Finding Time for God
Because you’re reading this, it means you’re dedicating time toward God—you’re dedicating time to learn about Him and to grow closer to Him. God recognizes this in you, and I encourage you to continue. The path you are on will provide you much more in return than spending time on less fruitful activities. Why is this? We know that when we spend our time learning about God or simply marveling at His creations, it provides us a sense of contentment, happiness, and, most of all, hope. So why don’t we spend more time with God? Why does it seem so difficult to find time to devote to Him? Finding time for God is difficult at best, but it is possible to grow closer to God while keeping up with the demands of our lives.
When we feel the pressure of demands upon our time, we all think about an easier lifestyle. We dream about a time when people would spend time just sitting on the porch and visiting with each other, or a time when a community had the willingness to pull together to help a family. But then reality sets in, and we soon realize that free time seems to be a thing of the past. We find ourselves saying: “I need to find more time,” “I’ll make time for it,” or “I wish there was more time in the day.” We all seem to struggle with the demands placed upon our time. We wish we had more of it so we could spend more time with our spouse, our children, close friends, at church, or simply volunteering for something worthwhile. Sadly, as we live our lives going from day to day, week to week, and year to year, we seem to push God further and further into obscurity.
As a human race, we have progressed by surrounding ourselves with things that promise to make our lives easier; and therefore, we look to these things as a way to provide us more free time. We’ve all heard the claims made by companies marketing their products with the promise that we will have more free time for the things we enjoy. Claims that promise more free time if only we use the newest sweeper that will pick up dirt quicker, or the washing machine that will wash clothes more efficiently. Or the exercise equipment that promises to get us in shape by spending only two minutes a day exercising. Or the cell phone and computer that save us time by helping us stay in touch. So why is it that when we surround ourselves with these products, we still don’t have an abundance of free time? Maybe it is because we spend our free time chasing after endless promises of happiness in products, or multitasking in an effort to keep up with an incredible amount of information from family, friends, and coworkers. We spend an exorbitant amount of time watching T.V. in an effort to stay on top of our favorite reality shows. Or we may spend our time watching sports channels in an effort to keep up with the endless amount of commentary analysis or details about players. Or maybe we dedicate time to playing games on a computer, living a “2nd life,” or scanning Facebook’s endless social information, or typing on cell phones. We eventually realize that even though our gadgets promise to “save us time,” these activities seem to consume more of our time instead of freeing up our time. After a while, we discover that we are just spinning our wheels trying to keep up with messages from hundreds of Facebook friends or information about things we can, well, do without. The end result is that we have become more selfish with our time. We spend our time chasing our tails instead of dedicating it toward God. And in an effort to run away from our responsibility toward God, we convince ourselves that “next week” we will have more free time for Church, reading the Bible, or fellowship.
As much as we may not want to admit the obvious, we all know that time is predictable. We know how much time we have from one day to another. We cannot make more of it, and nothing is taking it from us. Everyone reading this article has the exact same amount of time in the next 24 hours as everybody else. So it all boils down to how we as individuals choose to prioritize our time through our daily decisions. Each of us makes a conscious decision to determine where God exists in the list of commitments. And based on the fact that each of us are in control of how we spend our time, all we need to learn is how to bring God to the forefront of our daily activities.
How do we bring God to the forefront? Consider the following: Isn’t it interesting that we find time to take out the trash, but we don’t have time to read one verse from the Bible? We have time to post a picture on Facebook of the restaurant where we just ate, but we don’t seem to have the time to give thanks to God prior to eating the meal. We spend time scolding the driver in front of us, but we don’t have time to reflect on the sermon preached on Sunday. We have time to watch hours of football on a weekend, but we don’t have time to give an hour to participating in a Bible study. We spend time gossiping about a coworker having an affair, but we find it difficult to spend time offering a kind word to somebody in despair. We think about the latest trend, but we don’t spend time calling or visiting with a friend.
There are simple things in our daily life that we can change that will turn negatives into positives, that takes us from the selfish to the servant, and encourages us to go from Godless to the God-filled. We must teach ourselves how to recognize moments in our lives that either become a wedge between us and God, or an opportunity to grow closer to God. God calls us to be His servant, and it is because of God’s call upon us that we need to discern ways in which we can glorify Him through our actions. Simple acts throughout our day provide us opportunities to demonstrate our love of God. We must resist the temptation to be pulled away from God, and instead, we need to learn how to glorify God through our actions; and as we do this, we will realize that God is using us to bring hope into the world.
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
–Matthew 11:28-30
In the verse above, the words, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden" are Christ’s invitation to us to walk with Him. And when we accept His invitation, His promise to us is, "I will give you rest." As we begin to discern what is important in our lives, we make room in our heart to allow Christ to grow within us. With Christ growing in our heart, our burden will be lightened, and our soul will find peace.
Growing closer to God is not about “having time”; it’s about the small choices we make each day of our lives. Each day we can choose to overwhelm ourselves with this world, or we can choose to grow closer to God by simply changing some of our basic habits. We need to challenge ourselves to simply change what we say, what we do, and set limits on those things which pull us away from God. Watching football games, exercising, playing games, reading magazines—these are all fine, but if we are truly committed to God, then we will change our ways so that we accommodate God in all of our actions. When God is at the forefront of our mind, our ears will open to God’s will, and our eyes will begin to notice God working in our lives.
Dear Father God,
I find it is easy to get wrapped up in my day-to-day life activities and ignore You. It seems more often I find other things to fill my time than reflecting on You. Deep inside of me, I sense that I am walking further and further into a dense forest, knowing eventually I will be lost. Please God, guide me back to the path you are on by helping me to discern the important things in my life. Help me to start by challenging myself to pick one minute of my day where I avoid giving my time to less positive activities such as gossip, complaining, watching T.V., or some other activity; and instead, devote that minute toward reflecting on You. And as I learn how to increasingly make You part of my daily life, I know my burden will be lightened, and my soul will find peace.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
