There are a lot of ways to approach a time of worship with God, but I also just want to make sure I don't become dependent on outside resources to do the work for me. I do not want to be passive or having only a receiving mode in worship, as when I just listening to a worship song I like. I must cultivate the ability to recognize that God is worthy of worship, be proactive in worshiping Him, and do so at the heart level (not just out of habit). 

GUIDING QUESTION: "Am I just going through the motions or am I truly worshiping God with all my being?"

• SING WORSHIP SONGS to God with or without any musical aid, planned or spontaneous. Find worship song resources here.

• WORSHIP PLAYLISTS - I can use these to help myself do that very thing—worship God. The point is to sing the lyrics with heart engagement to God.

  • SPOTIFY PLAYLIST: High Praise (Raimer Rojas) - a collection of worship songs that are directed exclusively to God. For your personal worship.

  • YOUTUBE PLAYLIST: Deeper Place Worship Videos with Lyrics (collected by Raimer Rojas) - For your personal worship.

  • SPOTIFY PLAYLIST: Songs of Contemplation (collected by Raimer Rojas) - A collection of Christian songs that are thoughtful and meditative to listen to, to help in your own contemplative times.

  • SPOTIFY PLAYLIST: Soaking Worship Instrumental (collected by Raimer Rojas) - Soaking music for your intimate times with God and for corporate times of prayer ministry.

• SING THE SCRIPTURES AS SPONTANEOUS SONGS of worship, praise and thanksgiving. It is often very helpful to sing out of Scripture and then let it flow into the thoughts that pour out of the revelation. 

  • Sing It, Pray, Own It - A singing the Scriptures spiritual practice by Julie Meyer

  • RWSSP (RECIPE) - Another singing the Scripture spiritual practice by Kirk Bennett

  • SPOTIFY PLAYLIST: Singing The Scriptures Accompaniment Tracks For Spontaneous Singing - these tracks have a repeated chord progression, great for spontaneous singing 

  • YOUTUBE PLAYLIST: Singing The Scriptures Accompaniment Tracks for Spontaneous Singing - these tracks have a repeated chord progression, great for spontaneous singing 

• GIVE THANKS TO GOD (THANKSGIVING) - Thank God for what He has done. Every encounter with God, every answer to prayer, every sense of revelation, and any gift of God (miracle, etc), gives you material from which to thank Him. In what God does for me, for those I care about, and in the life of others (including Bible characters who have encounters with God), we have tons of material for which to thank Him. 

• APPRECIATE GOD FOR WHO IS (APPRECIATION) - We can also draw out the revelation of who God is, from what He has done. This is about how God reveals Himself through His actions. To appreciate Him we look for what these actions of God reveal about His character and personality, about his mind and heart—his thoughts and emotions. Then we speak appreciation to Him for who He is. You might want to start it out like this, if it helps: "Father God/Jesus/Holy Spirit, I appreciate that You are ___________________ .  (EXAMPLE of who He is: loving, patient, all-knowing, healer...)

• PRACTICE THE PRESENCE OF GOD - This spiritual practice is simply about acknowledging that God is present every day in every moment of our lives, whatever it is that you're doing—even in mundane, boring tasks of the day. Loving God begins with knowing Him, and what greater way to know Him but by constantly thinking about Him. To stay in this focused place, we reject distracting thoughts and get right back to communing with God. 

Built in to these Bible intake practices, is the opening of my eyes and ears to hear God speak to me. Below are some things I can employ in my Bible Intake time of my daily devotional. Clearly, you and I, in all parts of the daily devotional, will have to make choices as to what to use and what not to use. Time will be the #1 factor. If all you have per day is 10 minutes then you will have to be very purposeful as to which of these many spiritual practices you might employ. These choices are hopefully made very honestly and strategically with your spiritual growth in mind.  Remember that you can vary which spiritual practice you use on a given day. So this would be a way to round out your times with God and His Word, over time, if time is a factor. 

When you make more time in your daily devotionals, you can employ a few of these spiritual practices per day, with the encouragement to do something from each of these main categories. 

GUIDING QUESTION: How am I loving and cherishing His Word? Am I consuming it regularly, memorizing verses, and studying and meditating on His Word so that continually receive truth from Him? 

1) BIBLE READING

• Use a Bible Reading Plan to read through the whole Bible, New Testament, or a Bible book, or the Psalms/Proverbs, etc. In Bible reading we read big to get an overview of the Bible and then through Bible study and/or Biblical meditation we allow God to use a part of that reading, which could be a verse phrase, a verse, or a passage, to go deeper with God. Listening to the Bible being read to me (i.e: like from the app YouVersion or Dwell), is another possible way we take in the Word of God.

• Recommended Audio Bible App: Dwell - App was designed exclusively for listening to the Word of God. Great for those with long commutes. It has a number of Bible reading plans, playlists (theme collections), and passages, using a number of quality voices and Bible versions. 

• Five Psalms a Day  - Read 5 Psalms a day to read through the book of Psalms in 30 days. Add a Proverb a day and you can also read through both Psalms and Proverbs in a month. 

2) BIBLE MEMORIZATION

Target key Bible verses and/or passages for memorization. Having the word of God in mind allows you the ability to meditate and pray our of it at anytime.

• Scripture Memory Sets

• Bible Memory Apps - There are a few smartphone apps that are useful for creating a collection of verses you have memorized, for review purposes so that you retain the verses/passages over time.  

• Muttering - Besides being a great Biblical Meditation practice to take in Scripture, muttering has the added benefit that you end up getting the verse you mutter memorized. Use it intentionally. 

3) BIBLE STUDY

• Discovery Bible Study (DBS)  - This type of inductive Bible study is done with an emphasis on hearing God speak, applying His truth/revelation in my real life, and obeying what He is asking of me. One possible option is to do the Bible study out of the very Bible reading material of the day. Simply choose a portion that would work well with DBS and that I feel drawn to, for this very purpose. As another option, I can even use 2-3 helpful Bible versions to read the same passage from which I will do Bible study. Just doing this may give a new insight or perspective to a chosen passage. 

• Other Types of Bible Study - There are other methods to study the Bible, such as Inductive Bible Study, Bible Book Study & Bible Character Study. 

4) BIBLICAL MEDITATION

I can use these and many more Biblical meditation practices to go deeper with a verse or passage. Often I can let the very Bible portion I want to focus on define which Biblical meditation practice I may use. As I have experienced these different way to meditate on Scripture, I can use what seems more logical or practical or just appropriate, with the text at hand. Also since I am meditating on just a few verses, a single verse, or verse phrase, I can also incorporate a few different Bible versions, which might also add to the insights I will draw from the text. 

• Muttering

• Pray-Read the Bible 

• Five Psalms a Day (Praying Through The Psalms)

• Lectio Divina

• Ignatian Biblical Meditation (also called Gospel Meditation)

• Sing It, Pray It, Own It - Singing spontaneous songs to God from a Bible verse or phrase I am meditating on.

• RWSSP (Recipe) Biblical Meditation - Singing spontaneous songs to God from a Bible verse or phrase I am meditating on.

• Apostolic Prayers - Biblical prayers the apostles prayed over the church (over believers), which give great models for how to pray for your inner being (and for those believers for whom you are interceding). 

• Devotional Prayers - Great model prayers that help you pray with solid Biblical focuses.   FELLOWSHIP Prayer, TRUST Prayer, Your Personal House of Prayer (Based on the Lord's Prayer), etc.

• Intercession - You can pray for the lost, missionaries, people for whom you are providing spiritual care, family, friends, local/national/world issues,  etc. 

• Listening Prayer - Listen to what God may be speaking to you, journal it, and pray out of it. 

• Silent Prayer - A prayer that acknowledges the presence of God, without words. 

• Thanksgiving Prayer Flowing Out of God's Promises - We can pray God's promises with thanksgiving, knowing that He has pre-approved these things for us—we know such prayers will be answered, sooner or later in our lives. 

• The Prayer of Examen - Great daily prayer, calling on Holy Spirit's help and guidance, to help you self-reflect and self-examine your heart in relation to your day's experiences and your responses to them. 

Journaling is a way for you and I to steward what God is speaking, as well as the verses and other related thoughts you received. You put these insights, Bible verses, etc. to writing. These could be sentences, bullet points, or even a little artwork to capture something you saw or sensed. This practice will help you remember/recall every meaningful God-whisper, thought and insight and allows you to refer to it later on. You do not want to forget the key instances of His leadership, guidance, and wisdom that He is releasing to you.