But like skipping breakfast in the morning leaves us hungry and unprepared for the physical demands of our day, heading out the door with no spiritual "food" in our souls leaves us empty, malnourished, and unprepared for the spiritual demands of our day.
Each of us face different competing distractions. Pastor and speaker Chip Ingram gives a great example of making decisions in advance to help keep our priorities in order in his Bible study "Balancing Life's Demands." He shares how he set a goal to spend time in Bible reading and prayer every morning.
To help him be consistent, he decided in advance that because eating breakfast was very important to him, and he would never dream of leaving home in the morning without eating breakfast, that he would not allow himself to eat breakfast in the morning unless he had already read his Bible. His desire to eat breakfast helped motivate him to have his quiet time each day. It also put a priority on reading God's word. By putting time in the Word ahead of anything else, it set the tone for his whole day.
My temptation has often been good literature. I will find myself spending an hour or two reading a book, but will reach the end of my day without having spent any time reading the most important book of all, the Bible. To help myself be consistent in having a quiet time, I decided that I will not read any other reading material until I have first read my Bible. This decision helps me keep first things first.
What competes with your time with God?
Is it television? Facebook? Surfing the internet? Talking with friends? Even good things can squeeze out the best thing of all. I encourage you to identify what is squeezing out your time with God, then reorder your priorities in order to put God first.
I know God will richly bless you for it.
"But seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" (Matthew 6:33).
This post speaks to many of us. There are so many distractions to take our attention away from God each day. What a great example Chip Ingram shared. We need God's Word daily more than food and water. Knowing that, helps me stay in His Word daily. Thanks for the reminder! God bless you:)
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid we had an acronym called "N.B.N.B". This meant : No Bible, no breakfast. This has really helped me throughout the years to be consistent with having a daily quiet time. Oh yes indeed, there are times when I have skipped having my quiet time for whatever inexcusable reason and those have been the most "dry" days of my life.
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting thing is that I was talking about exactly what you have posted about yesterday to my pre-teen church. The Holy Spirit will definitely show us things over and over to get the point across !! Thanks for this post Lori.
I am so guilty of choosing my smart phone and social media over time with God. It breaks my heart that I've allowed this to go on for so long. God is really convicting me and showing me where I need to make changes which is where the Living Intentionally Challenge arose from. Thank you so much for sharing this post with us. I definitely needed to read it! Blessings to you!
ReplyDeleteI found your link from Heather Bowen's Upside Down Homeschooling page. You had linked this with the Living Intentionally Day Four post. I really enjoyed reading your blog post! It is so true! We (I) really should treat my relationship with God the same as I would other relationships and activities that I feel are important. What a great and gentle reminder you typed. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI think we're all guilty of misplaced priorities, and as you sweet ladies have affirmed, it's a daily struggle to choose the BEST over the good. I've found when I do this, God always blesses. Thanks so much for commenting :)
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