Good morning everyone and welcome back to another mornings with the masters where we devote ourselves to the Lord daily with you. Good morning guys. Good morning indeed. We're rounding out sadly

when day seven of our making space for what truly matters to us on the Bible app. There's a link to that in the description if you guys want to follow along with us. And as always, I'm going to read the scripture and

towards can pick up the Divo. It's to it. The scripture is first Samuel chapter 15 verse 22 and it says this. But Samuel replied, what is more pleasing to the Lord? Your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice?

Listen, obedience is better than sacrifice and submission is better than offering the fat of Rams. The devotional is titled a word of caution. And it says this. Before starting his public ministry, Jesus willingly went into the wilderness for 40 days to be alone. This time prepared him to resist the temptations the devil threw at him and step into the calling God had for him. Creating healthy spiritual habits can help us do the same.

As you continue to draw near to God every day through Lent, what you practice during this time will start to become a natural part of your daily and weekly rhythms. And as they become natural rhythms, you will start to find that your life looks different because you practice them. You are creating space for God to transform your heart so that his glory can be shown through you to a weary world in need of hope and a savior.

But when you practice these things, keep in mind that the spiritual habits themselves are not the end goal. The goal is to have a deeper intimacy with God. God's word makes it clear that obedience is better than sacrifice. This means that when we sacrifice anything, it should be from a place of humble surrender, not from a sense of half-hearted obligation.

In the same way, spiritual habits add value when they reflect obedience that is grounded in God's love. So as you prepare for Resurrection Sunday, remind yourself that God doesn't expect you to grow spiritually on your own.

Give yourself permission to come in perfectly before him because it is God's power that has made perfect in your weakness.

Yeah, I'm sad that this evo is finishing, but I do think it's ending so strong, especially with this line that says this.

Remind yourself that God doesn't expect you to grow spiritually on your own. And man, that is so powerful. I love how there's so many scriptures that are saying things like, hey, don't be afraid. I'm here with you, right?

But there's also a ton of scripture that says go into your private closet and pray to your father, right? Or don't fast as these people do in a certain way.

And so we have to make sure that we don't let these spiritual disciplines become idols of holiness because we're just trying to pursue his holiness, not trying to manufacture our own.

There's a big difference there. And so I think as you do try some of these spiritual practices and you create different rhythms, first off,

just practically give them a chance. You know, that's something that Tori and I needed to do, especially whenever we do our weekly, our weekly rhythm family team planning, family team planning,

we did it for like four, for like four weeks in a row. And then we quit for months because it created some arguments. And so we had to like, oh, wait, okay, I can see how the rhythm was not helpful in this circumstance.

So let's adjust it slightly. So be open to God directing you in those rhythms because when you think about even the way people talk, the way people walk, the way people enjoy different workouts, everyone has like different personalities.

And so as you integrate your own personality and your own spiritual strengths and some things that you need to work on with these spiritual practices, be open to how God leads you inside of these and don't just try to become robotic with it.

Yeah, I loved when it said don't do them out of a half-hearted obligation. Like God wants your heart inside of this. He wants you to want to do this to have that closeness and that intimacy with him.

I was actually just having a conversation with my girlfriend, Brittany, who y'all really should check out her podcast. It's called Embraced with Grace.

But we were talking about what our devotion time with the Lord looks like as moms and it looks different than when it did when we were single and just getting married when we could sit down for 30 minutes to two hours and have all of our journals out and all of the devotions out and our Bible open and just soak in God's presence for as long as we wanted it looks different.

But there was also a season where both of us started feeling kind of guilty that we didn't have that same type of atmosphere with God and devotion every day. And Brittany, she had this realization and helped me have my own that is God making me feel guilty for that.

Or I'm making myself feel guilty for that because right now I'm living inside the answered prayers that I was praying for those hours. Like I was praying for my husband who I'm now married to.

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