The Problem with Inspirational & Why I'm Ditching It for a While

The other day a friend of mine T. McFaddin Ordell posted this thought of hers on Instagram. Fitting for how I've been feeling lately.

Today I woke up and decided to delete subscriptions to some inspirational text messages and devotionals I've been receiving.

I've been feeling the need to stop snacking on all that and feast on God's Word alone. For me, that means just meeting God in the Word and waiting for Him to speak directly to me.

I found that it was so easy for me to feed my soul on spiritual fast food in the form of: inspirational quotes, devotionals, motivational text messages and scripture of the day emails. I felt like I was being hand-fed revelation that someone else received instead of the personal conversation that God wanted to have with me through His Word.

We live in a generation that thrives on sound bites and 140-character messages that can be quickly scrolled through. I'll be the first to admit, I love Twitter and a well-versed quote. And there's nothing wrong with those things, but sometimes God wants to meet us on the back side of the desert one-on-one so He can address what's going with us personally. Matthew 4:4 says:

“Jesus answered, “The Scriptures say:
’No one can live only on food.
People need every word that God has spoken.’”

I need every word that God has spoken. I need it more than my favorite devotional and more than the cleverly-spoken inspirational quotes from today's mainstream pastors. 

Just as soon as I ditched all the stuff that was coming between me and God's direct voice, I opened up my Bible and He spoke to me so clearly from the book of Haggai. Of course, I probably would have never gone to that book to get a tailor-made word for myself but that's where it came from.

Sometimes we need to get back to basics and ditch the inspirational for the One who truly inspires.