Morning Quiet Time: Who Speaks First?

I found two notes in the margin of my Bible as I was reading this morning that stopped me in my tracks. 

The passage was from Exodus 29. It was about the consecration of the priests and I was maybe not paying quite as much attention to priest consecration as I should. When I came to verse 43, I had to backtrack to get the full impact. I'll show you the two verses that spoke to me, then tell you what I learned.

"It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations

 at the doorway of the tent of meeting before the Lord, 

where I will meet with you, to speak to you there. 

And they shall know that I am the Lord their God 

who brought them out of the land of Egypt, 

that I might dwell among them. "  

Exodus 29:42, 46 nasb

My notes in the margin of my Bible (from 2/2005) read:

"The purpose of meeting with God daily is for Him to speak to me."

"The reason for bringing them out of bondage was so that God could dwell with them."

I don't know about you, but sometimes I forget who is supposed to be talking in these early morning quiet times of mine. There are days when my routine goes something like this:

Read a little Scripture. Run through a litany of prayer requests. Proceed to my day.

That's not the way quiet time with the Lord is supposed to go. 

It's not called quiet time because God is supposed to be quiet before us. It's called quiet time because we  are supposed to be quiet before Him. 

I hate to admit this, but I kinda wanted to read over what I'd written yesterday before I got to quiet time this morning. My laptop was in my hand, but I set it aside. "No, Lord. I'd rather hear from You first," I said and reached for my Bible. 

I was cruising through the passage when Exodus 29:42 hit me like a palm to the forehead. "I'd rather speak to you first, too," it seemed as if the Lord said. "I want to dwell with you. That's why I brought you out of your sinful life."

It's what God wants with all of us. He wants to abide, to dwell with us. To speak with us and help us live the kind of lives He intended for us.

We don't have to do life alone. God stands ready to walk through it with us, but the choice is ours.

Will we stop talking long enough to listen? 

Will we step outside our Egypt of sin and allow Him to dwell with us? 

We have a choice to make, and it's one we must make every day. 

No matter how busy we are, no matter how many concerns burden our hearts, the first One who should speak as we begin our day is the Lord God Almighty. If we'll listen, we might find He has exactly the words we needed to hear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our next Friday Night with Friends guest blog will post at 6 pm this Friday night. You don't want to miss it!

In case you missed one of the past week's posts, here are the links: Behavior That Demonstrates Belief, Answered Prayer: The Bulletproof Vest, Bringing Good from Tragedy: Wives of Warriors Make a Difference, Friday Night with Friends: New Beginning, The Temperament Test and Married Oneness, Leaving a Legacy: Choices That Last for Generations, Jumping to Conclusions: The Terrorists That Were Not, Nothing is Impossible: Ayman al-Zawahiri

#quiettime #Godspeaks #chronologicalBible #devotions #JesusChrist #disciple #wordofGod #Biblestudy #Bible

A visit at Martha's house, part 17: Priority

But the Lord answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:41-42 NASB)

We come now to the last phrase in our Lord's reply to Martha, and it is beautiful. Listen with your heart to these words again, "Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." In the midst of many choices and distractions, Mary had positioned herself at the feet of our Lord, and He defended her choice. In fact, His words left no doubt. What she had chosen "shall not" be taken away from her. The important part of Mary's choice was not just that she initially made the choice. The important part, the part that gained the commendation of Christ, was that she stayed put, despite the interruptions and distractions. Because she demonstrated by her actions that she was serious about her time with Christ, He was serious about protecting that time. 

In the early years of my faith, the busyness of my life easily crowded out my time for Bible study, meditation, and worship. It was only when I made a serious change in priority, making time with my Lord the first priority, that I began to learn the truth of these words. Was it hard to carve out that time? Of course. I chose the time at the beginning of my day for worship and Bible study, which meant that I would be getting up earlier and sleeping a little less. The first one who had to understand that I meant business about the new schedule was me. Did my family suffer as a result of my decision? Certainly not, but the new schedule did mean that I arose earlier and had to do more to prepare for our morning the night before. 

Just as Mary found, when I became seriously committed to my time with our Lord, He was equally committed to protecting that time. There are still interruptions and distractions, but far fewer than at the beginning, because the words of Christ are as true for me and you as they were for Mary. Though the choice to spend time with our Lord is one that must be made over and over again, what I have chosen, what we have chosen, in terms of time with Christ, will not be taken away from us.

Jesus was referring to Mary's choice of time with Him over housework and "preparations" but He was also referring to her heart of love for Him. Her pure, unbounded love gave Him great delight, and He would not have it snatched away by the condemnation or judgment of her sister. He protected her loving heart, just as He longs to do for us. 

Please don't mistake my intent here. Housework and meal preparation have to be done, as well as the work of earning a living, and there were tasks that even Mary could not avoid. The problem is not doing the work of running a household or earning a living; the problem is one of priority. Which is most important to us? Is it getting all the work done in a certain manner and by a certain time or is it serving Christ with every action, every step we take? 

King David learned the importance of priority and made time with God the predominant prayer of His life. May we, too, pray (and seek) with David, that we might dwell in the presence of our Lord, both in solitude as well as while we go along our way, all the days of our lives.  

One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple. (Psalms 27:4 NASB)

Power from Prayer

One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing. (Luke 5:17 NASB)

This was a hard verse for me, because of that last phrase. It sounded to me as if Jesus had power at times and other times did not, but the word for power used here is also used in other passages to describe the power that emanated from Him. It is the power that the woman with the hemorrhage of blood accessed when she touched the hem of His garment. This is not intermittent power Jesus had that day, it means even greater power. My difficulty in understanding came from failing to take the verse in context. Charles Spurgeon clarified the situation for me when he wrote, in his sermon "Carried by Four" (#981) in 1871:

"He withdrew into the wilderness to hold communion with his Father, and, as a consequence, to come forth clothed with an abundance of healing and saving power. Not but that in himself as God he always had that power without measure; but for our sakes he did it, that we might learn that the power of God will only rest upon us in proportion as we draw near to God."

Jesus had just returned from a prayer retreat in the wilderness, which was the source of His direction and strength. This verse demonstrates for us the abundance of power available from time spent drawing near to God.

Selah. Pause and consider. 

Jesus was fully human and fully God. In His humanness, He consciously made an effort to go to a quiet place and spend time in private prayer and listening (conversation) with God. As a result of that time, He had greater power. Spurgeon is right. It points out to us what is available if we were just willing to spend serious time seeking God and drawing near to Him. 

In this past year, did you experience an abundance of power from on high? Could it be that lack of power is a result of a lack of prayer time?  As we begin 2014, commit to seek The Lord to such a degree that He will be able to use you for the miraculous because of the power of God that rests upon you. This power only comes from God and only comes out of quality quiet time with Him, but it is as available today as it was in Jesus's time. 

Pray today that God will draw us and our loved ones into such relationship with Him that we emerge from our time with Him clothed in His power and His righteousness. 

Priorities (Luke 4:42)

And when day came, He departed and went to a lonely place; and the multitudes were searching for Him, and came to Him and tried to keep Him from going away from them. (Luke 4:42 NASB)

In the preceding verses, a spontaneous healing service had begun (probably outside Simon's mother-in-law's house) at sunset. Jesus turned no one away, and Scripture tells us that ALL with any who were sick brought them. It suggests he dealt with a crowd of sick people. It's not clear how long the service lasted, but at daybreak, He headed out. Jesus needed time with His Father, and He headed to a quiet place where He could be alone. It didn't matter that He had a rough Sabbath yesterday, that He had been up late (possibly all night), or that He was exhausted. The source of His power, strength, and perseverance came from that quiet time, and He was not about to miss it. It took precedence over everything else, including the accolades and demands of the crowds. 

It was a matter of PRIORITY.  He knew what was most important, and He did it. There was no whining about how tired He was, how much He had to do, or how many people were making demands on Him, nor did those things deter Him. He needed time with His Father and He took that time. Because He did, we never see the consequences of missed quiet times in His life. 

We do see the consequences of missed quiet times of prayer and Bible study in our own lives, though, don't we? How diligent are you about being still with the Father? How faithful are you to be quiet enough to hear the Still Small Voice in your heart?  If our loved ones are to see the evidence of following Christ in our lives, we must actually follow Him and the example He set. That example begins with making time with the Father our highest priority. 

Today, pray for a clear understanding of your present priorities, a godly reordering where needed, and the fruit of time alone with God to be evident in your life. Pray, too, that our loved ones will begin a priority restructuring of their own and that they will begin to have regular times of prayer and Bible study that become an ongoing way of life.