A Quiet Place

For many of us, we have to hit rock bottom in order to be open to hearing from God. Jacob ends up wrestling with God when he is alone and surrounded by hard. He had been keeping himself so busy that he never stopped to listen to God. Can you relate? Many of us pack our lives full of soccer games, school events, work, social gatherings, side-hustles, Bible study groups, and housework that we never have a quiet moment to be with God. Maybe Jacob wrestled with God because it was the only way he was going to stop and evaluate his own life. We are too busy with our routines that we never stop to evaluate what we believe, where we are with God, and where we are going. We set out to run away, with no thought about where we might end up. But God gives us purpose and direction. When life is hard, we can run toward God. He doesn’t promise to take our suffering away right now, but he does promise to take all suffering away in the end. First Peter 1:3-7 says this: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold, which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (CSB). We can run towards what is hard because we have a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus. We can run toward hard because we have an inheritance kept in Heaven for us that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. We can run toward hard because we are being guarded by God’s power. And we can run toward hard because this hard is refining our faith so that our lives can result in praise, glory, and honor to Jesus. Reflection/Discussion Question: How can you start to implement more moments of quiet in your day in order to run toward God?

If I raise my tithe, how will I pay my mortgage? If I invest in my small group outside of student ministry, how will I have time to myself? If I quit my job, how will I support my family? We’ve most likely all asked similar questions as we’ve been confronted with God’s command to sacrifice. But if I sacrifice this, what will happen? How? When? Where? What? We want to know that we will still be taken care of if we make the sacrifice God is asking, but part of the sacrifice is trusting in God’s character. He promises to equip us, provide for us, and strengthen us, so that we have all we need to accomplish his purpose. We want our decisions to be logical, strategic, and planned. So does God! But his logic, strategy, and plan will often look vastly different than what our human minds can conceive. We almost want to bargain with God: “Okay, I’ll sacrifice this, but you need to pay me back because if you don’t, I can’t buy groceries for my family this week.” We are worried that God will forget about us, leave us empty-handed, or watch us fall flat on our faces. While God doesn’t promise those things won’t happen, he does promise to provide what we need, when we need it. When God asks us to engage in his work, he isn’t asking us to go alone. He’s asking to go where he’s already gone ahead. He’s asking us to join him where he already is. God is faithful in keeping his promises. If he is asking us to sacrifice, he will provide what we need. It may not look like what we expected or even hoped, but the question we must wrestle with is this: Do you trust that Christ is enough?  DISCUSSION/REFLECTION QUESTIONS: How have you seen God provide for you in times of need throughout your life?

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!