“There is no one who calls on Your name, who arouses himself to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us and delivered us into the power of our iniquities.” Isaiah 64:7A few days ago, my sister and I were strolling through our Christian bookstore (trying very hard not to spend too much money), when my eyes fell on a book about one minute prayers for women. As my mind wrapped around this book’s concept, my heart slowly felt a deep conviction. Is one minute really all the time we have for God?
Unfortunately, my conviction didn’t end there. I began to stumble upon more and more books on scheduling God in a few minutes of our day.
I want to clarify myself a little. I am not saying that we shouldn’t buy or read these books on ‘one minute prayers’ or ‘five minutes with God’ devotionals. I am only asking you and myself a serious question: is that really all the time we can give God out of our day?
I wonder what we would think if God suddenly said He could only spare ten minutes (and that’s being generous!) to fit you in, so we better make it quick. That would be terrible! We have confidence in Him that He will always at any moment be there for us and with us. Could our ever-present God say the same about us, His servants and very own children?
Think about what we are doing! We are holding up our tiny little wrist watches to God - the God who gave you this day, who allows your heart to beat, who saved us from eternal hell, who formed you in the womb, who created us for His glory and pleasure, who holds time in His hands - and saying we are just too busy and have too many important things planned in our day to spend precious time on earth with Him; pursuing Him with our time and energy, seeking to know Him more, and passionately living every hour for Him and not ourselves. (2 Cor. 5:14-15)
How His heart must break...
If we could just let go of our schedules and plans and desperately grab hold of our great God, the only One that will satisfy our deepest longings and desires, and slow us down enough to really learn and enjoy what life is all about.
Oh that we would live for Christ! And arouse ourselves and call on His blessed name, sitting at His feet in complete humility and adoration. What if we scheduled our days around HIM. How our lives would change…how the world would change.
Well, my friend, He has given us this day, this hour, this breath.
Let’s make time for Him.
once again, you have done another great job Kaysie! and i know i’ve said this before but, i totally agree with you. the Bible says that God never sleeps or rests.(or something like that) He stays awake for us when we need Him in the night. like you said, what if Suddenly discided He didn’t have enough time for us… what would i do in the night when i’m scared are just can’t sleep? where would we be if Jesus Christ did what so many of us do!?! God has really shown you some amazing things!
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*my first comment on an Alabaster Box blog* yay!
ReplyDeleteWell, my beautiful sister in Christ…
Ha. You hit this concept right on. I think a big problem in contemporary Christianity is that we try to mold it to our modern lives rather than trying to mold our lives around our faith. Are we in control or is God in control? Whose sitting on the throne?
Something accepted as ideal in this contemporary Christian culture is to have a “quiet time” with God. I think this is all and good, but we’ve missed the point. If we limit God into a time slot of our day/week and have a one on one time with him at that one time, then we take away from the power he can have in our lives.
Don’t get me wrong, to have that time in our day is essential, but its the perspective that is wrong in many people’s minds. I’m still in the process of God transforming my mind of what it means to have a true “quiet time” with Himself. I’m beginning to learn that a quiet time must come at God’s calling and at His beckoning rather than ours. Most of the time we set the time and beckon God to come meet us, but I do think that there are times where God is calling us “Child, spend time with me, this is the moment, I must tell you something, child.” But we often say “But God, I can’t right now, I’m caught up with something. Our time is tonight before I go to bed” (or whatever time you’ve set aside). And what I’ve found is that God beckons us to have MANY quiet times with Him throughout the day!
The challenge I want to pose is this: Whose time are you on? His or yours? If when you pray, he wants to talk to you for 20 minutes (or an hour or MORE!), will you endure? Will you patiently listen? Will you be anxious because you aren’t fitting study time in? What is your response to his beckoning?
Do not limit the Almighty God! Let Him spend as much time with you as He wants when He calls to you.
Ha, this is a lesson that I am still trying to grasp for myself. But God is teaching me and He is now holding me accountable to what I know, and I don’t want to ignore Him any longer.
May God bless us all as we walk with the LORD!
-Kristy
Thank you both, Camille, and Mrs. Carolyn for your kind comments! I am so honored that God is using me.
ReplyDeleteHello Kaysie! This is Miss Carolyn writing all the way from West Virginia…
ReplyDeleteHow true– that we should give Him more time than we do! So often we think of “time” in context of Bible study or devotionals. As you said, these are good. And they can be very helpful sometimes, especially when the author has had a real encounter with our Father and can share that realness with us.
But I believe there is a spending of time that transcends study or even specific prayer times… You touched a little on this in your blog… that is, living each day, moment-by-moment, in Him. We can feel guilty for not reading our Bibles or engaging in formal prayer, and then, acting on that guilt, we plunge into studies and prayer times… We want to please Him, but what He really wants and (expects) is a continual abiding in His Spirit. (Abide in Me and I will abide in you.)
I have given a lot of thought to what this means practically. I believe it means that we are in a continual attitude of asking Him what He would have us to do as we go through our days. This is what Jesus did. He didn’t go anywhere or do even the smallest thing outside of His Father’s direction. Over and over and over again, Jesus said, “I came only to do the will of my Father.” I know that when our thoughts are on finding His will and doing it, we certainly will study and we will pray… we will do these things AND everything else in His perfect balance. By this, He is pleased.
Is this kind of life possible? I have had some success for periods of time. But the truth is that I am, as the hymn so well states: “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it.” And yet, we can, every time, go back to Him again and ask, “Lord, keep me close. Let me do what You want me to do today, this morning, right now!”