God and Time
Lord of my time
One of the great lessons of life and relationships is that there is no substitute for time. Here is an even greater truth: there is no substitute for time alone with the Lord. In any relationship, time is the vital element. From friendships to marriage, you cannot cheat time. It takes time to develop intimacy. Dennis Jernigan, the great gospel songwriter, says, “Intimacy is… into me see.” No matter what excuses a person gives, no matter what a person says, show me where time is spent and I will show you what is important to the person. Where a person spends his or her time is a view into the soul. Consider these thoughts:
“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” William Penn
“Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.” Theophrastus
“Lost time is never found again.” Benjamin Franklin
A daily quiet time with God is a dramatic necessity for relationship with the Lord. It is in our daily quiet time that we study the Bible, pray, and listen to the Lord. These practices bring life and vitality to our soul. But, the morning watch is not the goal; it is not the end. The goal is not to be so disciplined that we habitually have a quiet time with the Lord every morning for an hour. No, the whole purpose of time with the Lord in the morning is know Christ, have His presence in our life, to be connected with Him throughout the entire day.
The goal of spending time with Christ is to have His character become our character. For our life to be hidden in His life, His nature to become our nature, and His habits our habits. It is possible to become so intimately acquainted with a practice, a way of doing something that you can do it without thinking. It becomes second nature, natural. When we find the secret place of abiding in Christ, our ordinary, daily interactions with people will become oh such more than mundane. They will be majestic opportunities to fulfill God’s purposes. We will become fruitful Christians. All fruitfulness of this kind flows out of intimacy with Him.
There are two great hindrances to prayer. Listen carefully with your spirit as I write. Revelations 3:6 states, “Let him that has an ear to hear listen to what the Spirit is saying.” The two great hindrances to prayer are busyness and worldliness. Busyness steals our time to pray, and worldliness diverts our will from prayer. If a person is too busy to pray, they are too busy to live a life that is wholly given to Jesus.
You cannot give to others what you do not possess yourself. It is truly in our private times of prayer and devotion that His presence increases within us. If your heart’s desire is to influence others for Christ, give hope to the hopeless, and speak words of encouragement to the weary, then you must have the presence of the Lord in your life. A presence that is attained by spending quiet time with Him is the one constant that must be present in your life.
Jesus withdrew to a lonely, deserted place. He knew where he had to go to be alone. Do you have a place to pray? If you don’t, that may indicate that you probably don’t pray often.
He has all the time in the world. And He does not see time as we see time. He can accomplish His purposes in four days, forty days, or forty years. He is in no hurry. You cannot hurry the spirit.
I am perfectly confident that the man who does not spend hours along with God will never know the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The world must be left outside until God alone fills the vision…God has promised to answer prayer. It is not that He is unwilling, for the fact is, He is more willing to give than we are to receive. But the trouble is, we are not ready. Oswald J. Smith
There must be closet praying! It is in the closet that we establish the beautiful habit of spontaneous praying on every occasion. When we are fresh out of the closet we are quick to pray about every turn of events. Unceasing prayer is God’s avenue for His children to react to all happenings. Clyde Martin
Oh how few find time for prayer! There is time for everything else, time to sleep and time to eat, time to red the newspaper and the novel, time to visit friends, time for everything else under the sun, but no time for prayer, the most important of all things, the one great essential. Oswald Smith
Tim Cameron