Make time for God
June 3 - June 7, 2024 | Always Peachy Devotionals | Habits Week 1
Have you ever looked at your to-do list and cried?
I have. Well, maybe not cried, but certainly laid my face on my desk and pretended to be a paperweight for a little while. Life is BUSY. And it only get busier the older you get. I used to this “old people” made that up.
You know. Old people. Folks in their 40s.
Yes, you can roll your eyes. Everyone has ridiculous ideas of what makes someone “old” when they are 16.
I learned the truth of how busy life gets when I hit college, and no matter how hard I tried to make the most of every moment, time still got away from me. What I discovered, though, is that your level of busyness is directly connected to how many thing you agree do to.
Did you know that?
I mean, I know that sounds obvious, but I don’t think we always factor in how busy we make ourselves. When we agree to do things—even good things—we’re committing our limited time to accomplish a task that may or may not actually be important. That’s why setting priorities matters so much. If you don’t have priorities in place, you’ll agree to things that don’t actually matter and turn away from things that do.
So how do you set your priorities? How do you know what matters in your life? How can you tell if the goal you’re pursuing is even worth the effort?
Okay, so it’s impossible to really cover all of this in the time we’ve got, and let’s just be honest here: I’m not sure I’m the best person to even answer these questions. I’m still too busy. I still say yes to too many things for not-always-the-best reasons. I’m still learning how this works.
So maybe that makes me a good person to ask?
In any case, that’s what we’re going to talk about in this very busy month of June. But we’re going to come at it a little bit sideways. We’re not going to talk about goal setting. We’re not going talk about time management. We’re not going to talk about self-care. All of those things are important, but let’s get straight on what those elements of life are: Symptoms.
If you set bad goals, if you can’t manage your time, if you don’t know how to take care of yourself, these are all indications of a larger root problem, and equipping you to deal with the symptom of the problem won’t actually solve it.
What we are going to talk about in the month of June is our habits. We all have habits. We all have routines that we follow, systems that we’ve put in place in our lives (whether we realize it or not), and like it or not, our habits often dictate our priorities.
Are you honoring God with your habits? Do your habits set you up for a deep and meaningful relationship with God? Will your habits build a foundation of faith in your life? Do they establish an eternally focused mindset in your heart?
That’s what habits do. Show me someone with holy habits, and I’ll show you someone with their priorities in order—even if their life may seem a bit chaotic from the outside looking in.
This week, we are going to focus on one of the most challenge habits to build in our lives. Making time for God. You wouldn’t think it’s difficult, but most Christians struggle to have a productive daily quiet time with Jesus. Why?
I think the reason is primarily spiritual. Spending real quality time with God every day will have the greatest, most powerful influence on your life. That’s why our enemy doesn’t want you to do it. The enemy will throw every distraction possible at you, because if he can keep you busy and not focused on who God is, he can cut you off from your power supply.
Don’t let him.
So this week, we’re going to talk about strategies for how to make time with God no matter what season of life you’re in. Don’t ever believe that you don’t have time for Jesus. You do.
June 3 - Rising early (Psalm 5:3)
June 4 - Reading God’s Word (Psalm 119:13-16)
June 5 – Talking to God (Matthew 14:23)
June 6 – Being still (Psalm 46:10)
June 7 – Building community (Hebrews 10:24-25)
Don’t let the world or the enemy or your own sense of perfectionism tell you that you don’t have time to spend with Jesus. It’s the most important thing you can do. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the morning. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the afternoon. It doesn’t matter if it’s at night. Whenever it is, just do it.
How can you even attempt to set a priority in your life if you don’t know Jesus well enough to understand what He expects?
Along those lines, I felt led to Colossians 3:2 as our memory verse for this week.
As followers of Jesus, eternity should be our focus. And, no, that’s not being “so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good.” That’s religious. If you live with heaven and eternity in your mindset, you will better be able to know when something on earth is worth your effort. That’s how you know if something deserves your attention—because if it’s eternal, you need to invest in it.
Fix your heart on Jesus. Fix your mind on heaven. Fix your eyes on the next right step. That’s your priority for this week.
Love you guys.
Amy
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