Wow, Commitment to this blog is already becoming a challenge. Once the weekend sun set, my life became a whole lot harder. Where on the weekend I could blog for 2 hours a day without breaking a sweat, I now have a quarter of the time. The weekend is easy, free time and open spaces. But during the week I have school, final exams, and preparing for my drivers test. There is just no time anymore. Take tonight for example. I came home from school, went to a birthday dinner (45 minutes away from home), got back at 10, made a batch of cookies for school (4 dozen), and I am now writing to you at 12:15 at night. With this schedule I begin to wonder how am I supposed to fit in time for this blog, or even more importantly, how am I supposed to fit in time for God.
My situation is the exact same situation that almost every teen faces when school begins. Where in the summer it is easy to fit in a devotion here and there, during the school year there is no spare time. Then on the rare occurrence that we receive spare time, God is last on our thoughts. But this is the opposite of what God wishes for us. The bible tells us countless times that God should always come first. Even if it is just a prayer every so often throughout the day. Luke 5:16 says “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray.” This verse doesn’t say that Jesus prayed for hours and hours on end. It just says that he prayed often. In addition to prayer, God also asks that have fellowship with him daily. Just like you wish to see your friends and family everyday, God wishes for us to have daily fellowship with him. Hosea 6:6 says “For I desire… acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings.” This verse says that God just wishes for “acknowledgement” from his believers. As much as he would appreciate a 3 hour devotion daily, he doesn’t require it. He just wishes that his followers acknowledge him in our lives every day by having a devotion with him.
In our busy teen lives it is hard to fit all of this in. As a matter of fact we can barely fit in sleep on some occasions. But we need to remember that God must always come first. To keep God constantly in our lives we must find times throughout the day that we can devote to him. Prayer should be done numerous times throughout the day. Easy times to do this are when you wake up, before each meal, and then before you go to sleep. These same times (with the exception of “before each meal“) are also great times to do quiet times. I mention the same times again because they are already scheduled into your daily routine. By picking times you always have open, you will have less opportunity to close it with other things. Devotions are a commitment that everybody needs to make with themselves so there is no set time limit, but 20 minutes a day is a great starting point. Remember, if it ever gets really late at night and you feel like you aren’t going to make it…still do a quiet time. Just pray to God before to keep you alert and focused, and then after to give you a deep sleep to regenerate and make up for the lost sleep.
By keeping God in your life by doing these simply things you will see a dramatic improvement in you relationship with God. Think of it like this, if you only ever prayed to God once daily and didn’t do a quiet time. By following these steps you could easily spend over a half an hour more per day with God. This time although seemingly small, adds up quickly. This step in our relationship with God is critical. We can never have God work in our lives unless we openly invite him in to talk to us. To “Walk the Christian Walk” one must have a daily relationship with God, even if it means pushing our self harder and longer than we have ever gone before.
No comments:
Post a Comment