John Stott and the daily devotion time
According
to Stephen Gaukroger, in his book Hunger for Holiness (Scripture Union 1992, pages 45-46), John Stott gave an interesting response to the question,
"When
you get down on your knees and pray to God, how do you feel about your
relationship with Him? What happens to you?"
Here's
his answer:
"When
I kneel and close my eyes, it’s like finding myself against a brick wall. For
quite some time as I pray and read the Bible, I feel as if I’m blindly groping
my way along this wall, desperately trying to find some way into God’s
presence. For a while, it’s just terrible! I feel as if I’m just going through
the motions of prayer. But suddenly I get to a point, after a while, of praying
and praising and reading the Scriptures, where it’s as though my hand comes on
the door handle of a huge door; it swings open in front of me and I burst
through into a glorious sunshine beyond. At that point, I know I’m in the
presence of God."
Gaukroger comments:
"John
Stott says that it takes time to find the door into God's presence, and that
the key to unlock it is the key of fixing the mind, will and spirit on the one
goal of hearing God. It means getting to the point of saying, 'Lord, I want to
hear from you, and I'm now ready to receive whatever you have to say.' Stott
adds that, until he does reach that point, everything else he says is just empty
words, because he's not really ready to accept what God wants to say to
him."
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