I don’t know when or how it happened, but somewhere along the twenty-three-year long path I’ve been walking with the LORD, I began to have unrealistic expectations for myself as a Christian. Before I knew it, I was living out of desperation in light of those expectations.  For instance, early on especially, I remember impressing upon myself that it couldn’t be a good day in the LORD unless I literally spent hours in prayer, worship and study of the Word.  Then somehow I had elevated my privilege to serve Him inside the Church as a central part of my identity.  Along the way, I found myself living and believing that my role as a godly wife and mom was more important than embracing the Gospel in my daily life. And lastly, I  began believing that ministry service was more valuable than me just sharing Him and sharing my story with others.

Whew.  I know, that’s a lot.  But my vulnerability here proves the point I’m trying to make and I wonder, can you relate?  Christian women can succumb to patterns of belief that put added pressure on them to function in unrealistic ways.  We, like non-believers, are prone to misplaced identities and priorities, but we also, perhaps, unlike others, may find ourselves in a place where we’ve made something difficult out of something simple: our walk with Jesus. 

We’ve done this by adding legalistic components into the equation of our relationship with God.  The message of the Gospel forbids this, because “it is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1). This in no way negates the fact that we are called to obey Him, heed His Word and follow Him with an attitude of humility and reverence—to use my example, I am called to seek Him, to serve, to be a godly, wife, mother and do the things that He asks me to do. But if I’ve strayed away from the Person in a pursuit of secondary-self-imposed efforts, I’m going to be left to my own devices.   And it’s going to be difficult. 

This is why the principle of “first things first” is so important here as we consider Simple Devotion, Simple Delight.  There are two things we can start with. One, remember your first love (Revelation 2:4) and return to it. This is a wonderful thing to do. And then, recall and live your every day according to Jesus’ declaration (the Greatest Commandment) when He said to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” and “The second is this:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself”(Mark 12: 30-31).  This, too, is wonderful and it is freeing.

It is living in this simple devotion to Him that can and will take out the difficulty we ourselves have created.  The journey itself may still be hard.  (In fact, the Word says it will be!) Being human in this broken world that is not our home is beyond difficult. But we walk with our living Savior. And, putting to death the sin in our lives  and being sanctified is not easy work.  That’s why He Himself does the work as we walk with Him. Our purpose along the way is to offer ourselves up to Him and then, let go as He leads.  To stay close, to be devoted and to simply delight in who He is, in what He’s done and what He says He’s going to do.

**If this simplicity of devotion and delight resonates with you, check out my Made-Well One Program.  I’m helping women just like yourself clear the chaos of the extra and focus on their primary purpose to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and to love their neighbor as themselves.  I have created a journal and a curriculum with all the tools you need to embrace this new way of walking with Him.  Won’t you join me on the journey?