How is your prayer life? Would you like to grow in this area of your walk with God? In the devotions I am writing for you this week, I have gleaned many truths from Dr. Charles Stanley's message on prayer. (You can listen to the entire message
here.) We can invest our time wisely, or we can waste time. To waste the gift of time God gives is a sin against God. Stanley said that defining time is difficult, because we cannot touch or see it; time is the "dimension in which things exist." We measure our chronology with calendars, clocks, and watches, but it is irreversible. Once a moment in time is gone, we can never bring it back. Every second that passes, we are getting closer to death and to meeting God and eternity. Life and time can be short or long. You can have all this world offers, but when your time is up, you do not have anything. Time matters.
The Greeks had two primary words translated time in English.
Chronos is where we get the word chronology, and it refers to literal time.
Kairos refers more to seasons or epochs of time. Both are important, and we would do well to maximize every second and each season our heavenly Father grants to us. Now is the allotted time God in His sovereign choosing has allowed you and me to be alive. These are exciting and challenging times indeed. With each passing day, we draw closer to when our Lord will return to take us to be with Him!
Rest is important and not a waste of time. We should plan downtime, create margins in our busy lives where we can relax and be rejuvenated. Many are wasting away their waking hours. How about you? How are you spending or investing your time? Some believe they do not have enough time to do what needs to be done. But God has given us all the time we need to do His will every day. The absolute best ways we can spend our time are prayer, reading the Word, and worshiping God with His people, the Church. We have enough time to serve Christ and accomplish all He has for us to do. He does not require what we cannot do. We will always have the time to obey Him.
The first 30 years of Jesus' life was spent in a carpenters' shop. His public ministry lasted 3.5 years. He only had about 1,000 days to serve in this way, but look what all He did! Jesus valued time. He was never in a hurry or anxious. He did the Father's will perfectly, and in Him, we see the kind of peaceful and meaningful life we can live. In
Mark 1:35, Jesus is up early praying. He prayed all night before He chose the disciples; He prayed morning and evening, in the Garden of Gethsemane, and even on the cross. Jesus spent much time in prayer to the Father. Do you? The great people of God who make an impact are men and women who are people of prayer.
I encourage you to fight for your time alone with God in your quiet time. Keep going. When you do not feel like praying are the times when you need to pray the most.
Tomorrow I will share with you more on the doctrine of prayer and how praying actually saves us time!
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