My time with the Lord

Today was the first day that I decided, once again, that I was going to make time for the Lord. I've done this in the past and its been such a good, positive experience...you would think I wouldn't stop huh? But I get tired. I am a full time mother, wife, employee and friend. What time does that leave me right??  To get up an hour early when I could be dreaming and resting up for the day ahead just doesn't make sense to me in the natural. But in getting that extra hour of sleep or making time for me by watching some drama on tv or reading a book in the evening instead of getting in the Word, my spirit man is starving. It's dehydrated and weak, susceptible to sickness and attack. Things that I could easily let fall off my back become stuck in the trap that is my everyday life. Little things seem big. Stress grows into a mountain from a mole hill. When I don't make time to spend with my God, it completely alters my life and sadly enough I don't realize it until it's ALMOST too late. Too late to me would be becoming prideful in life and not realizing my dependency on God and losing my humility and need for Christ daily. Too late would never ever mean God turning His back on me, He said He never would. Which is all the more reason to learn more about him, to invest in his life story, to dive head first into his love for me everyday. I want to start my day right and today I did.

For a few months now I've felt very dry and disconnected. I've been asking God what's going on. Why am I feeling so lost and empty? I would pick up my bible from time to time, blow the dust off of it, and read for about 3 minutes and then would lose interest because it did nothing "for me" and continue to complain. Why God? Why am I feeling this way? Why don't I feel you near me anymore? And there would be moments, like my miracle (see my last post on that) that would happen and I would remember how good God is in my life so I would pick up my bible a little more, there would be less dust and I would read a little longer because I was beginning to read about a man whose spirit dwells within me. I was beginning to see the need to get into the Word as more of something I could learn more from not something I could receive more from. Don't get me wrong, I firmly believe the God breathed, spirit inspired Word of the Lord was given to us to bless us, grow us, strengthen us and challenge us in our daily lives. But when my focus became more about him and less about me, my heart started to change. I wasn't being selfish, trying to figure out how to change me and search through the bible like it was a self help, quick fix, kind of book. I was learning more about the only one living inside me that could change me from the inside out and the more I'm learning about Jesus the more I'm seeing less of me and more of him. It's a win win situation.

Someone that has inspired me so much with the benefits of getting into God's Word has been George Mueller. He was a dedicated man to God and the fruits in his life showed just that. Here is a caption on George Mueller's life:

How George Mueller read God’s Word

Living by faith

George Mueller lived in England in the 1800′s.  He lived by faith — founding orphanages, relying on God for finances, seeing miraculous answers to prayer.

How he read the Bible

“I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord.

“The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished.

“For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed … and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit …

“Now I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, whilst meditating, my heart might be brought into experimental [experiential], communion with the Lord …

“The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God; searching, as it were, into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of public ministry of the Word; not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon; but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.

“The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer …

“The result of this is, that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession mingled with my meditation, and that my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart.

“I dwell so particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself, and I affectionately and solemnly beseech all my fellow-believers to ponder this matter.”

• His priority each day was to nourish his soul in the Word.
• He was not content with knowing about God — he wantedexperiential communion with God.
• Experiential communion with God happened through meditating on God’s Word.
• He mingled meditation on God’s Word with prayer over God’s Word.
• With rare exceptions this resulted in peace and even joy.

-Thank you Lord for being patient with me during my human moments. You are the only one that will never hold my failures against me. I love the time that we had this morning and I look forward to the next time we meet face to face to slow dance a little, talk a little, and just be in each others presence. I know you enjoy my time just as much as I do with you. You bring peace to my mind, comfort to my soul and rest for my body. Thank you that you rejuvenate me in the mornings so that I can be a vessel for you throughout each day. James 4:8 says "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you". Thank you Father that you draw closer to me when I draw close to you. You never leave or abandon me but I thank you that you draw even closer to me when I draw into you. You are the stillness that I need in my life. You are the song that I need to hear throughout the day. You are the rock that I want to build my whole existence on. Without you I fail, but with you I conquer giants because of your spirit working in me. I love you my Savior.

Jodi Shavon