He Links The Small Words

It seems "too good to be true" that God wants to be close to us with such an intimate caliber, yet, here we are staring the truth in the face that God actually wants that closeness with us nonetheless, unearned and undeserved

What is God telling us?

What is He wanting us to hear . . . to see . . . to feel?

What path of thoughts is He wanting us to travel down?

Do we even believe right now that God is speaking to us?

Do we even believe that He wants to?

    Of course we may think He can which is reasonable to assume . . . because He is God. Remember, He won't make us to do something or be someone . . . but He does greatly desire to lead us. 

Yet, we sometimes treat our relationship with God as if it is one like a dictatorship or some kind of military commander in which we await our orders.

Is that why Jesus died on the cross . . . to obtain little minions or slaves here on earth?

I have heard from so many that they don't hear from God . . . or don't hear Him speak. 

But is that because you're only looking in one place or one thing for Him?

I know many people who say that yet who are reading the scripture every day or attending church regularly. 

The Pharisees in form the scriptures did this better than our common Christian today, yet Jesus said they missed it all completely . . . they missed Him.

So what is the disconnect here?

Do we think He is some Greek god who leaves us chasing omens and signs? 

Sadly that mentality is pretty common in our westernized "Christian cultured" mindset.

How many times do we say, "Well, that must be a sign that God doesn't want me to do that."

Is He just incompetent in communicating clearly to us so He reverts to using signs and vagueness as if He can't speak clearly to us?

How He chooses to speak to us is His choice alone, but within the context that He does not play games with us nor does He choose to be unclear as if He has some sort of malfunctioning communicative ability.

Jesus died on the cross to give us life . . . but what does that even mean??

Let's think of our fall to sin in the garden as a severing from a connection with God with the most intimate nature, to commune and live amongst Him freely without anything hindering us. 

Jesus dying on the cross was the necessary payment needed so that connection to God could be reestablished.

It is the new covenant we have now with God.

That's the life He offers. That in which we once lost we have back again. 

So, knowing that, why would we assume that God speaks in riddles and plays with our heads like a bully? 

    We tend to look for God in all the wrong places and really what it comes down to is we make it harder than it actually is.

Here's what I mean.

We listen for the big words in the big signs and in the big movements.

In our human logic and default reasoning we think he is a big God so everything he does and says must be just big, big, and bigger!

But that's the kind of thinking that keeps us from God.

With that kind of mentality, we know we aren't big enough to actually have a friendship with God, or so we assume in certain moments of our own insecurities.

The enemy, the Devil knows this and so he sends lies that we would believe them and stay outside of the new covenant.

Our enemy can't stop the new covenant's power and authority through Jesus so he attempts to stop us from living through it they way it was meant to be lived and received fully.

    If we were honest with ourselves we would all have to admit that we struggle with some sort of feelings of inadequacy when it comes to our relationship with God.

It's not even that we fear going to God or necessarily even afraid of Him at all. It's actually our own shortcomings and inadequacies and "smallness" that we dread . . . let alone want to face.

It seems "too good to be true" that God wants to be close to us with such an intimate caliber, yet, here we are staring the truth in the face that God actually wants that closeness with us nonetheless, unearned and undeserved.

But for this reason, we often take a stand in false humility, finding a place for ourselves as low as we think we deserve which unfortunately means keeping a certain distance form God.

How tragic it is that we would revert back to an old broken covenant with God when a new one has been bought and paid for at a great great price through Jesus.

We do that every time we distance ourselves from God because we don't feel worthy of Him.

There's a lot of "we"s in there and not a whole lot of what God did!

What does He think?!

What does He want for us?!

We have got to stop thinking for ourselves and start asking Him, "Father, what do You think about me?"

"I don't feel worthy but am I to You?"

"Where is my value in You and what does that look like, Father?"

    How is all of that connected to How He speaks to us in simple ways and in the "smaller" every-day type of situations we may overlook?

If we know who we are, it must be because we are learning who He is.

Here's the thing though and please hear this because this is not just my opinion. 

God is not too big for the small things.

Now I could throw probably about 100 scripture references that can back that up as truth but instead of assuming a defensive position, let us relax knowing that God is big enough to handle small things. 

And that's good news for us considering typically the small things are about all we can handle at a time.

    Let's take something simple like the principle the world God created is bound by. Nothing big ever just happens and comes from something else big.

Something big usually comes from many smaller workings that either build up to that big thing or that big thing is simply a culmination or a combination of many small things.

Look at a baby growing in its mother's womb. It doesn't just instantly come from the father's seed into a baby. It takes many cells all working together to eventually create a human being.

A tree isn't born from the ground a tree but starts as a seedling and over time and within the smallness of days and months grows into a much larger creation. 

The Scriptures make it very clear that God cares and is involved in the details of our lives and not just in the big moments or big opportunities for big parts of them.

    Jesus was not born in some royal palace when He was carried in the womb of a humble human woman and raised in a small obscure town.

I would say the smallness of Jesus' beginnings were paled in comparison and in no way a reflection of the enormity from the ripples He left from His time on this earth. 

He did not choose men of highest nobility nor did he choose men even highly qualified on a large scale to follow him in the beginning of the most important ministry we will ever know. 

Should I go on?

In just my life alone I have seen God work in the smallest of moments and smallest of opportunities that over the years have proved to lead to so much bigger and larger manifestations I could have never imagined on my own. 

God loves to start small and end big.

He appreciates the beauty of detail and within details are always found small aspects often times overlooked.

When He speaks to us, and I promise He always is, He does so woven within the confounds of a simple moment or a small opportunity.

What is incredible is this too feeds our faith and fuels our character's growth to trusting those smaller things to have a much greater impact where they end up having their foot print.

So when I hear someone say something like this . . .

"God just isn't speaking to me"

"I am just not hearing God speak to me"

 . . . I must . . . I have to rephrase that in my mind . . . to . . .

"I am just not accepting what it is God wants to show me"

"I am just not recognizing what it is He wants me to hear and know"

   God sees such a big picture that he is not afraid of the small parts working to make that bigger picture happen.

I will say this . . . God does use seemingly "big" things . . . signs . . . and even mystery such as clues and hints . . . But it's typically because He is wanting to get our attention. 

He does this only because He has to in order to gain our attention.

Trust me when I say this:

God wants to speak to us like a close friend, but often times He is forced to speak to us like a stranger making a first impression to get our undivided attention. 

He ends up having to do those "big" things to get our attention on Him and His heart for us . . . But does that necessarily mean that's how He wants our relationship to be?

No!

Let me make something clear right now. 

He does not play games with us. 

Further more, He doesn't leave His children guessing what He wants or what He sees for us and the direction He wants us to head towards. 

How silly it is for us to firstly assume that He must not be speaking to us. 

Why don't we firstly assume instead that we are either not paying much attention to Him at all, or we just are not accepting what He has alreadycommunicated to us.

In fact, in times where I've known His silence and knew He wasn't answering me was simply because He already told me what He thought and wanted. 

That was on me not wanting to hear what He told me . . . and He wasn't going to enable that stubbornness in me because He is also a loving father as well as a close friend. 

Yes, we are that stubborn.

Is that really surprising?

Yes, we can be that hard-headed, believe it or not. 

Does that mean He gives up on us?

He never does and never will, for He never has. 

Stop looking farther than right here, right now to what He wants to speak to you about. 

Stop looking around for some "big" moment when he wants to speak softly to you like a close friend in the small things.

He links the small things . . .

He links the small words together to create a much bigger picture so we can begin to understand more of who He is and more of who we are.

Before you are tempted to assume or even think that He isn't speaking any words to you . . .

Remember that He is working through those smaller things . . . linking those smaller words to something bigger.

Look for the small things . . .

Listen for the small words . . .

Undistracted

When we sprinkle our time with just bits of God each day enough to survive, our lives will reflect the little we've sown for it

What will come and become later for our lives will be made up of all that is happening right now.

From the little things to the things we deem bigger in nature, the future is a culmination of each moment now.

That is how we should live, like farmers, constantly sowing now for what can grow later.

We are constantly constructing and building our futures right now.

Yet, how many of us sort of wait until we get to that "hopeful" future until we begin to risk or sacrifice or pour anything of value from ourselves?

Should we wait until things “line up” or make sense before we start taking the small steps we knew all along we should have been taking?

    When Jesus told us that He is the vine in which we draw life from, He wasn’t just trying to sound poetic in describing just how dire our need for Him is.

He was literally meaning that apart from Him, there can be no true life.

We cannot find the person we are meant to become apart from Him . . . and it will always feel as though something is missing when we do.

No wonder we grab for so many other things when really all we were actually needing was Him.

It is meant to be this way, us missing something without Him because we were created for Him . . . not all the other things we reach for . . . So it only makes sense to do what we were originally created for.

So it is no wonder we often live life lacking until finding true fulfillment in who we are meant to be in Him.

Apart from our fellowship and communion with Him . . . without undistracted time spent with Him and a bond of intimacy grown with Him, we will always be less than what we are meant to.

It is truly that simple.

Yet, it is in our human nature to only do what we think we can get away with.

That kind of thinking allows us to survive through each day, but never thrive.

We may be able to survive and make it through each day with only bits and pieces of giving Him our distracted attention, but that will only yield the lesser harvest.

When we sprinkle our time with just bits of God each day enough to survive, our lives will reflect the little we've sown for it.

    I can say with confidence that when I have been neglecting that quality time spent with God, undivided and one-on-one, I am less of the man I know I can be.

Sadly, knowing that isn’t enough sometimes when I do indeed neglect connecting to that Mighty Vine.

But, when I have become so dry and dead inside, lacking passion and all the life I find in Him . . . when I get to the end of myself, I find that He is waiting there for me.

How amazing is that?

Now, I am not talking about listening to a worship song in the morning and/or a sermon and calling it good. Those are outside sources . . . "tools" of cultivating our growth and relationship with Him . . . but just like in school, if all you ever do is read text books, you will only be one-sided in your knowledge.

It is the actual time spent with Him and also learning your own heart and who you are through communicating with Him that makes all the difference. 

I am talking about silence.

I am talking about just you and Him, nothing else.

Just your heart being open and real about what is going on in your life, frustrations, confusions, desires met or unmet, and all that seems to come up to the surface for air when we get alone and in a quiet undistracted place with Him.

This is what brings us life . . . that undistracted quality time with Him.

This should be the first step to sowing into your future, for it is the greatest and most important step you could take. That time spent with God is where we find the person we are meant to be and who we are meant to become.

    I was spending some time with Him one day years ago and I was a little frustrated at something. I think I had been asking Him to move in a certain area and didn’t see much happening.

So naturally I was frustrated and told Him something that sounded a bit like,

“I don’t get it God . . . you want me to spend all this time with you but nothing is happening on the outside. I feel like I am not getting anywhere in life, yet You still want me here with You. What am I really accomplishing?”

Just then as I had my eyes closed, He gave me a moving picture in my mind.

It was of me alone with Him, sitting there talking to each other and spending time together.

Then I saw this huge crane come and pick me up and it took me to this rather large crowd of people. It set me down right in the center of the crowd.

Then He told me,

“Spending time with me will always be the greatest investment to whatever your future will end up looking like.”

All at once in that moment I knew what He was saying to me just with that simple picture and those simple words.

It hit me that I was looking at my life through human eyes . . . through the world’s eyes . . . but He was seeing things as they truly were far beyond any limitations from earthly or fleshly means.

He knew that, although it seemed backwards to me, spending time with Him was going to place me in the opportunities that I so longed for to happen.

It was going to give me favor among men more successfully than if I went around trying to earn their favor through networking or any other earthly means to find it.

He would take care of me if only I spent that time with Him and learning from Him and talking with Him.

    Even now there are parts of me that don’t like this. There are parts of me shouting in disagreement that this is in fact not true . . . and I should go and make it happen and toil for my ambitions.

But because God has shown me truths like I had just shared above, I know that there is no quicker or better or more successful way to invest your time that to first spend it with Him.

Again, I am talking about getting alone somewhere quiet and without distractions. I am talking about no phone, no to-do list, and no people.

Even if it is just 10 minutes . . . it will be the greatest investment you could ever make today and tomorrow and for the rest of your life.

In this case, it is quality over quantity. We must not allow the thoughts that fight against this to keep us from spending that time with Him.

Thoughts like,

“I have too much to do so I can’t just set my phone down and go somewhere to be alone with Him.”

That’s B.S. and we all know it.

So don’t even give those thoughts the time of day.

We live by faith and not by what we see and faith without action is worthless.

So we say,

“Okay God, I am going to give you this time undistracted. It may not be much but I trust You to make it bigger than what it looks like to me.”

And that’s it.

Our part is just connecting to Him like a branch is connected to its vine. 

His part is the supernatural part that doesn’t make sense to us.

    I am going to talk a little about what spending time with Him has looked like for me in next week’s article and hopefully that may help some with fears that may hold them back from something that seems a little daunting like being alone with yourself as well as being alone with your creator.

For now though, let’s destroy the excuses and reasons that hold us back and set some time aside today to spend with Him undistracted, even if it is a small amount . . . He will meet you there, He really will.

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Let’s pray together . . .

 Father, replace the fear and doubt with hope that when we invest in spending time with You, we are doing so much more than we could when we don’t. We admit that we need You and need to be connected to Your heart because our lives depend on it. Grow us into the men You desire us to be, in Jesus’ name.

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Created For Relationship

It's rare when relationships are convenient, but it is not rare for relationships to be what makes life worth living

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"The Lord said,

'Shall I keep secret from Abraham [My friend and servant] what I am going to do . . . For I have known (chosen, acknowledged) him [as My own] . . .'"

---

    We were created for relationship . . . therefore, everything that God has and wants for our lives happens in and through relationship. 

When we skip this or remove it from the equation, we take God out and remove Him from the equation. 

We have all seen and felt first hand the consequences of that and what that looks like in our own lives . . . when we attempt to take God out from the "equation" of our lives. 

He created us for relationship . . . which means it all happens in relationship.

Although many may feel they are better without others, the truth is we need each other to not only grow but to thrive.

Most importantly, we need the friendship we can find in God . . . the way He loves us and fathers us through every detail of our lives.

We were created for relationship.

I can simply just look at my own life and compare times when I have sort of isolated myself from others and not made much of an effort to "reach out."

And when I compare those times to other times I have put forth a lot of energy and gone out of my way to pour into, spend time with, and love on family and friends and even strangers, I reap a much much more rich reward.

In those moments, I feel truly alive and full of purpose much bigger than myself.

I feel like I am really living life to the fullest when I have worked hard at pursuing others and giving attention to what they want more importantly than what I want.

It is tempting to think,

"What about me?"

"Who is going to take care of me and what I want?"

That's simple.

God is the one who takes care of us.

That is something He showed me a while back . . . that He will take care of me while I take care of others.

That's not a condition He puts on us.

That's a fact.

It's the way things are.

He will love on me and make sure I am pursued actively while I love on others around me and actively pursue them.

Something we probably all know by now as adults is this:

We all want to be heard and we all want to be recognized by the unique person we are.

I mean look at things like "selfies" and Youtube videos and Facebook and Instagram . . . they all scream of our need to be heard and noticed and recognized.

So it is simply our human nature to beg the question, "What about me?"

But that's exactly what gets us into trouble.

The scriptures say that every quarrel starts with selfishness . . . people saying, "What about me?"

Well, what about you?

What about me?

What if I told you that the life you desire and long for and want, even right now can be found by letting that question go?

Instead, what if we made that question stay on the track of,

"What about them?"

What about all the people around us right now . . . not very far away from us . . . that are wanting to be a heard just like you . . .

Who are wanting to be noticed . . .

Who are wanting to be recognized and appreciated . . .

What about them?

That was Jesus' heart anyways.

That was actually His heart always.

So, what does all this have to do with "relationship" and the fact that we were clearly created for it?

When we experience the great value of relationship, we learn the beauty of putting others before us. 

But how do we learn the "value" of relationship?

We learn the value of relationship by first focusing and cultivating one with the One in whom it came from.

That is probably not the answer that feels as good and the one that we often welcome sadly, but the truth of it remains unshaken.

It all starts with our relationship with our Creator before it can trickle down into the relationships we have with those around us.

Have you ever done something really nice for a close friend or a family member like your Mom or Dad?

Aside from maybe it being an inconvenience, didn't it feel really good to offer them something they were in need of?

Doesn't it feel good to even open up the door for someone or help someone with directions or let a Mom with 3 kids go in front of you in a long line?

Those are just glimpses of God's over flowingly generous heart.

Every time we do something like that, we get a glimpse into what it is like to value relationship.

But because it comes from God, it must start there for there to be any real change in us to become more like Him.

This isn't about becoming some guy who is just always doing the "right" thing like opening up doors for people and handing a $20 to a homeless guy.

It's gotta be more than that . . . it's gotta be just as true then as it is when you're in an argument with your wife who wants to be heard more than she even cares that you are right.

It's gotta be more than you not tailgating someone after they just cut you off . . . it's gotta be when what you had planned to happen on a certain day gets thrown off course because your buddy wants to meet at some inconvenient location.

It is so easy to miss the value of relationship . . . so easy . . . unbelievably easy.

Why is it so easy to miss it?

It's because relationship is rarely convenient.

If you're  looking for convenient, you will miss valuing relationship.

You can't have both.

I mean, have you ever see a big family?

I do every weekend at a small church I serve and attend at . . . a family of 11 I believe.

And let me tell ya, convenience is not in any close proximity to them even if they so wanted it.

So why would we think our relationship with God should be any different?

We have all been quick to complain about our relationships, yet, we may find that it stems from us just wanting convenience.

It's rare when relationships are convenient, but it is not rare for relationships to be what makes life worth living.

Anyone can go and help someone out . . . but not everyone lives that way.

Do you see the difference?

But like a chasm that has to be bridged, in order for us to live that way, we must find that value at its source.

We must walk with the One in whom posses that kind of caliber of love and compassion towards others.

Jesus was "moved with compassion" for others and that is what would drive Him to touch someone with leprosy . . . heal the broken hearted and forgive sins.

It was God's love that moved mountains for people . . .

So why would we even attempt to do all of that on our own.

That is just as silly as a kid wanting to play house to feel like they are actually an adult doing adult things.

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"And the Lord brought Abram outside [his tent into the night] and said, 'Look now toward the heavens and count the stars—if you are able to count them.' Then He said to him, 'So [numerous] shall your descendants be.'"

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    Picture that . . . the simplicity of Abraham walking outside with God underneath the stars . . . just the two of them.

I have often times remembered that scripture as I too have taken long walks alone with God, as we shared the heights of our thoughts and depths of our passions with each other.

I am no better person to live a certain way . . . to be selfless, for I am always at risk for becoming selfish, always.

But, I would be a fool to think otherwise, that those moments I have spent alone with God in the simplicity of which they came . . . that I wasn't changed forever because of them.

This is not for the "elite" Christian, for I would not be allowed close.

This is for the thirsty and hungry soul who wants to be heard and noticed and recognized and appreciated.

It is for the one who wants to be shown forgiveness and be loved unconditionally so they can in-turn forgive and love unconditionally.

This is for the one who wants to not just do something good for someone, but wants to live that way . . . who wants to learn the grandest part of what makes life worth living.

This is for you.

It will always be about relationship because we were created for it.

(context and scripture found in Genesis 15:5, & 18-33)

Fatigue

Our hearts are bound and tuned to the same fatigue principles and limitations as our bodies are to needing rest

    Fatigue leads to injury. That's just the way of life. For a weight lifter, that is a beneficial consequence for growing muscle and strength. For an athlete, that could mean their career. Either way, when we don't yield to the signs of fatigue, injury is sure to follow . . . and injury leads to pain. 

We are all very familiar with pain and we all handle it differently. The problem is the pain is simply an indicator of a need. That need is rest.

The cost of healing is rest. 

Without healing, the pain won't subside . . . it cannot . . . for it is simply doing its job. It is meant to be an indicator of injury, alerting us to the exact locations of where the problem is. 

We can numb the pain or temporarily take it offline, but any effort towards a permanent solution without rest just won't ever bare healing. Whether a ligament issue or broken bone, even with surgery there must be a time where you rest the injury so it can properly heal. We are wise to head the warnings of our bodies in alerting us to an injury in which is the source of the pain. 

    I have learned the hard way, especially with ligament injuries, if you don't rest, it will never fully heal. We don't realize our hearts are built in the same fashion, bound by the same principles. 

Rest is necessary for the recovery of our hearts. 

We may wonder where the passion we once had went or maybe why we just can’t find joy anymore. Maybe we are stuck in a cycle of constant worry as it breeds stress in everything we do. Perhaps we have simply become numb to it all, sort of setting aside emotions we just can't handle anymore.

I know I have days where everything seems to be too much . . . where I cannot find peace because I am on the edge of losing my mind with every scenario that goes wrong in my eyes.

Whether towards our relationship with the Father or our wife . . . decisions being made in our careers or family, we will always be half a man without the proper rest we so often neglect our souls from finding. 

Our hearts are bound and tuned to the same fatigue principles and limitations as our bodies are to needing rest.

    While I am rock climbing, my muscles may be fine and ready for more, but my skin is screaming at me to throw in the towel. Sadly, I tend to wait until I become injured to slow down and rest where as I could have maybe  avoided getting injured in the first place. I usually push myself pretty hard in most things I do, and with that comes injury without the proper doses of rest mixed in with pushing myself. 

How often do I do that in life? How often do I demand more from myself than I am able? How often do I put those unrealistic expectations on those around me? 

I guarantee something . . . that if I am doing that to myself, I am doing that to God . . . and have already done that to others.

Even now, as typing is a struggle, I am regretting not resting like I should have because now my pointer finger is having to forgo a forced “resting” period for the next few weeks.

    I injured a ligament or two rocking climbing so I am forced to let it rest. I was actually even climbing still, using the 4 uninjured fingers I had left. Of course that was causing those fingers to fatigue and slowly show signs of early over-use type injury. So I didn’t injure those too, I decided to just take a break from climbing all together. Wow, what a revelation. 

Why is resting so hard??

Why does it feel like you're somehow missing out on life when you slow down or somehow not achieving much of anything? Why does rest feel like such a waste of time . . . at least until our heads hit our pillows and resting takes a more literal stance in which we gladly yield. 

    The thing is when we don't rest, it's as sensible as trying to drive a car without gas. It just won’t work the way it is meant to no matter how hard we push it.

Visualize this for a moment.

When we don’t rest we are literally pushing our car around thinking we are accomplishing something when all the while we have a perfectly functional fuel tank just waiting for the necessary gasoline the vehicle needs to drive.

How much more would we accomplish if accomplishing is indeed what we are after if we would just rest our hearts as well as our bodies?

    As obvious as it is for a car needing fuel, our hearts are the same way. I just wish it was that obvious to us. Whether it is our careers or our passions or even our ambitious desires wanting to achieve something more, we can become lost in that thing we cannot break away from.

It all starts in our hearts, for within ourselves is where all of life springs forth.

All of the “why” we do things and “what” drives us is found in the intangible terrain of our hearts. Our souls need attention and our hearts the same way. When we neglect ourselves, we cut our legs out from under us in a matter of speaking and we are less of who we could be... who we ought to be. So although it may feel like we are missing out, we are actually making investments by depositing the necessary fuel our hearts need to drive us to be the best man we can. That has to do with our desires and passions, our hopes and dreams. It has to do with the intangibles that are a little more mysterious then we would like them to be.

    When we neglect those parts of us, we are living on "empty". In times when I feel as though I am doing nothing right and the stresses of life’s demands seem more than I can handle, even moment to moment, when I slow everything down and sacrifice just 30min with the Father, it rejuvenates my inner workings in ways that is nothing less than supernatural.

He connects loose ends I didn’t even see were just hanging around. Emotions of anger and frustration that kept coming out towards those around me are reigned in and soothed by His voice of understanding as He listens to me just vent about all that, at least to me, is going wrong.

It has taken me a hour before for me to find rest, just taking a walk in silence at one of my favorite parks, letting the peace and quiet wash over me like a soothing ointment to my soul. It is there where we find the most wholeness we will ever find in this life, alone with our Creator.

Slowing down is fuel for our souls. Spending time alone with God is oxygen to our hearts.

    I remember reading an article about a young man who was a new father and with his baby daughter came the rush of middle-of-the-night feedings and the constant juggling of working hard and helping his wife when he came home.

He described it all as the hardest season he had ever been in, although it was quite rewarding at the same time.

He went on to say that we would typically all agree there would be no time for taking breaks or resting, let alone getting away with God for a bit. But he said that was the very reason why he did it more so. Because of what that season demanded from him, it was even more solely imperative to make time to spend with God. He knew what was at stake there . . . those he loved most here on earth looking to him. He wanted to be every bit of the man he know he couldn't be if he was constantly fatigued.

Is that you?

Is that how you think? The more that is on your plate, the more imperative it is for you to take time to slow down and rest at the feet of your Creator? I hope I have made it clear that it is a struggle for me for sure. You're not alone in battling fatigue . . . and you are defiantly not alone in giving in to the lie that I can make it on last week's time I spent with God.

Take some time right now to look at where you are in your life and all the moving parts constantly at work around you. 

You need that time with Him. Start right now and be intentional, even if it is a few minutes.

We have an enemy that will do anything to distract us, talk us out of it, and give us a billion reasons why we just can’t do it . . . we just can’t swing it.

I have heard a pastor tell me to my face, “I just don’t have the time to spend alone with God.”

If we don’t fight for that time, guess what, it won’t just happen! There is a revelation for you . . .

And here is a reminder of another.

“But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.” NLT

“But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” NIV

“But He would withdraw to desolate places and pray.” ESV

Here is what is amazing about this.

Jesus knew something, a truth about the realities of our world.

Life would keep going without Him there in the midst of it. He knew that everything was determined by His father in heaven and apart from Him, nothing would be that already is. 

What was most important to Jesus was the position of His heart and where His priorities lay. What He did wasn’t for the sake of accomplishing something or to gain fame amongst the people. Everything Jesus did was to please His father and for Him, that was enough.

He wasn’t missing out on anything when He would “often withdraw to lonely places” and I guarantee everything was as it should be while He spent that time alone with the Father.

Why is it so important to get away to “desolate” and “lonely” places?

Why the “wilderness?”

To me it’s simple.

We withdraw from the world . . . from our life’s reality . . . to free ourselves to drink from His. We must let go of our own lives and all that entails if we are to have a clean break from ourselves. We must become empty handed to recieve all that God our Father wants us to take hold of.

This is temporary of course but necessary.

    Maybe for some it is a new perspective. Maybe for others it is a shield of renewed faith as we hear our Father’s voice speaking truth and commands to our hearts. Maybe for most of us it is just being in His presence and remembering how much He fiercely loves us and is watching over us.

And we can also rest in this truth:

As we take that time to get away to be with Him, the world will be fine.

Our responibiliteis will be surely waiting for us.

Those around us, spouses, children, and whoever else asks of us to offer our strength to them . . . they will be there too, fine and waiting.

We would be foolish to think that Jesus didn’t have every excuse we use to not spend time with our Father.

(Shortly after healing a man of leprosy)

“But the news about Him was spreading farther, and large crowds kept gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their illness. But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray [in seclusion].”

- Luke 5:15-16 AMP