Take Back your Time

Aren't we always looking for more time, telling people how we have no time, using lack of time as an excuse for not doing all kinds of things—including things we know we should do like reading to our children and flossing our teeth?


I’ve come to own that I make the choices for how I spend the 24 hours that God has given to me...no one is making me busy except myself and no one, besides me, will give an account for how I spend my time. I've come to the conclusion that my days are full just like everyone's days are full and I'm the one responsible for it. If I’m too busy, it’s my fault.

No time is more profitably spent than the time I use to heighten the quality of my walk with God. If I think otherwise, I have been badly misled. The real question is, will I take time to do what is necessary for a vital, passionate life in Christ or will I try to get by without it?

There is no substitute for time spent with the Lord.

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Feelings and Desire

What role do our feelings play in our devotional life?

As I've been paying attention to my passion for the Lord every day, I am aware how much my "feelings" play a role in my spiritual life. We are so prone to do what we feel like. Our desires do lead us to the choices we make. There are mornings when I come to my desk for my quiet time and I feel like responding email, working on some work, cleaning my desk. Other days, I easily turn everything off and begin my devotional time.

I had no desire to do work this morning. I wanted to read and pray. That's what I felt like so that's what I did. A couple of weeks ago I was up against a deadline and I had a strong desire to finish my talk, and that made it nearly impossible for me to focus on my devotion. I tend to follow my desire, do what I feel like, and if I choose to go against my feelings, then it takes a whole lot of discipline and self-control.

So the easiest way to live would be to get my feelings, my desires, to be in line with what my good intentions are. If I intend to read my Bible and pray, and I have the desire to do that, for sure it will happen if it is at all possible. However, if I'm dieing to finish a project, I'm really enjoying working with a new software program, I'm up against a deadline, then I may be more driven to do my work than my devotion. So how do I get my feelings to line up with my good intentions?

Desire really is key to having passion and to determining how easily I'll give myself to do what I actually sit down and do. How do I direct my desires to help me grow in my love for Christ? Can I develop practices or exercises that will help me get my feelings and desires to pull me toward Jesus rather than compel me toward distractions and avoiding Him.

"There is only one big thing--desire. And before it, when it is big, all else is
little." Willa Cather

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Entering a Life of Worship

What is the chief end of man? What is the purpose of life? According to the Westminster Confession the answer is clear: To glorify God and enjoy him forever. As a young adult, I puzzled over what it meant to "glorify God," but as I've gotten older and continued to ponder it, I think that glorifying God has a lot to do with how I think about God, His Person, His character, His glory (Exodus 34) and how those thoughts draw me in to worship Him, and worship isn't to just be something that I do at church on Sunday morning, but to become a lifestyle, a 24/7 practice of my life.

What is the purpose of our lives? I think I would say, to live a life of worship. (Rom. 12:1-3)

Let the words of Christ dwell richly in you. Let the psalms and hymns and spiritual songs create an undertone of worship throughout our lives. Join in with the angels who are worshipping in heaven right now. "To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever." (Rev. 5:13) And let our love of God, our worship of Him, overflow into a life of compassion and mercy--loving others.

Willard writes: "Worship is the single most powerful force in completing and sustaining restoration of our whole beings to God. Nothing can inform, guide, and sustain pervasive and radiant goodness in a person other than the true vision of God and the worship that spontaneously arises from it. Then the power of the indwelling Christ flows from us to others."

Matt Redman in his book on worship encourages us to set apart something in our lives that will serve as a call to worship. That seemed like a wonderful idea. I've set apart the sunrise and for months now, every time a see the sunrise, it calls me to stop, turn my focus to the Lord, and worship him.

Worship isn't something that I have on my to-do list -- another chore. That's not the spirit of worship.

Worship overflows from my heart. Fill my heart, soul, mind with the words and thoughts and visions of God...pay attention to His fingerprints in my life, the wonderful points of grace, that I might be deeply grateful to Him for all He is doing and has done. Caring for my soul in these ways is my responsibility -- it's my responsibility to walk with God -- and when I do, love and worship overflow and transform me from the inside and overflow in love and mercy as I live out my worship in service and ministry.

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Our Hearts need Assistance

"Only the heart knows how to find what is precious."

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Is there a distinction between heart, will, spirit? Maybe philosophers can separate them, but in my experience, I think they are all words that refer to one and the same thing. Heart, will, spirit are all words that seek to express what is fundamental, the core components of all of us.

It is from our core (heart, will, spirit) that love for God arises and living in such a way that expresses our love for God takes shape. It is the formation of the core that will totally transform from the inside how I live and worship. So how do we open the door to our heart, to the core of our being, to the most fundamental aspect of who I am?

Maybe it just begins with a prayer of invitation -- welcoming the God of the universe to come in and form us. We are in desperate need.

For centuries spiritual people have known that we need to pay attention to our heart. It is who we are and leads us to what we will give our lives to pursue.

We tend to think that our heart is what it is. We tend to think that we have no control over it. But if it is our heart that leads us, then I need to pay attention to what my heart is feeling. I need to run to its assistance if it's becoming weary or I'm beginning to doubt. If I'm lacking the energy to initiate, create, pursue what I want, something is wrong. I shouldn't just press on and ignore my inner life. If a waste basket was on fire, I wouldn't shove it into the closet and go about my business. I'd drop everything to take care of that waste basket. It should be the same with my heart. If I'm growing cold, distracted, grumpy, I need to pay attention. Run to my heart's assistance. Talk to somebody. Reflect in my journal about what's going on.

Often, under all of the excuses and resistance, is a disappointment with God.

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Resistance

Why is living with passion for the Lord every day such a challenge?

Certainly having a rule of life that helps me to do what I want to do -- rather than pursue all of the things that call to me -- helps me to stay focused.

Having a prayer chair that is away from my computer helps. But if I get side-tracked and go to my desk -- why do I always need to do something (send an email, file a paper, put away a book, revise my website, prepare a Bible study, read a book, watch a video, write a note to a friend) all important, all "ministry" but none of it is really time with the Lord.

Over and over I find myself wrestling to sit down with the Lord and just be in His Presence and experience His grace and love and enjoy my relationship with Him. Today, cleaning up the bedroom, bathroom, my desk, the hall closet all called me. We have company coming. So what! Why am I so pulled everywhere else but to be with the Lord? Father, please forgive this wandering heart. I even exercised this morning! Why? Why do I resist?

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Devotion

Time to Contemplate the Cross and the Love of God

Everywhere you go there are reminders of the Cross,

God's demonstration of his love for us

"Love the Lord your God with all your Heart, Mind, Soul, Strength"
St. Augustine wrote: Decide to love God and do what you please because when you love God, then what you will want to do is what will please the One you love.

I know I've used this quote at The Springs, but because of my life experience this week, now I just want to say, "Maybe." Because even when I really am loving God, I can quickly want to do my Bible study preparation or work on a Christian project and totally ignore spending any time truly loving Him and experiencing his love for me.

Living passionately in love with the Lord everyday begins with putting up a hedge and not letting work creep into my devotional time. Writing on this blog, preparing a Bible discussion, working on the questions for the panel discussion for the Return Conference has a very different focus from devotional time. It's so tempting for me to give up spending time just being with the Lord and focused on loving him -- in order to work on ministry.

The focus of my quiet time is very different if my goal is to increase my devotion to the Lord. If devotion is my goal then I nurture my heartfelt love and a deep sense of gratitude for who God is and for the gifts he has blessed me with.

Devotion comes from knowing His love and choice of me, even in my brokenness.
Devotion comes from seeing the glory of the goodness of His character and focusing on His glory in wordless prayer.
Devotion comes from knowing He is with me -- filling the universe but also filling me, and being alongside of me as my companion.

When we focus our prayerful attention on these truths, we experience a love and adoration and passion for the Lord. When we don't -- we don't. My desk work in preparation for ministry does not nurture my devotion. It's amazing how in love I can be with the Lord, and then decide in the morning to work on some aspect of preparation, and then the next morning do some preparation, and before I know it...my whole devotional life is shot. I've reduced my relationship with the Lord to a business partnership. And it takes intentional work to regain my devotion.

Love God and spend time loving Him always throughout the day. Everyday. What a challenge to let work, even Christian work, come second.

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