don’t necessarily remember how the Lord has met us previously. This is why we need to keep a devotional journal. 

The next component of your journal is recording the specific words of the Lord to you. We know that Moses came down from Mount Sinai and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord. We then read, ‘And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord’. Ex 24:4. This must be our example. When the Lord speaks to us, we need to write it down. Immediately following this, Moses rose early in the morning, established an altar and built twelve pillars at the foot of the mountain. We’ll use this by way of illustration. We need to have an active altar or ‘meeting place’ with the Lord. This is the place where we call on the name of the Lord. And it is the place where the Lord promises to meet with us and speak to us. However, this will be of little benefit to us, if we don’t write down His words. Can I encourage you to write down every word of the Lord so that you can remember them? If you do, these words will invariably bring life to you. Towards the end of Moses’ life, Moses encouraged the people to remember all the words of the Lord. He said concerning every individual word they had received, ‘For it is not an idle word for you, indeed it is your life’. Deut 32:47. Every word that the Lord speaks is not an idle word. As Moses said, ‘Indeed it is your life’. Hence, write them down because they are the most precious things you can ever receive. And if you do, you will establish for yourself ‘non-negotiable pillars’ in your life. We could liken this to the twelve pillars established by Moses at the foot of the mountain. These pillars will maintain the structure of your life in the face of any temptation. We’ll recall the account of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. It didn’t matter what Satan said to Him. Jesus was able to say, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”.’ Matt 4:3,4. Jesus was effectively saying, “Wait a moment Satan. Before I answer you, I will just look up the journal of a faithful man who wrote down all of my words”. Accordingly, He quoted the words of Moses. If you commit yourself to a journal, it will not matter what anybody says to you. It won’t matter how the word of God is distorted or twisted by the enemy. You will know the truth. It will be written in your journal. Like Jesus, you’ll be able to say with confidence, “It is written”.

Finally, if you write down your meditations, you will have inspiration. You will have inspiration for song, ministry in the church, in your home, and in sharing with your friends. You’ll be able to join the psalmist in testifying, ‘My mouth will speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart will be understanding’. Psa 49:3. What an amazing testimony! ‘The Lord made me understand in writing by His hand upon me.’

Author: David Baker | Toowoomba Christian Fellowship TCF
Published by Vision One at Toowoomba Christian Fellowship TCF
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