Can You Hear Me Now?:
Tick Tock
#32 in the Series: Daddy, It's Me--Conversations of an Ordinary Person
with an Extraordinary Heavenly Father
In my own spiritual
life there is one thing I have to consistently fight in order to maintain my
communication with Father God, Jesus and Holy Spirit. It rears it’s ugly head every day, sometimes
multiple times a day. It tempts me to
exchange my important priority of spending time with God for urgent needs that
have little or no lasting importance.
(It has come up twice in writing this paragraph!) That thing is busyness and it’s
brother—distraction.
Of all the things
that prevent true believers and followers from forming deep and personal and
intimate relationship with God, I think this is the most common, most
effective, and most pervasive. And, to
make matters worse, the busyness is often religious activity! I also believe there is frequently a
component of the evil one at work, since the degradation of our conversation
and relationship with God is his top priority.
With God, time does
not exist…he is not impressed by microwaves or text messages.
“But do not forget this one
thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a
thousand years are like a day.”
2 Peter 3:8 NIV
If you want to
develop a relationship which includes deep and intimate conversations you WILL have to put in time and effort. It is
like a bank account. You put in time in
prayer, Bible study, meditation, and worship and you build up an account of
spiritual strength, wisdom, faith, and the other fruit of the Spirit. If you neglect the input for a while, soon
the account runs dry and you find yourself ineffective in your spiritual walk
and physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually vulnerable to the
attacks of the evil one. Even Jesus,
God’s own son in human flesh, had to spend time in prayer to stay connected to
the Father.
“After he had dismissed them, he
went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there
alone,”
Matthew 14:23 NIV
“One of those days Jesus went
out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.”
Luke 6:12 NIV
“Very early in the morning,
while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a
solitary place, where he prayed.”
Mark 1:35 NIV
God
desires to have relationship with you more than he desires you to DO things for
him. In fact, it is only as a result of
the relationship that we can do things for him. Without the relationship we can
do nothing.
““I am the vine; you are the
branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart
from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5 NIV
It was
through a love relationship with the Father that Jesus did the things he did.
“Jesus gave them this answer:
“Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what
he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show
him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.”
John 5:19-20 NIV
Love relationships
take time! Think about how much time you
put into love relationships. How long
are those phone calls? How frequent? How much do you desire to be with that
person? How long are those times
together? Why?
Perhaps one of the
most effective ways to guard your time with the Lord is to schedule it and get
alone in a private place:
“But when you pray, go into your
room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father,
who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
Matthew 6:6 NIV
A second important
aspect is to take the time it takes. As
I mentioned earlier, God is not generally into text messaging and though he
does answer arrow prayers, if that is the whole of your conversations—just like
with text messages—the subjects are not likely to be deep or intimate. Instead be willing to spend time reading,
meditating, asking God His opinion. Then
wait for his response. Many people see
prayer as a one way conversation when it is meant to be a dialog!
“Lord, I wait for you; you will
answer, Lord my God.”
Psalm 38:15 NIV
“I wait for the Lord, my whole
being waits, and in his word I put my hope.”
Psalm 130:5 NIV
“But as for me, I watch in hope
for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.”
Micah 7:7 NIV
I find
that many people, myself included, have a certain aversion to the word
“prayer”. Perhaps it is because it
brings to mind a certain posture that does not lend itself to public use nor
the fulfillment of the command to “pray continually.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
Perhaps it is because it brings to mind a certain language and we don’t know
that language. Perhaps we have never
been taught how to pray and we feel uncomfortable trying. What if, instead, we thought of it as a
conversation, a dialog between two lovers.
What kind of a difference would it make?
Would it be easier to find the time?...make the time?...take the time?
“There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:”
Ecclesiastes 3:1 NIV
Whether
it is find, make, or take, guard your time with the Heavenly Father who already
loves you beyond measure. He longs for
relationship with you more than anything on earth. As you accept and live in that relationship
he will be able to free your mustang heart.
P.S. If
you are blessed by this blog, don’t forget to leave me a comment or send me an
email. Feel free to share it on your social media. If you
receive this in your email, you may need to visit the webpage (link is in the
footer) to find the share buttons. If you don’t receive it in your
email, sign up for auto delivery at the top right hand column of the
webpage. Be blessed today!
No comments:
Post a Comment
I love to hear from those reading the blog. How has it impacted you? Did you find the assignments helpful?
If you are enjoying the posts, please share with your friends.
Thank you!
Teri