At a time when people of faith in America are feeling at odds with a culture that is increasingly fueling feelings of aggression, anger, and desperation, many are failing to prioritize their daily walk with God in the midst of the chaos. Pastor Ronnie Floyd is hoping to offer hope and direction with his new devotional book, “Day by Day and Night by Night: 365 Morning & Evening Devotions for Leaders.”
“I think one of the greatest crises in the Christian life is inconsistency,” the longtime pastor recently told The Washington Times’ Higher Ground. “People know what to do but they just don’t do it, and then some people don’t know what to do, and that’s what ‘Day by Day and Night by Night’ can give them.”
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The former president of the Southern Baptist Convention said that the theme of the book is based on the story from the Bible of God faithfully walking with the Israelites in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, noting that the metaphor “came alive” during a particularly desperate time in his life.
“I wrote the book mainly to help people understand one of the great spiritual principles that I’ve learned in my life and that is that we must walk with God day by day and night by night experiencing the presence of God,” he said. “Whether [your crisis] is cancer, whether it’s a diagnosis, whether it’s a child that is suffering, whether it’s a marital issue, a financial issue, perhaps a career challenge, whatever it may be… That’s part of the journey. But I’ve learned in all that, that God wants to teach us in those times, that He wants to humble us, that He wants us to grow in Him.”
That growth, Pastor Floyd says, comes when we commit to spending time with God, the only source of true and lasting peace, hope and joy. And that’s what the devotional is designed to do.
“I deeply believe [we’re seeing] a crying desperation of this generation wanting more than what they’re getting and the culture never fully delivers,” he said. “You have got to always be faithful to come to God and park yourself right there. That’s really why I wrote this devotional book because I believe desperately people need to begin, if they’re not doing it now, they need to take three to five minutes a day and read what God says in His Word.”
Not only does Pastor Floyd believe that spending time in God’s Word will bring back a sense of peace and purpose to people’s lives, but it will also enrich their prayer lives in a powerful way.
“Prayer is as much listening to God as it is talking to God and the way we listen to God is to read the Bible,” he said. “One of the ways to really energize your prayer life, take your prayer life to a different level, is this entire thing of building your prayer upon the scripture, praying the scripture, standing on the scripture. What God says will determine what you should say to Him and for us to pray in accordance with His will…and then God will really do a work in our life.”
“Day by Day and Night by Night” is now available where books are sold.
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Marissa Mayer is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of professional experience. Her work has been featured in Christian Post, The Daily Signal, and Intellectual Takeout. Mayer has a B.A. in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Arizona State University.
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