Originally published Thursday, 16 November 2017.
My confession to you is this: I've gone lax on spending time with God. Things are busy. Family needs are high. People need stuff. Kids have just a little time left before they go back to school. We are looking for a new home. We are having issues with our current new home. We are in a new place with new stuff to figure out. There's too much to do. (Insert my thousand other excuses here).
Life needs tackling, so I've done just that: tackled life alone....
...blazing ahead according to my thoughts, telling others what they need to do, fretting details, wondering why God hasn't given me better answers, waiting poorly, pushing around like a bull in a China shop...
...until this morning, when I finally settled and heard God's voice. It essentially said, "Kelly, the quiet place is your victory place. Here, you learn what you desperately need to know. Here, protection and covering push out sin and shame. Clarity trumps confusion, hope beats impatience and love rules over isolation. I put things in your heart in this place."
Yes, God!!! I want that!
I couldn't help but think God was right.
My victory is always found in the quiet. It is found in searching out God, in reading his Word, in praying, in seeking, in noticing, in abiding, in trusting, in faith, in praise, in thanksgiving, in expectant hoping, in longing, in asking.
God is right. This is my victory. And it is not one God casually calls me to. It is one that is critically important for me to respond to.
God gives us all a standing invitation to come into fellowship and communion with him, everyday, every moment. Do we respond? Or, like me, do we turn to other pressing issues, people, problems and life happenings?
Today, hear this word like an alarm: Responding to God is serious business.
Failed fellowship means we could:
- miss a word that could change our whole outlook on our horrible and frustrating ever-present situation.
- be unable to find God's compassionate heart for that person we are so angry at.
- forego insight into that outstanding question we just can't figure out.
- divert God's love and walk in anxiety, worry and anger day after day.
- see no life change when God has huge transformation waiting for us.
- walk in the flesh, rather than the renewal Jesus prepared for us.
- miss the leadings of the Holy Spirit that will help us love, care and minister to our family in powerful ways.
- stay in a rut
Our "I'm busy, I'll meet with God later" and "He can wait" moments don't steal from God. They steal from us the very best God wants to give. We miss his gems. The transformation He's prepared for us to dig up.
Obedience is quiet patience, securing us in God's providence. Why would we ever want to miss that?
7 Tips to Powerful Fellowship Time with God:
- Pray the Psalms over yourself.
- Replace your fretting time with fellowship time.
- Create open space, free of future demands, to be, hear and unite with him.
- Wait on the goodness of God's word. Don't move fast.
- Seek God, and expectantly trust that he will answer.
- Take time to notice the beauty of God around you.
- Let him be the first one in your thoughts in the morning.
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