American Family Radio thanks sponsor, Preborn for supporting pro life advocacy
Dr. Jessica Peck: We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound 250 and say the keyword BABY or visit preborn.com/AFR hello
: and welcome to the Dr. Nurse Mama show, prescribing Hope for Healthy Families here on American Family Radio. Here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner, and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, hey there, friends, and welcome to my favorite time of day, getting to spend time with you, prescribing Hope for Healthy Families. And we're going to talk about something that's really, really hopeful and encouraging. Today we're going to go back to the basics of talking about rediscovering the joy of a daily relationship with God. Now, if you've been following along since January, you know, every Friday we have habits for healthy families. And in January, we start with four core spiritual disciplines. We talk about prayer, reading your Bible, going to church, and being really intentional about the music that you listen to and worshiping God through song. And those are so much the important things. And, and so everybody wants the life hack and the secret and the magic trick and all of those things, but there is no, nothing that's going to replace those daily disciplines. And we live in a culture that is full of distractions, of hurry, of noise, of endless demands on our attention. And during that, it's hard to dedicate ourselves to the, those spiritual, disciplines. And in the same, at the same time, families are searching for deeper connection, not just with each other, but with God. They want to be Christian. Families want to be closer to God, but we just have things often that get in the way. Now, this conversation today is going to explore how spiritual devotion is not just another task on an already crowded checklist. It's not an app notification. It is not something that you just need to do to get your gold star for the day. It's an invitation into a lifelong relationship with your creator. And so thinking about your phones, competing for your attention, notifications, competing for your thoughts, your calendars, all those things that is really, really hard. And for generations, Christians have talked about having a quiet time with God. We talk about that, which I'm a mom of four, I feel like we've talked about before, the term quiet time. Can we all agree that for a lot of people, a lot of especially busy mom, that's not going to be really the ideal. But setting aside moments for Bible reading and prayer is really important. And we are going to talk about what does it look like to live on devotion as a, as a way of living, not just something that we do. One of our habits early on in the six rhythms that we talked about after the four core spiritual disciplines was a daily devotion. It's a great rhythm to have, but it's not sufficient. And so today we're going to talk about how families can cultivate deeper spiritual rhythms. Not through perfection, not performance. This is no pressure here. It's just an invitation to grace and consistency.
Ana Avila is author of Life in Devotion
My guest today is Ana Avila. She is author of this book right here, Life in Devotion, Cultivating a Deeper Relationship with God in the Everyday. Ana lives in Guatemala City with her husband who is a pastor and a church planter, and their children. She pre previously served as a writer and editor for the Gospel Coalition Spanish Language Ministry. She did that for nearly a decade. And she has a passion for helping believers understand that spiritual growth is not reserved just for pastors or theologians or people who seem to have it all together. It's an invitation for, for every follower of Christ. And this newest book addresses a really common but often unspoken struggle. I say unspoken and yet people do speak to, of it to each other, but not very widely. We want a deeper relationship with God, but we're just not sure how to get there. And Ana is here to help us do that. Ana, welcome to the program. I'm so grateful for your time and your heart behind what you're going to share with us today.
Ana Avila: Thank you for having me. I'm so happy to be here.
Ana writes about how she came to know Jesus through a youth camp
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, Ana let's just talk a little bit about you. I would love for you to introduce yourself to our listeners, tell them a little bit about who you are, where you came from, how you came to know the Lord and how he put this message on your heart to deliver to us today.
Ana Avila: Of course. Well, I grew up in a church going family, since I was very little, I remember going to church on Sunday and memorizing Bible verses and knowing all the answers to Christian trivia and all that kind of stuff. I just loved it. but my, my parents eventually stopped going to church and I was around 12 so I stopped going to church too. And fortunately I remained friends with some people, some kids from church and back in the days of messenger, one of my friends, well, she sent me a Message. And she was, we have a youth camp. Do you want to come? And I was like, sure. I have no friends.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Let's.
Ana Avila: Let's get together and have some fun. So I went, and I was completely shaken by the truth of the gospel. I knew a lot of the things they were talking about because I just grew up around it. I knew my Bible well, at least I thought I did. But, on that youth camp, I remember being struck by the realization that I was a sinner. That even though I was a good kid, I got good grades. I was a model child academically. I was full of pride, full of desire to please, full of the fear of men, and that I needed to repent and to trust Jesus. And I did. And I started following the Lord. And on my own. My family continued not to go to church, my. My parents and my two sisters. So I went on my own. I remember my long walks to the church because I walked there, praying and praising God with my music player and just praising him and being so in love with him. And at the same time, I remember I was a little bit lost on how to develop what people called a relationship with God. Like your quiet time, your devotional time. I heard about people talking about how God spoke to them and how they were feeling so close to God and how they prayed for an hour. And I wasn't able to have those experiences. And when I tried to read my Bible on my own, I felt so lost, so confused. I wasn't sure if I was doing it right. So it kind of became easier to just listen to what people were saying and sort of imitate the language and try to, in the best way I could, fake a relationship with God. At least that's what it felt like. Because I, in my private life, didn't have that engagement with scripture or prayer. I just felt lost. And when I tried to pray, I felt awkward. so the better thing to do at that point would have been go to my pastor, to a trusted friend, and say, hey, I'm a bit lost in this devotional quiet time practice. I don't know how to do this. Could you please help me or tell me if I'm doing it right? I just feel confused. I just feel like I'm not engaging well with the Word or in prayer. But I didn't. I was embarrassed. I just shut up, shut up. And continued to go to church and learn through preaching and through participating, participating in youth group and all those things which were great. But in my personal engagement with the Word and prayer I just felt so lost. So eventually I got to reading and learning and. And I came out on the other side. But I. I remember that Ana from those days, and I feel compassion for her and a little bit of a. I want to tug her ear and say, like, hey, you should. You should be talking about us with somebody, because this is important. so I kind of wrote the book for her just to remind people that are experiencing what I experienced. how beautiful of a gift we have in Jesus to be in relation, in perfect relationship with God. And now we get to cultivate that relationship through daily practices, through. In our quiet times.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Ana, I'm so grateful for your transparency and sharing. I know there are a lot of people listening who are thinking, yes, that's me. I have experienced that. I am experiencing that. When you become a believer, I mean, maybe there's people who have been Christians for a really long time, but still feel like they haven't got their. Their arms around this. Or maybe there's new Christians who think, yeah, I'm trying to do all of these things. You know, Ana, it reminds me, not too long ago, I was talking to someone who did not grow up in church, who came to know the Lord later in life, and she was telling me, she goes, what is this word devo? Like, what does that even mean? And I was trying to explain to her devotional. She goes, so it's like short, insider slang language. Like, I don't like that. Like, I don't. I don't feel like I know what that means. And I think sometimes, you know, when we grow up and, just, like, what you were talking about just kind of do all the right things, like, oh, check the box. Like, this is what you're supposed to do. And. And even, back in the. When I talked about this as a habit, I talked about how devotionals can be good, but you still have to make sure they're theologically sound. It doesn't replace reading God's word, spending time with the Lord. But that feels so. Like, just. It just feels so vague, I think, sometimes just thinking, okay, well, what does that mean? What is that relationship piece? So how are you. How are you redefining devotion? That's the title of your book as Life In Devotion. And we're not talking about a little one page in a book that you turn every day or on an app. You're presenting a, totally different framework. What is that?
Ana Avila: Yes, I. I like to clarify from the beginning of the book, when we talk about devotion, it is about a, life completely Dedicated to God, to loving him and being loved by him, to glorify him and enjoy him forever. That's our purpose. That's a life in devotion. And that, of course, can and should happen in every sphere of life, at every moment. Right now in our hearts, we are hopefully living lives in devotion. We are just thinking about how glorious God is and through this conversation, sharing that glory with others. we can do that while we're teaching our children or washing dishes, or just at the end of the day while we're in bed, just tired from the. The work day. And we can say, God, thank you, because you're good and you've been with me. That is devotion. Just. Just a life fully engaged with God and His glory and his love in every sphere. and it could look many different ways for many different people. Now, devotionals are those moments where we stop and we focus on more. More m. More precisely in reading our Bible and praying. And this is a practice we do to remind our souls that we must leave and we get to live in devotion. At every mom. there's a psalm where the psalmist says, and I know this in Spanish, so forgive me if I butcher it in English, but bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits, sus beneficios in Spanish. So I see the devotional as that moment where you stop and you tell your soul, bless the Lord. Remember, remember who he is. Remember what he has done. Remember where your eyesight should be. Your eyes on the eternal. Not filling yourself with worries and with the vanity of the world. Remember, remember. So the devotional is where we stop and we just remember and sort of calibrate our hearts and. And put our sight on things eternal. And then we go. And then we continue to live in devotion, in our work, in our studies and our ministry with people from church and are cleaning our house or whatever we are doing, we're doing it as to the Lord. So that's the difference between devotion and devotional.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You explain that so well. And I think everybody can really understand the concept of devotional. Like, that's a checklist. That's something to do. And in our culture, we're so performance driven and outcomes metric measured, you know, centered. We think about those kinds of things. That's easy to do, but it's in that transition from the devotional to the life of devotion, I. I think that's where the disconnect is, Ana where people just take their devotional book and they think, oh, okay, done, put that down.
Ana Avila: Or.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Or you know, open the app for the next day and I'll get the streak. Because, you know, I, I've opened the app every single day and they fail to. We fail. I know. I, I did this. I struggled with this early in my faith. My faith was so performance based and I thought it was so fear based, just like you said. I lived in the fear of man thinking, okay, I got to do all the right things and, and be the Christian and do all of these things. But it's so much more about relationship. Ana I have a lot more questions for you. We're coming up on our first break, but we are just getting started. And we'll talk about why that is. What is that disconnect? Why do we want to do it? We want that, but we just don't do it. And we'll talk about how families can shift their mindset from seeing time with God as an obligation to seeing it as an invitation to relationship. It is a powerful reframe and a powerful reminder that devotion is not about achieving spiritual perfection. It's about drawing near to God, who already desires relationship for us. And the problem is not that we don't love God. It's just that we need to slow down enough to recognize his presence in the middle of everyday life. So as I said, when we'll come back, we'll talk more about scripture and prayer and how they're more than routines and become the foundation for knowing God deeply. We'll be right back with more from Ana Avila.
Everyday Preborn Network Clinics helps mothers facing unexpected pregnancies discover hope
This year, America celebrates its 250th birthday. Two and a half centuries of courage, innovation, faith, and freedom. But what will the next 250 years hold? The next generation could hold the next Billy Graham. The next Rosa Parks, the next Ronald Reagan. The next child whose life will impact generations. But first, they must be given the chance to live it. I couldn't imagine my life without him because of them. he's here. We're gonna get through it and it's gonna be okay.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Everyday PreBorn Network Clinics helps mothers facing unexpected pregnancies discover hope through a free ultrasound. When a mother sees her baby and hears that tiny heartbeat, her baby is twice as likely to be given the gift of life. What story will God write through America's Next Generation? In honor of America's 250th anniversary, we're asking friends to consider a special gift of $250. Your gift can help provide nearly nine life saving ultrasounds. Dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound 250 baby or donate securely at preborn.com/AFR. that's preborn.com/AFR Every gift is tax- deductible.
God Is in This Story by Big Daddy Weave and Katy Nichole: There's torn up pages in this book. Words that tell me I'm no good Chapters that define me for so long but the hands of grace and endless love dust it all picked me up Told my heart that hope is never gone God is in this story. God is in the details Even in the broken parts he holds my heart he never fails When I'm at my weakest I will trust in Jesus always and the high knows the one goes before God is in this story.
Ana Avila talks about cultivating a deeper relationship with God
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back friends. that is God is in this Story by Big Daddy Weave and Katy Nichole. And guess what? God is in your story. No matter what you're facing, no matter what you're going through, God is in your story. He is in the details. He knows, he sees, he cares. And he invites you to run to him, to abide in Him. He wants to be in relationship. And my guest today, Ana Avila, she is here to talk to us about that very thing. She's the author of a book called Life in Devotion. Cultivating a deeper relationship with God in the everyday. And in a world where we live, where we're looking for the big moments, the kind of red carpet moments, the headliner things and we're looking for instant fixes and instant gratifications and instant transformations and made for TV movie endings. God is in the ordinary and the every day details of your life. And that's where, that's where transformation is going to happen. And so if you are looking for a breakthrough, look no further than this. An invitation to a deeper relationship with God. And Ana we're going to talk about exactly how that happens. You laid out so beautifully the difference between a devotional and a life in devotion. And I was just saying that I think there's a disconnect between those two. We, we get the devotion. We can do that, we can check the box. Why is it that so many people, why do we have such a hard time living our life in devotion and stepping into that relationship with the Lord?
Ana Avila: One of the reason, maybe, maybe the biggest one and most certainly the most dangerous one is that we forget the gospel. We don't know the gospel. We just go into Christian life and we maybe we live we, we feel Christianity is sort of get better program or a, ah, personal development program you, you, you engage in and we go to church because it's good and because we read the Bible because We need to read the Bible and, and what's God. God is going to tell me and how I'm gonna practice, these values that I say I hold today. And we pray because we need God's help. So we check all those off and we get on with our lives, hoping that the thing we did in the morning, strengthening us and threatening us to do whatever we are trying to do with our lives, but that's not the story of God and the gospel. God created a world for his glory, and we are part of that story. And he invited us into relationship with him through Jesus. but through Jesus, we already have that relationship. We don't need to get to a certain level through all these practices to become something worthy of God to love. He decided to love us. And in Jesus, he opened the way for us to already have a perfect relationship with Him. So when we forget that, we try to, get God's love through our checking of boxes, and we focus on that. And we feel that through that God is going to love us or through that God is going to bless us instead of remembering that in Jesus we already have a perfect relationship with God and there's nothing we can add to that, to that, or subtract to that. and we need to remember that when we engage in devotional practices that this is not something we need to get done to be loved by God, but this is something we get to do because God loves us and he invites us to know him better and to be reminded of all the good he has done in our lives. So we forget the Gospel. Gospel. That's one of the things it's very important to remember. because we also talk about devotionals as do you have a relationship with God? We ask that question and we mean like, do you read your Bible and pray? That's what we mean. But our relationship with God is so much more than that. And it's not something we get through our effort. It's something that we're given by grace through faith in Jesus. So when somebody asked me, do you have a relationship with God? Yes, I do. Not because I read my Bible this morning, but because Jesus died cross for me and he gave me eternal life. So that's one. And the other thing is that we kind of forget God as a person. if we did the things we do regarding our relationship with God, with our relationship with our husbands, for example, would be very weird. Like, okay, I said good morning to my husband today. Check. Oh, I fixed him a cup of coffee today. Check. So I'm a great wife because I have my list of things I did for my husband today or I did with my husband. Like, okay, it's time to just sit down, down and have a conversation. Okay, time's up. see ya. Bye. That's weird. Nobody has a relationship with so. And it does. That does not mean that you cannot use calendars or checklists or tools to cultivate a relationship with your husband. For example, I love to use the example of imagine, your life and devotion as your marriage. And your devotional is your wedding, your date night. You want to do it, like, consistently. You want to have a practice of having these, times you set aside and you put it on your calendar and you have a reminder, and maybe you don't feel like doing it sometime, but it's like, oh, let's do it. Let's just try to have some fun. And you have some structure and some, tools that help you with those date nights. But you understand that your marriage is not a date night. And if you miss a date night, it's not like you're not married anymore or. See what I'm saying? Something like that. We forget God is a person, and we reduce our relationship with him to checklists. And it doesn't matter. Doesn't mean that checklists are bad. but those are not what exhaust our relationship with Him.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, if people are really listening closely to what you're saying, Ana you are delivering some really tough truths. But it is so true.
Ana says we have a perfect relationship with Jesus because Jesus is perfect
And I'm really struck especially by the first thing that you said when you were talking about, we have a perfect relationship with Jesus, because Jesus is perfect. And yet, I think in this world of social media, of highlighted, curated reels, even. Even people's devotionals look perfect. I mean, you can scroll through social media and you see, like, oh, there's an open window by the beach, and, a Bible that's laying open, that's perfectly marked and highlighted, and a steaming cup of coffee right next to it with fresh flowers. And this is where I sit down every day. I am. I have the perfect place and the perfect Bible and the perfect routine. Be with the Lord. And it's like we are trying to bring the perfect to that relationship. And that is wrong, Ana and you have called that out really, really well. It is Jesus who is perfect, not us. And I think that's really important. And the second thing you said about, you know, God being a person and giving that analogy, like, it's a spousal relationship. You are so. Right. That is what it is. I, I love the, the thought about the devotional being your date night. Yeah, that's the structured thing. But there's all the million interactions in between and things that, you know, I've talked about here on, on this program, Ana is the role that God's word plays in this. And I find that a lot of people who read a devotional, they kind of skip past the scripture. It's like there's a scripture at the top or it's scripture light or there's a scripture at the bottom. And it doesn't mean it's bad, but it's not the same as reading God's word. And so tell us what you have found. The role that God's word is in playing and shaping our hearts and our decisions and even the atmosphere within our homes.
Ana Avila: I think we, since we have so much access to the Bible, we forget how extraordinary it is that we have the word of God in our language available to us at any moment in time. I have my phone here with a thousand versions. I have a Bible here, I have another here and two back there. I have a million Bibles around me and that's normal for us now. But people had to die for us to be able to have these access to the word of God. That always sobers me. reading church history and remembering how people literally had to die so I could have my Bible. And I'm just like eh, I might read it today or not. That's one thing. The other thing is God revealed himself to us in Jesus primarily. But that revelation is contained in a book. the fact that God, the God of the universe wants us to know him and to be on the inside of what he's doing with us and the world. Again, we take that so much for granted. I'm going to use an example that may be silly or my offend some of your audience. I'm sorry but Taylor Swift just got married. People are going insane for details on the dress on. They just want in on something about a woman who doesn't know they exist, about a singer and I mean they're amazing. Yeah, but why are we so obsessed with details to be on the inside of those persons lives and the God of the universe is willing to speak to you to, to reveal his heart to you, to be, to, to, for you to see how he's working in the world and in your life and you're like yeah, maybe. So those things I, we, we need to be confronted about to Be reminded of the honor that is to have God's Word. so that's one thing. On the other side, I can be compassionate to some people. Some people just, they feel the weight of it and they go to the other extreme. They're the people who are like, ah, yeah, maybe I read my Bible or not. They wouldn't never say it like that. But when you engage with a devotional book and you skip the Bible, you're saying that, and there's the other extreme of this is the word of God that I'm so afraid I don't get it. I'm gonna get it wrong. I need somebody to explain it to me. So I rather just read the devotional, I.e. the verse explained, or the commentaries on my Bible. It's easier. I'm just, I just feel lost and overwhelmed and I feel compassion for those people. It's good to be, to be aware of how limited we are understanding. But we need to remind ourselves that the spirit of God is within us, us, that God is with us. As we read His Word, he. And in James, he tells us that if you lack wisdom, just ask for it. And you keep coming back to the word. don't shy away from it because you are overwhelmed or you're afraid. Come back to it. there's one of my favorites in Psalm 119 that it says, again, I'm going to butcher it in English, but in Spanish. Abre misojos y mirarelas maravillas e to le open my eyes so I may see the wonders of your Word. Open my eyes so God can open our eyes, our spiritual eyes, to the wonders of His Word. But we need to put our physical eyes on the words for that to happen. It's not going to be just like he's going to suddenly open our eyes and then we're going to feel like going to the Bible. We need to go to the Bible and pray for God to open our eyes. And he will. He will. He promises he will. So I see those two extremes. The ones who dismiss the Bible and forget how amazing it is that we have it, and others who are so aware of how heavy it is that we have it, that feel, overwhelmed. So to those I say, remember, God is with you and he wants you to get it. So be faithful. And God is faithful too. So just keep coming to the word.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Ana, I'm telling you, I am really personally convicted by what you're saying because you're so right and in so many circumstances and, and either one of Those circumstances that you described, either the people who think, okay, yeah, yeah, that's good. just give me the little devotional, I want the gospel light or the people who are thinking, okay, this scares me a lot. I mean, both of those things are very real. I think we either have seen those, we have been those. That is very relatable, but both of them remain stuck where they are because they don't put their intention forward to figure out a way around that. You know, one is, maybe a lack of conviction. The other is a, a lack of just, you know, of commitment and saying, okay, all right, I'm going to figure this out. Because, yeah, you know, you're right. It is, it is a fair assessment. When we look at the hunger for the public about little details about a wedding, if someone, they don't even know, they find out ways and they're following news updates and what is this person doing? We don't follow God's work like that. We're not following, okay, what is God doing in our community? What does he have to say? I'm so eager. I want to hear what he has. Hear me today. I want to hear every detail. We don't have that, that intention. And I think that's just where we've got to put our money, where our mouth is. And we can say, oh, yes, my faith is so important to me. But if you look at your credit card, if you look at your calendar, those are your accountability partners saying, you got to put your time and effort and intention in that way. There you, you brought up something really important, Ana I mean, we live in a world where we have Bibles everywhere. We also have Bible study tools everywhere. We have access to more information, know how to study the Bible. We also always have the Holy Spirit indwelling with us who will help us with that. And I can't believe we're already coming up on our second break here.
Living a life of devotion is not pretending perfection
But when we come back, Ana I want to talk a little bit about this in homes with families and parents, because I know there are a lot of parents who are really well intentioned and I would put myself in that category. I'm a really well intentioned parent. But sometimes it can be easier just to go to those rote religious activities. And when our kids are doing all the right things, when they're reading the devotional, not living the life in devotion necessarily, when they're going to church or they're playing them right music or they're saying the right words, then we get that immediate feedback like, okay, all right. Our spiritual training must be good because I see all of the outward indicators, and you're looking for gratification of your parenting instead of sanctification of your child. And that is. That's a really tough place to be. But you're so right in reminding us that living a life of devotion is not pretending that everything's perfect. True devotion really comes from an honesty before the Lord, coming before God, exactly as we are broken and sinful, but in need of grace that is given to us by a savior. And our children don't need parents who perform perfection either. They need parents who demonstrate daily dependence on God. And that can be harder to do. And so, coming up, we'll talk a little bit about families. We'll also talk about what devotion looks like in the tough seasons of life. How do you do it, even when it's difficult? Ana Avila Life, In devotion. Cultivating a deeper relationship with God in the everyday.
Don Wildmon started a movement to stand for truth in a hostile culture
More on the other side of this break. During the Christmas season of 1976, I sat down one night to watch television.
: One man saw the battle coming. If we lose this cultural war, we're going to have a hedonistic, humanistic society. And he chose to stand and fight. If you will not respect our beliefs, then you will respect our money, and we'll spend it with somebody else. Reverend Wildmon. Reverend Wildmon. The Reverend Donald Wildmon.
: M Discover the story of the culture warrior Don Wildmon and the and how he went head to head with Hollywood playboy, the homosexual agenda, and the Disney empire. Things were changing, and many people just sort of acclimated to it. And Don Wildmon didn't. They thought, I think, that they could just crush him. The movement Don started paved the way for Christians to boldly stand for truth and righteousness in a hostile culture. Watch Culture Warrior today for free visit culturewarrior.movie For my waking
Abide by Aaron Williams and Dwell Songs: breath, for my daily bread. I depend on you. I depend on, you. For the sun you rise. For my sleep at night. I depend on you. Yes, I depend on you. You're the way, the truth and the Life You're the world and never runs dry. I'm the branch and you are the vine Draw me close and teach me to abide
Dr. Jessica Peck: welcome back friends. That is abide by Aaron Williams and Dwell songs. And that's exactly what we're talking about. We're talking about abiding in Christ by living a, life of devotion, not just just checking off the box to do a devotional every day. Although that is a wonderful habit, and I definitely recommend it. Talked about it earlier in the year, one of the Friday shows, early in our family rhythms. But today we're talking about living a life in devotion. And as I listen to that song, I think about the playlist that I have. And really that has been one of the instrumental, no pun intended. Things in my life is intentionally cultivating playlists of songs that the lyrics are scripture and playing those over a season. So if you're feeling defeated, make yourself a victory playlist that uses songs that give you scriptures about victory. Music is really powerful. God has created it to be that way. That's why we have earworms, which is such a squirmy term for a reality about how music resonates in our head and our heart. And we've talked about the power of God's word and reading God's word, Not just the devotional, but actually reading God's word. I'm talking today to Ana Avila, who is the author of Life in Devotion, Cultivating a Deeper Relationship with God in the Everyday. And Ana before the break, we were talking about just all of these elements.
Our families cultivate relationship with a living God through Bible devotionals
And I told you I was going to ask you about families and how it's so tempting for families to go for this rigorous checklist of spiritual activities rather than helping our. Our families cultivate relationship with a living God. How do we have all of those disciplines but also communicate that relationship is the goal?
Ana Avila: Well, for me, it's helpful to find anchors in the day where I can fit the structure part of the life and devotion which we are calling devotionals. For example, with our children, we use breakfast to do our Bible reading and family prayer. And at night, my husband takes care of the kids personal reading time and have conversations with him and pray for with them before bed. So finding those moments that always happen as a family, you always have breakfast or you always go to bed, or maybe you have other rhythms that you can anchor the Bible and prayer to. That is very helpful. just reading straight through the Bible, I'm a big fan of that. I know that there's a ton of resources. but getting our kids used to just engaging directly with the word of God without an aid, I think that's very, very important. So we just read through a book of the Bible, we read aloud, and then we chat a little bit about it, and then we pray. It's very simple. It doesn't have to be complicated. But they are exposed to the Word. They're practicing pray, in the morning and a night for us at home, and then during the day practicing our life in devotion can be as easy as when our kid gets hurt or he's sad because my kid was crying because Mexico lost in the World Cup.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Yes, that was sad.
Ana Avila: I'm sorry. He was very upset. So we take those moments and we remind ourselves of truths about God and who he is and how's with us. and it doesn't have to be like, that dramatic. Or it could be something like he had a fight with a friend and just reminding ourselves that, yeah, maybe our friends can be mean to us sometimes, but God is always our good friend and we can go to him when we feel sad and lonely. or when I'm reading in my, living room and he comes over and he's like, what you're reading, Mom? And I share with him a little bit about what I'm doing or when he's grumpy with the chores. I'm like, remember, Remember, the Bible tells us we, we should do this unto the Lord. He's here with us. He. He can. He delights in our obedience, in our faithfulness. So let's remember that. And we play some music or something, that. That uplifts us and in our work to the Lord, so those things don't have to be complicated. We like to complicate things and, and just we try to find a perfect formula or something that gives us results immediately. But just being immersed in this. This atmosphere of praising God and remembering continuously he's with us and rejoicing in him. That. That is so brave for kids.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, I've written before about how I'm convinced that it is the ordinary that God uses for the extraordinary. It's the mundane that becomes miraculous. In the legacy of our homes and our marriages, in our children and our parenting, our grandparenting and our relationships. I believe it's just those daily interactions, those very regular things, the conversations that happen every day, the way that you conduct yourself when no one's watching, the integrity that you have in your home. Those are the things that God uses to disciple us and to cement our legacy as Christ followers. And, and what you're describing is really just demonstrating and displaying a very authentic faith. And you can't do that unless you have it yourself. And I, I find that, parents today, we're so tempted to try to control our kids, and we're so focused on them and, oh, we don't want them to walk away from the faith and make sure they're going to church and they're reading their Bible. We don't Often nurture our own faith. And that's where that comes and it just spills over. You just described it so perfectly, Ana you're just reading something on the couch, and your son comes up and says, what are you reading? Oh, I'm, you know, struggling with this. I'm reading this. This is how I chose this author. I'm reading God's Word. This is how it's nourishing me. Those things are just very authentic. And I think sometimes, sometimes that can be really hard to do. When life feels hard, maybe it just feels too busy. Maybe it feels too heavy. Maybe it just feels too overwhelming, too discouraging. You, you may have experienced trauma or trial, tragedy, pain, whatever it is. How do we live a life of devotional when it feels like maybe God is far away way.
Ana Avila: Yeah, that is a very real thing. And I, I say in the book that a life and devotion that can be sustained and tribulation or suffering, it's not a life and devotion at all. sometimes we can, if we're faking it, if we are just checking things off lists when we are doing great, well, things are great and we feel great. But when everything falls apart and we cannot. We cannot find the way to remind our souls who God is and what he has done, I think that says something about, how good our cultivating this relationship with God was when we. When times were good.
Ana says we should think about devotionals as nourishment for our spiritual life
so I like to also think about devotionals as meals, as nourishment for our spiritual life in general. and in life, we have different m. Types of meals we engage in. In. In the States. For example, I know that your big, meal is your dinner. That's the most important meal for you guys. For us, no, we. With dinner, we have breakfast. We have eggs or something. We, for us is lunch. The big meat and tacos and something very, nourishing. So, so we sometimes have light meals. We sometimes have heavy meals. We sometimes are running late and we have just a snack. So we need to think about our devotionals in that way. Sometimes you mentioned before, like, we have the Bible and the flowers and the cup of coffee and the raining outside, and it's beautiful. And that's amazing. If we can have some of those, that's great. but sometimes we can just put on an audio Bible while we are just. Just scrambling, through traffic or something. Or maybe we're ill and we cannot even put ourselves straight in bed, so we have somebody read the Bible to us. Or we just have a short prayer from a psalm and we're just repeating that in our minds or we don't have the. The. We have. We don't have any energy to even think about praying ourselves. So we open the Bible and we pick a psalm that. That, that expresses that suffering, that pain, and we just write it down while we are thinking about this and just offering it to God as our own prayer, because he left us all those psalms for a reason, to make them our own. So we can find different ways to engage with the Word and in prayer in different situations in life, including the times when we are suffering, when we're exhau. Exhausted. I think, for example, when a newborn comes and life is crazy, and the first thing that happens sometimes. And I always tell expectant moms, like my piece of advice, number one, delete Instagram. Because if you don't do that when that kid comes, you'll be scrolling 18 hours a day. Because that baby all at once is to be fed and to be held. And you can scroll while doing that. So be careful. Careful of that. But instead, if you play your Bible while you're rocking your. Your child or your prayer, short prayers in the middle of the nighttime feedings, those can be good ways to engage with the Word and in prayer, even when times are chaotic.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Ana I, love. I love that. And I feel like, you know, as a. As a native Texan, I'm close enough to Mexico to say, hey, I would eat tacos every single meal. My family makes fun of me all the time because I'm like, okay, what do you want for breakfast? Well, breakfast tac, of course.
Ana Avila: And you probably can find better tacos there than in Guatemala. I'm missing my Mexican tacos. I am a bit envious.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, now you're making me hungry, and I feel like we have to get together for lunch. You'll have to come over on my porch, we'll have a big lunch, and there'll be lots of tacos.
Ana Avila: That'll be amazing.
Dr. Jessica Peck: But I. I love that, Ana I, love that analogy, though, because sometimes, you know, we feel guilty about, like, maybe something short that we have, but instead of saying, okay, I don't have time for a big Bible study today, but I got time for a peanut butter and jelly sandw. Got a time for. For, you know, a. A quick little, you know, taco, like, I get at Ah Buc EE's. I love their tacos. Okay, I can't get off the tacos now, but that is something that I can relate to. And I think, okay, all Right. I can have that kind of on the go taco that comes in foil, and I eat as I'm driving down the road. If you, if you know, you know, if you, if you know BUC EE's, you know BUC EE's. But that is, that is really an encouraging mindset to have, Ana
How should we view God's grace in a way that leads us into devotion?
And one of the, things that you have written about in your book and talked about and is how you view God's grace. And, and you've talked about it a little bit as we've gone along and talked about Jesus being perfect and really recognizing and realizing the power of the gospel instead of just being so immune to it, so indifferent, so apathetic, or so scared of it even. How should we, how should we redirect our understanding of God's grace in a way that it calls us and leads us into a life of devotion?
Ana Avila: Yes. This can be tricky for some people, because for some people, they hear God is your father. And that is, oh, wait, God is my father. He loves me. He wants what's good for me. He's in my favor. Even when I messed up, he's not there. Like, m. I knew you would screw it up. I knew you would be terrible. Like, I, I don't know if I'm gonna love you today or whatever. because their parents were loving parents and they can relate to this. Unconditional love, surrenders, that never gives up, that always seeks for what's good for you. But a lot of us haven't had those kind of parents. Maybe they listen to the fact that God is our parent and they hear that voice, that accusation of like, oh, you messed up again. Oh, you are good for nothing. Oh, you are so dumb. so I, I feel compassion for people when they see God in that way. But that's why we need the Bible. Because God needs to correct view of what a good father is, of how he is for us. Nothing can separate us from his love. He wants what's best for us. He's not there in the sky waiting up for us to mess up. He's near, closer than we realize. They're just helping us, consoling us, guiding us. so we need to redefine the way we see God as our good, good father. a true good father, not a good father when you're good. A good father, he is good. and, and, and of course, we want to honor that good father. And it's okay to feel sad and ashamed when we sin and when we, dismiss his love and we seek the things of the world. But we can always come back to him because he's our good father. He is good in himself, not because of what we do. So rewiring our understanding for us. For some people it's going to be so easy because again, they had good parental figures or maybe they saw a parent, of one of his friends. Be a good father and you can sort of see that picture and try to reframe your relationship with God. For others, it'll be more difficult, but we need to do that because the dad, the devil, he's so happy with you checking all those boxes in condemnation or feeling so prideful of yourself because you read your Bible and you prayed and you feel so good. And the devil is like, hahaha, I mean you are, you're full of pride, you're saying. And you're not rejoicing in the love of God, really, you're rejoicing and your checklist done. And whenever bad times come, you're gonna be so weak and I'm gonna do whatever I want with you. But on the other hand, the, the sinner who understands that it falls short, he, I mean the devil is struggling against that.
Dr. Jessica Peck: We're out of time. All I can say is, but God and I encourage you to live a life of devotion. As you do, I pray the Lord will bless you and keep you. I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
Preborn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion
We'd like to thank our sponsors including PreBorn. PreBorn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion. And every day their network clinics rescue 200 babies lives. Will you join PreBorn in loving and supporting young moms in crisis? Save a life today. Go to preborn.com/AFR the views and
Jeff Chamblee: opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
American Family Radio thanks sponsor, Preborn for supporting pro life advocacy
Dr. Jessica Peck: We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound 250 and say the keyword BABY or visit preborn.com/AFR hello
: and welcome to the Dr. Nurse Mama show, prescribing Hope for Healthy Families here on American Family Radio. Here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner, and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, hey there, friends, and welcome to my favorite time of day, getting to spend time with you, prescribing Hope for Healthy Families. And we're going to talk about something that's really, really hopeful and encouraging. Today we're going to go back to the basics of talking about rediscovering the joy of a daily relationship with God. Now, if you've been following along since January, you know, every Friday we have habits for healthy families. And in January, we start with four core spiritual disciplines. We talk about prayer, reading your Bible, going to church, and being really intentional about the music that you listen to and worshiping God through song. And those are so much the important things. And, and so everybody wants the life hack and the secret and the magic trick and all of those things, but there is no, nothing that's going to replace those daily disciplines. And we live in a culture that is full of distractions, of hurry, of noise, of endless demands on our attention. And during that, it's hard to dedicate ourselves to the, those spiritual, disciplines. And in the same, at the same time, families are searching for deeper connection, not just with each other, but with God. They want to be Christian. Families want to be closer to God, but we just have things often that get in the way. Now, this conversation today is going to explore how spiritual devotion is not just another task on an already crowded checklist. It's not an app notification. It is not something that you just need to do to get your gold star for the day. It's an invitation into a lifelong relationship with your creator. And so thinking about your phones, competing for your attention, notifications, competing for your thoughts, your calendars, all those things that is really, really hard. And for generations, Christians have talked about having a quiet time with God. We talk about that, which I'm a mom of four, I feel like we've talked about before, the term quiet time. Can we all agree that for a lot of people, a lot of especially busy mom, that's not going to be really the ideal. But setting aside moments for Bible reading and prayer is really important. And we are going to talk about what does it look like to live on devotion as a, as a way of living, not just something that we do. One of our habits early on in the six rhythms that we talked about after the four core spiritual disciplines was a daily devotion. It's a great rhythm to have, but it's not sufficient. And so today we're going to talk about how families can cultivate deeper spiritual rhythms. Not through perfection, not performance. This is no pressure here. It's just an invitation to grace and consistency.
Ana Avila is author of Life in Devotion
My guest today is Ana Avila. She is author of this book right here, Life in Devotion, Cultivating a Deeper Relationship with God in the Everyday. Ana lives in Guatemala City with her husband who is a pastor and a church planter, and their children. She pre previously served as a writer and editor for the Gospel Coalition Spanish Language Ministry. She did that for nearly a decade. And she has a passion for helping believers understand that spiritual growth is not reserved just for pastors or theologians or people who seem to have it all together. It's an invitation for, for every follower of Christ. And this newest book addresses a really common but often unspoken struggle. I say unspoken and yet people do speak to, of it to each other, but not very widely. We want a deeper relationship with God, but we're just not sure how to get there. And Ana is here to help us do that. Ana, welcome to the program. I'm so grateful for your time and your heart behind what you're going to share with us today.
Ana Avila: Thank you for having me. I'm so happy to be here.
Ana writes about how she came to know Jesus through a youth camp
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, Ana let's just talk a little bit about you. I would love for you to introduce yourself to our listeners, tell them a little bit about who you are, where you came from, how you came to know the Lord and how he put this message on your heart to deliver to us today.
Ana Avila: Of course. Well, I grew up in a church going family, since I was very little, I remember going to church on Sunday and memorizing Bible verses and knowing all the answers to Christian trivia and all that kind of stuff. I just loved it. but my, my parents eventually stopped going to church and I was around 12 so I stopped going to church too. And fortunately I remained friends with some people, some kids from church and back in the days of messenger, one of my friends, well, she sent me a Message. And she was, we have a youth camp. Do you want to come? And I was like, sure. I have no friends.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Let's.
Ana Avila: Let's get together and have some fun. So I went, and I was completely shaken by the truth of the gospel. I knew a lot of the things they were talking about because I just grew up around it. I knew my Bible well, at least I thought I did. But, on that youth camp, I remember being struck by the realization that I was a sinner. That even though I was a good kid, I got good grades. I was a model child academically. I was full of pride, full of desire to please, full of the fear of men, and that I needed to repent and to trust Jesus. And I did. And I started following the Lord. And on my own. My family continued not to go to church, my. My parents and my two sisters. So I went on my own. I remember my long walks to the church because I walked there, praying and praising God with my music player and just praising him and being so in love with him. And at the same time, I remember I was a little bit lost on how to develop what people called a relationship with God. Like your quiet time, your devotional time. I heard about people talking about how God spoke to them and how they were feeling so close to God and how they prayed for an hour. And I wasn't able to have those experiences. And when I tried to read my Bible on my own, I felt so lost, so confused. I wasn't sure if I was doing it right. So it kind of became easier to just listen to what people were saying and sort of imitate the language and try to, in the best way I could, fake a relationship with God. At least that's what it felt like. Because I, in my private life, didn't have that engagement with scripture or prayer. I just felt lost. And when I tried to pray, I felt awkward. so the better thing to do at that point would have been go to my pastor, to a trusted friend, and say, hey, I'm a bit lost in this devotional quiet time practice. I don't know how to do this. Could you please help me or tell me if I'm doing it right? I just feel confused. I just feel like I'm not engaging well with the Word or in prayer. But I didn't. I was embarrassed. I just shut up, shut up. And continued to go to church and learn through preaching and through participating, participating in youth group and all those things which were great. But in my personal engagement with the Word and prayer I just felt so lost. So eventually I got to reading and learning and. And I came out on the other side. But I. I remember that Ana from those days, and I feel compassion for her and a little bit of a. I want to tug her ear and say, like, hey, you should. You should be talking about us with somebody, because this is important. so I kind of wrote the book for her just to remind people that are experiencing what I experienced. how beautiful of a gift we have in Jesus to be in relation, in perfect relationship with God. And now we get to cultivate that relationship through daily practices, through. In our quiet times.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Ana, I'm so grateful for your transparency and sharing. I know there are a lot of people listening who are thinking, yes, that's me. I have experienced that. I am experiencing that. When you become a believer, I mean, maybe there's people who have been Christians for a really long time, but still feel like they haven't got their. Their arms around this. Or maybe there's new Christians who think, yeah, I'm trying to do all of these things. You know, Ana, it reminds me, not too long ago, I was talking to someone who did not grow up in church, who came to know the Lord later in life, and she was telling me, she goes, what is this word devo? Like, what does that even mean? And I was trying to explain to her devotional. She goes, so it's like short, insider slang language. Like, I don't like that. Like, I don't. I don't feel like I know what that means. And I think sometimes, you know, when we grow up and, just, like, what you were talking about just kind of do all the right things, like, oh, check the box. Like, this is what you're supposed to do. And. And even, back in the. When I talked about this as a habit, I talked about how devotionals can be good, but you still have to make sure they're theologically sound. It doesn't replace reading God's word, spending time with the Lord. But that feels so. Like, just. It just feels so vague, I think, sometimes just thinking, okay, well, what does that mean? What is that relationship piece? So how are you. How are you redefining devotion? That's the title of your book as Life In Devotion. And we're not talking about a little one page in a book that you turn every day or on an app. You're presenting a, totally different framework. What is that?
Ana Avila: Yes, I. I like to clarify from the beginning of the book, when we talk about devotion, it is about a, life completely Dedicated to God, to loving him and being loved by him, to glorify him and enjoy him forever. That's our purpose. That's a life in devotion. And that, of course, can and should happen in every sphere of life, at every moment. Right now in our hearts, we are hopefully living lives in devotion. We are just thinking about how glorious God is and through this conversation, sharing that glory with others. we can do that while we're teaching our children or washing dishes, or just at the end of the day while we're in bed, just tired from the. The work day. And we can say, God, thank you, because you're good and you've been with me. That is devotion. Just. Just a life fully engaged with God and His glory and his love in every sphere. and it could look many different ways for many different people. Now, devotionals are those moments where we stop and we focus on more. More m. More precisely in reading our Bible and praying. And this is a practice we do to remind our souls that we must leave and we get to live in devotion. At every mom. there's a psalm where the psalmist says, and I know this in Spanish, so forgive me if I butcher it in English, but bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits, sus beneficios in Spanish. So I see the devotional as that moment where you stop and you tell your soul, bless the Lord. Remember, remember who he is. Remember what he has done. Remember where your eyesight should be. Your eyes on the eternal. Not filling yourself with worries and with the vanity of the world. Remember, remember. So the devotional is where we stop and we just remember and sort of calibrate our hearts and. And put our sight on things eternal. And then we go. And then we continue to live in devotion, in our work, in our studies and our ministry with people from church and are cleaning our house or whatever we are doing, we're doing it as to the Lord. So that's the difference between devotion and devotional.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You explain that so well. And I think everybody can really understand the concept of devotional. Like, that's a checklist. That's something to do. And in our culture, we're so performance driven and outcomes metric measured, you know, centered. We think about those kinds of things. That's easy to do, but it's in that transition from the devotional to the life of devotion, I. I think that's where the disconnect is, Ana where people just take their devotional book and they think, oh, okay, done, put that down.
Ana Avila: Or.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Or you know, open the app for the next day and I'll get the streak. Because, you know, I, I've opened the app every single day and they fail to. We fail. I know. I, I did this. I struggled with this early in my faith. My faith was so performance based and I thought it was so fear based, just like you said. I lived in the fear of man thinking, okay, I got to do all the right things and, and be the Christian and do all of these things. But it's so much more about relationship. Ana I have a lot more questions for you. We're coming up on our first break, but we are just getting started. And we'll talk about why that is. What is that disconnect? Why do we want to do it? We want that, but we just don't do it. And we'll talk about how families can shift their mindset from seeing time with God as an obligation to seeing it as an invitation to relationship. It is a powerful reframe and a powerful reminder that devotion is not about achieving spiritual perfection. It's about drawing near to God, who already desires relationship for us. And the problem is not that we don't love God. It's just that we need to slow down enough to recognize his presence in the middle of everyday life. So as I said, when we'll come back, we'll talk more about scripture and prayer and how they're more than routines and become the foundation for knowing God deeply. We'll be right back with more from Ana Avila.
Everyday Preborn Network Clinics helps mothers facing unexpected pregnancies discover hope
This year, America celebrates its 250th birthday. Two and a half centuries of courage, innovation, faith, and freedom. But what will the next 250 years hold? The next generation could hold the next Billy Graham. The next Rosa Parks, the next Ronald Reagan. The next child whose life will impact generations. But first, they must be given the chance to live it. I couldn't imagine my life without him because of them. he's here. We're gonna get through it and it's gonna be okay.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Everyday PreBorn Network Clinics helps mothers facing unexpected pregnancies discover hope through a free ultrasound. When a mother sees her baby and hears that tiny heartbeat, her baby is twice as likely to be given the gift of life. What story will God write through America's Next Generation? In honor of America's 250th anniversary, we're asking friends to consider a special gift of $250. Your gift can help provide nearly nine life saving ultrasounds. Dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound 250 baby or donate securely at preborn.com/AFR. that's preborn.com/AFR Every gift is tax- deductible.
God Is in This Story by Big Daddy Weave and Katy Nichole: There's torn up pages in this book. Words that tell me I'm no good Chapters that define me for so long but the hands of grace and endless love dust it all picked me up Told my heart that hope is never gone God is in this story. God is in the details Even in the broken parts he holds my heart he never fails When I'm at my weakest I will trust in Jesus always and the high knows the one goes before God is in this story.
Ana Avila talks about cultivating a deeper relationship with God
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back friends. that is God is in this Story by Big Daddy Weave and Katy Nichole. And guess what? God is in your story. No matter what you're facing, no matter what you're going through, God is in your story. He is in the details. He knows, he sees, he cares. And he invites you to run to him, to abide in Him. He wants to be in relationship. And my guest today, Ana Avila, she is here to talk to us about that very thing. She's the author of a book called Life in Devotion. Cultivating a deeper relationship with God in the everyday. And in a world where we live, where we're looking for the big moments, the kind of red carpet moments, the headliner things and we're looking for instant fixes and instant gratifications and instant transformations and made for TV movie endings. God is in the ordinary and the every day details of your life. And that's where, that's where transformation is going to happen. And so if you are looking for a breakthrough, look no further than this. An invitation to a deeper relationship with God. And Ana we're going to talk about exactly how that happens. You laid out so beautifully the difference between a devotional and a life in devotion. And I was just saying that I think there's a disconnect between those two. We, we get the devotion. We can do that, we can check the box. Why is it that so many people, why do we have such a hard time living our life in devotion and stepping into that relationship with the Lord?
Ana Avila: One of the reason, maybe, maybe the biggest one and most certainly the most dangerous one is that we forget the gospel. We don't know the gospel. We just go into Christian life and we maybe we live we, we feel Christianity is sort of get better program or a, ah, personal development program you, you, you engage in and we go to church because it's good and because we read the Bible because We need to read the Bible and, and what's God. God is going to tell me and how I'm gonna practice, these values that I say I hold today. And we pray because we need God's help. So we check all those off and we get on with our lives, hoping that the thing we did in the morning, strengthening us and threatening us to do whatever we are trying to do with our lives, but that's not the story of God and the gospel. God created a world for his glory, and we are part of that story. And he invited us into relationship with him through Jesus. but through Jesus, we already have that relationship. We don't need to get to a certain level through all these practices to become something worthy of God to love. He decided to love us. And in Jesus, he opened the way for us to already have a perfect relationship with Him. So when we forget that, we try to, get God's love through our checking of boxes, and we focus on that. And we feel that through that God is going to love us or through that God is going to bless us instead of remembering that in Jesus we already have a perfect relationship with God and there's nothing we can add to that, to that, or subtract to that. and we need to remember that when we engage in devotional practices that this is not something we need to get done to be loved by God, but this is something we get to do because God loves us and he invites us to know him better and to be reminded of all the good he has done in our lives. So we forget the Gospel. Gospel. That's one of the things it's very important to remember. because we also talk about devotionals as do you have a relationship with God? We ask that question and we mean like, do you read your Bible and pray? That's what we mean. But our relationship with God is so much more than that. And it's not something we get through our effort. It's something that we're given by grace through faith in Jesus. So when somebody asked me, do you have a relationship with God? Yes, I do. Not because I read my Bible this morning, but because Jesus died cross for me and he gave me eternal life. So that's one. And the other thing is that we kind of forget God as a person. if we did the things we do regarding our relationship with God, with our relationship with our husbands, for example, would be very weird. Like, okay, I said good morning to my husband today. Check. Oh, I fixed him a cup of coffee today. Check. So I'm a great wife because I have my list of things I did for my husband today or I did with my husband. Like, okay, it's time to just sit down, down and have a conversation. Okay, time's up. see ya. Bye. That's weird. Nobody has a relationship with so. And it does. That does not mean that you cannot use calendars or checklists or tools to cultivate a relationship with your husband. For example, I love to use the example of imagine, your life and devotion as your marriage. And your devotional is your wedding, your date night. You want to do it, like, consistently. You want to have a practice of having these, times you set aside and you put it on your calendar and you have a reminder, and maybe you don't feel like doing it sometime, but it's like, oh, let's do it. Let's just try to have some fun. And you have some structure and some, tools that help you with those date nights. But you understand that your marriage is not a date night. And if you miss a date night, it's not like you're not married anymore or. See what I'm saying? Something like that. We forget God is a person, and we reduce our relationship with him to checklists. And it doesn't matter. Doesn't mean that checklists are bad. but those are not what exhaust our relationship with Him.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, if people are really listening closely to what you're saying, Ana you are delivering some really tough truths. But it is so true.
Ana says we have a perfect relationship with Jesus because Jesus is perfect
And I'm really struck especially by the first thing that you said when you were talking about, we have a perfect relationship with Jesus, because Jesus is perfect. And yet, I think in this world of social media, of highlighted, curated reels, even. Even people's devotionals look perfect. I mean, you can scroll through social media and you see, like, oh, there's an open window by the beach, and, a Bible that's laying open, that's perfectly marked and highlighted, and a steaming cup of coffee right next to it with fresh flowers. And this is where I sit down every day. I am. I have the perfect place and the perfect Bible and the perfect routine. Be with the Lord. And it's like we are trying to bring the perfect to that relationship. And that is wrong, Ana and you have called that out really, really well. It is Jesus who is perfect, not us. And I think that's really important. And the second thing you said about, you know, God being a person and giving that analogy, like, it's a spousal relationship. You are so. Right. That is what it is. I, I love the, the thought about the devotional being your date night. Yeah, that's the structured thing. But there's all the million interactions in between and things that, you know, I've talked about here on, on this program, Ana is the role that God's word plays in this. And I find that a lot of people who read a devotional, they kind of skip past the scripture. It's like there's a scripture at the top or it's scripture light or there's a scripture at the bottom. And it doesn't mean it's bad, but it's not the same as reading God's word. And so tell us what you have found. The role that God's word is in playing and shaping our hearts and our decisions and even the atmosphere within our homes.
Ana Avila: I think we, since we have so much access to the Bible, we forget how extraordinary it is that we have the word of God in our language available to us at any moment in time. I have my phone here with a thousand versions. I have a Bible here, I have another here and two back there. I have a million Bibles around me and that's normal for us now. But people had to die for us to be able to have these access to the word of God. That always sobers me. reading church history and remembering how people literally had to die so I could have my Bible. And I'm just like eh, I might read it today or not. That's one thing. The other thing is God revealed himself to us in Jesus primarily. But that revelation is contained in a book. the fact that God, the God of the universe wants us to know him and to be on the inside of what he's doing with us and the world. Again, we take that so much for granted. I'm going to use an example that may be silly or my offend some of your audience. I'm sorry but Taylor Swift just got married. People are going insane for details on the dress on. They just want in on something about a woman who doesn't know they exist, about a singer and I mean they're amazing. Yeah, but why are we so obsessed with details to be on the inside of those persons lives and the God of the universe is willing to speak to you to, to reveal his heart to you, to be, to, to, for you to see how he's working in the world and in your life and you're like yeah, maybe. So those things I, we, we need to be confronted about to Be reminded of the honor that is to have God's Word. so that's one thing. On the other side, I can be compassionate to some people. Some people just, they feel the weight of it and they go to the other extreme. They're the people who are like, ah, yeah, maybe I read my Bible or not. They wouldn't never say it like that. But when you engage with a devotional book and you skip the Bible, you're saying that, and there's the other extreme of this is the word of God that I'm so afraid I don't get it. I'm gonna get it wrong. I need somebody to explain it to me. So I rather just read the devotional, I.e. the verse explained, or the commentaries on my Bible. It's easier. I'm just, I just feel lost and overwhelmed and I feel compassion for those people. It's good to be, to be aware of how limited we are understanding. But we need to remind ourselves that the spirit of God is within us, us, that God is with us. As we read His Word, he. And in James, he tells us that if you lack wisdom, just ask for it. And you keep coming back to the word. don't shy away from it because you are overwhelmed or you're afraid. Come back to it. there's one of my favorites in Psalm 119 that it says, again, I'm going to butcher it in English, but in Spanish. Abre misojos y mirarelas maravillas e to le open my eyes so I may see the wonders of your Word. Open my eyes so God can open our eyes, our spiritual eyes, to the wonders of His Word. But we need to put our physical eyes on the words for that to happen. It's not going to be just like he's going to suddenly open our eyes and then we're going to feel like going to the Bible. We need to go to the Bible and pray for God to open our eyes. And he will. He will. He promises he will. So I see those two extremes. The ones who dismiss the Bible and forget how amazing it is that we have it, and others who are so aware of how heavy it is that we have it, that feel, overwhelmed. So to those I say, remember, God is with you and he wants you to get it. So be faithful. And God is faithful too. So just keep coming to the word.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Ana, I'm telling you, I am really personally convicted by what you're saying because you're so right and in so many circumstances and, and either one of Those circumstances that you described, either the people who think, okay, yeah, yeah, that's good. just give me the little devotional, I want the gospel light or the people who are thinking, okay, this scares me a lot. I mean, both of those things are very real. I think we either have seen those, we have been those. That is very relatable, but both of them remain stuck where they are because they don't put their intention forward to figure out a way around that. You know, one is, maybe a lack of conviction. The other is a, a lack of just, you know, of commitment and saying, okay, all right, I'm going to figure this out. Because, yeah, you know, you're right. It is, it is a fair assessment. When we look at the hunger for the public about little details about a wedding, if someone, they don't even know, they find out ways and they're following news updates and what is this person doing? We don't follow God's work like that. We're not following, okay, what is God doing in our community? What does he have to say? I'm so eager. I want to hear what he has. Hear me today. I want to hear every detail. We don't have that, that intention. And I think that's just where we've got to put our money, where our mouth is. And we can say, oh, yes, my faith is so important to me. But if you look at your credit card, if you look at your calendar, those are your accountability partners saying, you got to put your time and effort and intention in that way. There you, you brought up something really important, Ana I mean, we live in a world where we have Bibles everywhere. We also have Bible study tools everywhere. We have access to more information, know how to study the Bible. We also always have the Holy Spirit indwelling with us who will help us with that. And I can't believe we're already coming up on our second break here.
Living a life of devotion is not pretending perfection
But when we come back, Ana I want to talk a little bit about this in homes with families and parents, because I know there are a lot of parents who are really well intentioned and I would put myself in that category. I'm a really well intentioned parent. But sometimes it can be easier just to go to those rote religious activities. And when our kids are doing all the right things, when they're reading the devotional, not living the life in devotion necessarily, when they're going to church or they're playing them right music or they're saying the right words, then we get that immediate feedback like, okay, all right. Our spiritual training must be good because I see all of the outward indicators, and you're looking for gratification of your parenting instead of sanctification of your child. And that is. That's a really tough place to be. But you're so right in reminding us that living a life of devotion is not pretending that everything's perfect. True devotion really comes from an honesty before the Lord, coming before God, exactly as we are broken and sinful, but in need of grace that is given to us by a savior. And our children don't need parents who perform perfection either. They need parents who demonstrate daily dependence on God. And that can be harder to do. And so, coming up, we'll talk a little bit about families. We'll also talk about what devotion looks like in the tough seasons of life. How do you do it, even when it's difficult? Ana Avila Life, In devotion. Cultivating a deeper relationship with God in the everyday.
Don Wildmon started a movement to stand for truth in a hostile culture
More on the other side of this break. During the Christmas season of 1976, I sat down one night to watch television.
: One man saw the battle coming. If we lose this cultural war, we're going to have a hedonistic, humanistic society. And he chose to stand and fight. If you will not respect our beliefs, then you will respect our money, and we'll spend it with somebody else. Reverend Wildmon. Reverend Wildmon. The Reverend Donald Wildmon.
: M Discover the story of the culture warrior Don Wildmon and the and how he went head to head with Hollywood playboy, the homosexual agenda, and the Disney empire. Things were changing, and many people just sort of acclimated to it. And Don Wildmon didn't. They thought, I think, that they could just crush him. The movement Don started paved the way for Christians to boldly stand for truth and righteousness in a hostile culture. Watch Culture Warrior today for free visit culturewarrior.movie For my waking
Abide by Aaron Williams and Dwell Songs: breath, for my daily bread. I depend on you. I depend on, you. For the sun you rise. For my sleep at night. I depend on you. Yes, I depend on you. You're the way, the truth and the Life You're the world and never runs dry. I'm the branch and you are the vine Draw me close and teach me to abide
Dr. Jessica Peck: welcome back friends. That is abide by Aaron Williams and Dwell songs. And that's exactly what we're talking about. We're talking about abiding in Christ by living a, life of devotion, not just just checking off the box to do a devotional every day. Although that is a wonderful habit, and I definitely recommend it. Talked about it earlier in the year, one of the Friday shows, early in our family rhythms. But today we're talking about living a life in devotion. And as I listen to that song, I think about the playlist that I have. And really that has been one of the instrumental, no pun intended. Things in my life is intentionally cultivating playlists of songs that the lyrics are scripture and playing those over a season. So if you're feeling defeated, make yourself a victory playlist that uses songs that give you scriptures about victory. Music is really powerful. God has created it to be that way. That's why we have earworms, which is such a squirmy term for a reality about how music resonates in our head and our heart. And we've talked about the power of God's word and reading God's word, Not just the devotional, but actually reading God's word. I'm talking today to Ana Avila, who is the author of Life in Devotion, Cultivating a Deeper Relationship with God in the Everyday. And Ana before the break, we were talking about just all of these elements.
Our families cultivate relationship with a living God through Bible devotionals
And I told you I was going to ask you about families and how it's so tempting for families to go for this rigorous checklist of spiritual activities rather than helping our. Our families cultivate relationship with a living God. How do we have all of those disciplines but also communicate that relationship is the goal?
Ana Avila: Well, for me, it's helpful to find anchors in the day where I can fit the structure part of the life and devotion which we are calling devotionals. For example, with our children, we use breakfast to do our Bible reading and family prayer. And at night, my husband takes care of the kids personal reading time and have conversations with him and pray for with them before bed. So finding those moments that always happen as a family, you always have breakfast or you always go to bed, or maybe you have other rhythms that you can anchor the Bible and prayer to. That is very helpful. just reading straight through the Bible, I'm a big fan of that. I know that there's a ton of resources. but getting our kids used to just engaging directly with the word of God without an aid, I think that's very, very important. So we just read through a book of the Bible, we read aloud, and then we chat a little bit about it, and then we pray. It's very simple. It doesn't have to be complicated. But they are exposed to the Word. They're practicing pray, in the morning and a night for us at home, and then during the day practicing our life in devotion can be as easy as when our kid gets hurt or he's sad because my kid was crying because Mexico lost in the World Cup.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Yes, that was sad.
Ana Avila: I'm sorry. He was very upset. So we take those moments and we remind ourselves of truths about God and who he is and how's with us. and it doesn't have to be like, that dramatic. Or it could be something like he had a fight with a friend and just reminding ourselves that, yeah, maybe our friends can be mean to us sometimes, but God is always our good friend and we can go to him when we feel sad and lonely. or when I'm reading in my, living room and he comes over and he's like, what you're reading, Mom? And I share with him a little bit about what I'm doing or when he's grumpy with the chores. I'm like, remember, Remember, the Bible tells us we, we should do this unto the Lord. He's here with us. He. He can. He delights in our obedience, in our faithfulness. So let's remember that. And we play some music or something, that. That uplifts us and in our work to the Lord, so those things don't have to be complicated. We like to complicate things and, and just we try to find a perfect formula or something that gives us results immediately. But just being immersed in this. This atmosphere of praising God and remembering continuously he's with us and rejoicing in him. That. That is so brave for kids.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, I've written before about how I'm convinced that it is the ordinary that God uses for the extraordinary. It's the mundane that becomes miraculous. In the legacy of our homes and our marriages, in our children and our parenting, our grandparenting and our relationships. I believe it's just those daily interactions, those very regular things, the conversations that happen every day, the way that you conduct yourself when no one's watching, the integrity that you have in your home. Those are the things that God uses to disciple us and to cement our legacy as Christ followers. And, and what you're describing is really just demonstrating and displaying a very authentic faith. And you can't do that unless you have it yourself. And I, I find that, parents today, we're so tempted to try to control our kids, and we're so focused on them and, oh, we don't want them to walk away from the faith and make sure they're going to church and they're reading their Bible. We don't Often nurture our own faith. And that's where that comes and it just spills over. You just described it so perfectly, Ana you're just reading something on the couch, and your son comes up and says, what are you reading? Oh, I'm, you know, struggling with this. I'm reading this. This is how I chose this author. I'm reading God's Word. This is how it's nourishing me. Those things are just very authentic. And I think sometimes, sometimes that can be really hard to do. When life feels hard, maybe it just feels too busy. Maybe it feels too heavy. Maybe it just feels too overwhelming, too discouraging. You, you may have experienced trauma or trial, tragedy, pain, whatever it is. How do we live a life of devotional when it feels like maybe God is far away way.
Ana Avila: Yeah, that is a very real thing. And I, I say in the book that a life and devotion that can be sustained and tribulation or suffering, it's not a life and devotion at all. sometimes we can, if we're faking it, if we are just checking things off lists when we are doing great, well, things are great and we feel great. But when everything falls apart and we cannot. We cannot find the way to remind our souls who God is and what he has done, I think that says something about, how good our cultivating this relationship with God was when we. When times were good.
Ana says we should think about devotionals as nourishment for our spiritual life
so I like to also think about devotionals as meals, as nourishment for our spiritual life in general. and in life, we have different m. Types of meals we engage in. In. In the States. For example, I know that your big, meal is your dinner. That's the most important meal for you guys. For us, no, we. With dinner, we have breakfast. We have eggs or something. We, for us is lunch. The big meat and tacos and something very, nourishing. So, so we sometimes have light meals. We sometimes have heavy meals. We sometimes are running late and we have just a snack. So we need to think about our devotionals in that way. Sometimes you mentioned before, like, we have the Bible and the flowers and the cup of coffee and the raining outside, and it's beautiful. And that's amazing. If we can have some of those, that's great. but sometimes we can just put on an audio Bible while we are just. Just scrambling, through traffic or something. Or maybe we're ill and we cannot even put ourselves straight in bed, so we have somebody read the Bible to us. Or we just have a short prayer from a psalm and we're just repeating that in our minds or we don't have the. The. We have. We don't have any energy to even think about praying ourselves. So we open the Bible and we pick a psalm that. That, that expresses that suffering, that pain, and we just write it down while we are thinking about this and just offering it to God as our own prayer, because he left us all those psalms for a reason, to make them our own. So we can find different ways to engage with the Word and in prayer in different situations in life, including the times when we are suffering, when we're exhau. Exhausted. I think, for example, when a newborn comes and life is crazy, and the first thing that happens sometimes. And I always tell expectant moms, like my piece of advice, number one, delete Instagram. Because if you don't do that when that kid comes, you'll be scrolling 18 hours a day. Because that baby all at once is to be fed and to be held. And you can scroll while doing that. So be careful. Careful of that. But instead, if you play your Bible while you're rocking your. Your child or your prayer, short prayers in the middle of the nighttime feedings, those can be good ways to engage with the Word and in prayer, even when times are chaotic.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Ana I, love. I love that. And I feel like, you know, as a. As a native Texan, I'm close enough to Mexico to say, hey, I would eat tacos every single meal. My family makes fun of me all the time because I'm like, okay, what do you want for breakfast? Well, breakfast tac, of course.
Ana Avila: And you probably can find better tacos there than in Guatemala. I'm missing my Mexican tacos. I am a bit envious.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, now you're making me hungry, and I feel like we have to get together for lunch. You'll have to come over on my porch, we'll have a big lunch, and there'll be lots of tacos.
Ana Avila: That'll be amazing.
Dr. Jessica Peck: But I. I love that, Ana I, love that analogy, though, because sometimes, you know, we feel guilty about, like, maybe something short that we have, but instead of saying, okay, I don't have time for a big Bible study today, but I got time for a peanut butter and jelly sandw. Got a time for. For, you know, a. A quick little, you know, taco, like, I get at Ah Buc EE's. I love their tacos. Okay, I can't get off the tacos now, but that is something that I can relate to. And I think, okay, all Right. I can have that kind of on the go taco that comes in foil, and I eat as I'm driving down the road. If you, if you know, you know, if you, if you know BUC EE's, you know BUC EE's. But that is, that is really an encouraging mindset to have, Ana
How should we view God's grace in a way that leads us into devotion?
And one of the, things that you have written about in your book and talked about and is how you view God's grace. And, and you've talked about it a little bit as we've gone along and talked about Jesus being perfect and really recognizing and realizing the power of the gospel instead of just being so immune to it, so indifferent, so apathetic, or so scared of it even. How should we, how should we redirect our understanding of God's grace in a way that it calls us and leads us into a life of devotion?
Ana Avila: Yes. This can be tricky for some people, because for some people, they hear God is your father. And that is, oh, wait, God is my father. He loves me. He wants what's good for me. He's in my favor. Even when I messed up, he's not there. Like, m. I knew you would screw it up. I knew you would be terrible. Like, I, I don't know if I'm gonna love you today or whatever. because their parents were loving parents and they can relate to this. Unconditional love, surrenders, that never gives up, that always seeks for what's good for you. But a lot of us haven't had those kind of parents. Maybe they listen to the fact that God is our parent and they hear that voice, that accusation of like, oh, you messed up again. Oh, you are good for nothing. Oh, you are so dumb. so I, I feel compassion for people when they see God in that way. But that's why we need the Bible. Because God needs to correct view of what a good father is, of how he is for us. Nothing can separate us from his love. He wants what's best for us. He's not there in the sky waiting up for us to mess up. He's near, closer than we realize. They're just helping us, consoling us, guiding us. so we need to redefine the way we see God as our good, good father. a true good father, not a good father when you're good. A good father, he is good. and, and, and of course, we want to honor that good father. And it's okay to feel sad and ashamed when we sin and when we, dismiss his love and we seek the things of the world. But we can always come back to him because he's our good father. He is good in himself, not because of what we do. So rewiring our understanding for us. For some people it's going to be so easy because again, they had good parental figures or maybe they saw a parent, of one of his friends. Be a good father and you can sort of see that picture and try to reframe your relationship with God. For others, it'll be more difficult, but we need to do that because the dad, the devil, he's so happy with you checking all those boxes in condemnation or feeling so prideful of yourself because you read your Bible and you prayed and you feel so good. And the devil is like, hahaha, I mean you are, you're full of pride, you're saying. And you're not rejoicing in the love of God, really, you're rejoicing and your checklist done. And whenever bad times come, you're gonna be so weak and I'm gonna do whatever I want with you. But on the other hand, the, the sinner who understands that it falls short, he, I mean the devil is struggling against that.
Dr. Jessica Peck: We're out of time. All I can say is, but God and I encourage you to live a life of devotion. As you do, I pray the Lord will bless you and keep you. I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
Preborn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion
We'd like to thank our sponsors including PreBorn. PreBorn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion. And every day their network clinics rescue 200 babies lives. Will you join PreBorn in loving and supporting young moms in crisis? Save a life today. Go to preborn.com/AFR the views and
Jeff Chamblee: opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
Jessica talks with author Ana Avila who says God calls us to intentionally spend time with Him so that we might live lives devoted to Him even in a world of distractions.
https://www.bhpublishinggroup.com/contributors/ana-avila/
Live
Did you know American Family Radio is listener-supported? Your monthly financial support will allow us to continue upholding Godly values through our numerous channels, like American Family Radio, One Million Moms, The Stand magazine, and many more.
Become a Great Commission Partner TODAY to help AFR transform culture by rebuilding the family. When you donate today, you’ll get access to:
