Default or Devotion

We can easily default to an acquired habit and let our base line of operation rule, instead of being RULED by His spirit. 

This is why it is so important to renew our hearts and minds, and not live by “automatic” settings. It might seem easier to live by this mode of operation, but we will miss out on so much when we do. There have been several ways which default has replaced devotion in my own life. 

One way has been when Convenience comes before CHRIST. We are tempted to allow those issues that we COUNT dear to us (like "MY" time) lead us...instead of simple consecration to Christ (HIS time always). His yoke is where we want to be ("Calvary" take me away). It's a yoke that fits and will always take us where He calls us to go.  Calgon only leads to having to clean the bathtub when you're done.

Hannah Whitall Smith expresses what this is like...
“I have noticed that wherever there has been a faithful following of the Lord in a consecrated soul, several things have inevitably followed, sooner or later. Meekness and quietness of spirit become in time the characteristics of the daily life. A submissive acceptance of the will of God as it comes in the hourly events of each day; pliability in the hands of God to do or to suffer all the good pleasure of His will; sweetness under provocation; calmness in the midst of turmoil and bustle; yieldingness to the wishes of others, and an insensibility to slights and affronts; absence of worry or anxiety; deliverance from care and fear;---all these, and many similar graces, are invariably found to be the natural outward development of that inward life which is hid with Christ in God.”

Another default is Doing rather than Being. Our agenda and plans can give us a false sense of security when all the externals are taken care of. It's easy to find fulfillment in the doing, rather than in the Being. Character before Charts. Charts are a great idea for keeping records and bringing order to a home, BUT they can be done totally void of heart. If our curriculum does not first include the heart issues of our children and ourselves, then all we are doing is providing Head knowledge. We are simply teaching our children how to live externally acceptable lives before men, without any fear of God. The reason the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, is because it is dealing with His all seeing eyes on all that we are in the hidden places. 

Knowledge might take them far in the world, but KNOWING HIM will prepare them for eternity. He sees the hidden things of the heart. Devotion may lead us to change up the charts, and deal with hearts.

Last but not least, Limiting Him.

It's one thing to be limited, 

its another to limit. 

The one who is giving or taking, is the one who has control. In a subtle way we can seek to control even while being limited, by discontentment or jumping over set boundaries. 

Devotion here looks like 

contentment rather than control.

“It is not the multitude of hard duties, it is not constraint and contention that advance us in our Christian course. On the contrary it is the yielding of our wills without choice, to tread cheerfully every day in the path in which Providence leads us, to seek nothing, to be discouraged by nothing, to see our duty in the present moment, to trust all else without reserve to the will and power of God. ~Fenelon