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).
