Prioritize Quiet Prayer Time

I started by getting up 15 minutes earlier, before work, to pray. I set my alarm clock, wondering what I could say for a whole 15 min! But soon realized that time was so sweet and not enough time, so I extended it to 30 minutes. Then I decided to add in 20-30 minutes of my Devotionals needing done. There was the SECC FB devotional, my Freedom in Christ workbook homework devotional, my FIC daily devotional book, my FIC phone app of prayers needing said, my ladies group Bible app devotional…. And on it goes. I soon found myself just busting through them to get them all done in the allotted time (Checked off my To Do list in the shortest amount of time!) That is not the heart of God! I had turned my God Time into a list of tasks needing completed! So I’ve asked him to show me what to let go. To just pick one or two and meditate on it slowly and listen to what he is trying to show me today, instead of feeling good about myself that I got all the boxes ticked! I’ve stopped trying to tick through my prayer checklist of “bless him, bless her, do this, do that” - instead just sitting in a posture of waiting and listening. I pray for him to show me the best way to be in his presence, sitting at His feet. Just being with my beloved. I want to be a Mary, not a Martha

I was in the habit of praying, early in the morning, alone, in a room when no one was around and I’ve slowly gotten out of the habit. This challenge has made me think about praying ANY time I am alone. One such time really jumps out to me - my Mom and Dad are living as snowbirds in FL and they have purchased a little bit bigger home (which they hadn’t closed on yet) - for all the guests they have - well they were starting to stress about selling the smaller home they already had. They were having to clean, pack up the dog and leave at a moments notice almost daily. Every Saturday they had to vacate the house and it was becoming very stressful. I was visiting over Spring Break last week, and they were out running errands, didn’t want to bother me, but asked if I could get the dog out of the house for them, they had a showing in 20 minutes. I didn’t think about doing this until I entered the home, but I prayed- I was alone. I asked God for the person coming to see the house be so passionate about having the home that they would make an offer that day. I just can’t capture the feeling in words, but I just knew God placed his hand on the situation and it felt amazing when my Mom sent me a text - we have a verbal offer! I told her what I did and we both got those happy tears, you know the ones you get when you know, you just know the creator of all things truly loves you and craves time with you. My alone time prayers have increased for many other things, I’m not perfectly following a schedule, but I love pouring my heart out to our Father in heaven and know he is ready to listen at any moment. Appreciate the challenge!

Each morning my wife and I get up between 4-4:30am. We take the time to discuss plans for the day and read a daily devotional out of one of many books we have. We have both noticed on days when we don’t make the time to read our devotional something within us seems to be off. For me, it’s usually my patience with others. I become very critical of what everyone else around me is or isn’t doing. I become irritated in traffic. My whole day becomes unbalanced. Taking that time in the morning and devoting it to communing with the Lord equips me with the whole armor of God spoke about in Ephesians. If I don’t prepare myself for the battle each morning, I always feel defeated by something. As I continue to grow in the body of Christ I’m learning how critical it is for me to devote that time to the Father.

I have always been very inconsistent with my quiet time and bible study. I have also been very structured between work and personal. This translated to thinking that my bible study has to be done at home. That meant early in the morning before I went to work or at night at the end of my day. I am an early riser jumping out of bed and with my mind going a hundred miles per hour with work ideas. Not good for quiet time undistracted. At night I am tired from the day. In October I set aside quiet time at work after my initial purge of ideas and critical items. This has given me peace and I have not missed a day since Oct. I have never accomplished this in the past. If I miss a morning I feel incomplete and find time later in the day. I find I truly miss it! My lesson was to stop creating constraint that are not there and having God as a part of all my life. Not just certain sections defined by me.

Our rest needs be physically renewing and emotionally restoring to truly create the rhythm that God intended for us. Additionally, does your rest reconnect you relationally? We see this value throughout the New Testament when Jesus is talking to his people about these rhythms of rest, it's almost always done while placing a priority on community. While quiet alone time is important, we see in Scripture that Sabbath and rest were things  done with other people. Reconnecting relationally requires intentionality though. This may sound counterintuitive at first, but it can help to schedule some unscheduled time to simply be with people and then repeat it consistently.  Finally, does your rest renew you spiritually? Maybe it's going for a long walk outside, maybe it's taking a nap on a Sunday afternoon, or maybe it's coming to church and worshiping with others as a way to feel refreshed and renewed. You schedule your rest; you live with that rhythm. Jesus offers us this invitation because it is through him that we find rest. His yoke is easy. His burden is light. Our strength is found in him.  We pray that God would make us more intentional and consistent about living life with these rhythms, because it will connect you more deeply to him and to other people, and ultimately will result in much greater productivity in life.  DISCUSSION/REFLECTION QUESTION: What are some things you can do to renew yourself spiritually this week that you maybe haven't tried before?

The second half of Matthew 11:28-30 tells us that Jesus is gentle and humble in heart. Jesus is telling us in this passage that with him, you will find the rest for your soul, a deep rest, which many of us are missing in our lives. A lot of us feel tired and worn out on a regular basis, to the point where we have almost no energy for people that we love and no energy to take care of things that need to be taken care of.  Jesus also tells us in this passage that in him you'll find a different kind of rest for your souls, and when you're with him, his yoke is easy and his burden is light. This because he gives us strength that we don't have on our own. But still, many of us believe that we are too busy to connect to Jesus in this way. We're too busy to be the branch and find strength in Jesus as the vine. So, what needs to change in order for you to achieve this rest?  A lot of us think of rest in ways that aren’t truly restful, like scrolling through our phones or binging a show on television. We need to reevaluate how we define rest, and determine if it truly qualifies as being renewing and restful by asking ourselves questions like the following. Does your rest replenish you physically? Does it restore you emotionally? DISCUSSION/REFLECTION QUESTION: What do you need to take off of your calendar? What do you need to be more intentional to do so that you can have the space that you need to experience the rest of the Jesus describes?

One of the most difficult aspect of developing rhythms of rest and renewal can be the consistency side of it. Most of us can stick to doing something for a week, but the major challenge comes the following week and the weeks after. And yet, the idea of rhythm is that there's a consistency to it, where we receive the benefit of it when we commit ourselves to it on an ongoing basis.  In Matthew 11, Jesus offers us an invitation regarding rest. It's important to remember that people are hearing Jesus teach this as a rabbi, and it's not the type of message they would normally hear from a rabbi. Instead, what we know was a problem back then, because Jesus addressed it several times, is that people would come to religious leaders worn out, tired, exhausted, and these leaders would give them heavier burden. Then we read in Matthew 11:28-30 that Jesus opens this passage by saying, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened.” He begins by ensuring we know that this invitation is not to people who have it all together. His invitation is not just to the people who have the right kind of resume or can show how productive they've been during the week. The only prerequisite that Jesus gives here is that you be tired. He is able to offer this invitation because of God’s deep love for us. We can sometimes struggle to understand that God loves you just as much if you didn’t read this content, watch this video, or say any prayers. He loves you just as much if you didn’t do all the things you like you are supposed to in order to be a good Christian. It probably wouldn't give you the right kind of rhythm and it wouldn't help you begin your day out in a way that's honoring him as intentionally, but it doesn't change how much he loves you. DISCUSSION/REFLECTION QUESTION: Do you have a hard time believing that God’s love for you does not change based on what you do or don’t do? Why do you think this can be difficult to believe?

If there was anyone in history who might possibly be immune from the need to rest, we would probably think it was Jesus. Jesus was fully and completely human during his earthly ministry, and we consistently see in the Gospels that he not only took time to rest, but he prioritized it, even when crowds of people surrounded him with a lot of expectations and needs. Jesus was intentional to teach his disciples to live this way as well. Living with this rhythm of rest and renewal is one of the things that separates us as Christians from the rest of the world. In the Gospel of Mark, we read how Jesus talked about and prioritized rest. There are a number of examples throughout the first chapters where he, even with a lot going on in his ministry, models what it looks like to live life with the rhythm of rest and renewal. During this time of busy momentum and consistently massive crowds following him, we might think that this would a time where Jesus would say to his disciples, “I know you're tired, but I'm only here for a little bit. There's a lot that needs to be accomplished. And there's all kinds of people with all kinds of needs. So, now's the time to dig deep. You got to push harder instead.” But we don’t see him say anything like that to his disciples, and we aren’t told that either. Jesus models for us that rest is important. God designed rest to be built into each of our lives, and he knew it was important for every single one of his children, even Jesus.  DISCUSSION/REFLECTION QUESTION: How does it change your perspective on rest to know that even Jesus prioritized it during his ministry?