During the month of January, we will be reposting some of the top posts from 2016. We hope these will encourage you and connect to your heart. Stay tuned for all new posts coming in February 2017!
When I was in my early 20’s, I attended a Walk to Emmaus. During one of the talks, a woman told us how she spent her quiet time with the Lord every day. She had a cozy chair, in a specific spot in her house. She had a CD player that continually played worship music. She had a journal that she faithfully wrote in every single day. She read a chapter in the Old Testament, a Psalm, and a chapter in the New Testament. She used different colored highlighters to mark certain topics in her Bible. She seemed like she had it all together! So I took out my paper and made a checklist of all of these things. I figured that if I did everything she did, my personal time with the Lord would be….…EPIC!
Unfortunately, keeping up with her checklist for myself left me frustrated, feeling inadequate and like a failure. Can anybody relate to this?
I had to learn this truth: I will never experience abundance or fulfillment in my personal time with the Lord if I am fixated on the process itself. It’s not God’s intention for us to just feel good about ourselves, because we read our Bible today. Psalm 86:11 says, “Teach me Your way, O Lord, and I will walk in Your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your name.” He wants us to know Him, and He wants to reveal Himself to us. This takes practice, patience, perseverance, living in your truth, having an undivided heart, being aware of His Presence, and being vulnerable and obedient to His Spirit.
This looks different at different seasons in our lives. Currently, all four of my kids are in four different schools. I’m also a preschool teacher to fifteen 4-year-olds. I’m a pastor’s wife, a worship leader, and a life group host. I have thousands of loads of laundry to do. Somebody has to feed all of these people in my house. Then there’s the “driving everybody to all of their stuff” everyday! Life is pretty overwhelming right now in this season. BUT, my Father has things to reveal to me. And I want to know Him more every day. So I wake up very early, and I spend time with Him. I pray. I worship. I read His Word. And I listen.
But that’s not all!!! I have friends who speak life to me. I have a church family that surrounds me in prayer and love. God even reveals Himself to me in the 4-year-olds that I teach. You see, He is everywhere all the time. The time you spend with the Lord doesn’t have to be confined to your comfy chair in your special place in your house, with your vast assortment of highlighters, and all the right worship music. It is living life, being aware of His presence, and responding to His love by bearing good fruit to all He puts in our lives. Jesus says in John 15:16,
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.
You, Beloved, have been chosen by the Father. He has great things in store for you! Make the choice to commune with Him today and see what He reveals!
This post was written by Allison House. To read more about her, click here.
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