Quiet Time

Good and cold Thursday morning! Just over 20º outside and the snow has stayed on the grass for another morning. Snow kind of brings to mind... Christmas music! If you didn't fire up the Christmas tunes yesterday, what exactly is the problem? Oh, ho, ho, it's fun to be a Christmas music nut! For some, yesterday came as quite a shock. After working almost non-stop for months, the roofers suddenly met a big stop sign. For the rest of us, it was kind of strange not hearing that roofing noise all day. The sun is just coming up and we are supposed to warm up pretty good today. Yak, yak, yak... is this a Christian devotional or some kind of chat blog? Harumph! Someone guzzled all the coffee in my mug too. Must have been the cat.

Shh, hear that? No, not the roar from the furnace vents or the sound of people going to work this morning, but the sound of busyness in your life. What is that? Are we created for constant busy, busy, noise and racket? Adam and Eve came to life in a garden, not a factory. God knows about our needs and how we fulfill some of them through work. But are you getting alone with God and having that quiet time each day? I know, you have so much to do and so little time to do it. I have been there. I have also felt the emotional and spiritual accumulation of crushing debt. We owe our God that quiet time each day for our own good! When we don't get that time alone with God, the debt begins to pile up. When that pile of debt falls over, we end up with anxiety, stress, depression, and all the other mental illnesses we experience in this busy, busy life.

I want to start on my writing first thing each morning, or I want to workout first thing, or do something that seems productive first thing. What if I don't get that thing done first thing and then I put it off until I don't do it? That is exactly what had been happening to what is actually the most important thing in my day - quiet time with God. By putting all those other things first, I ended up reading the Bible and praying for a few moments in bed at the end of the day where I often fell asleep mid-thought in my prayer. You have heard the command from Jesus. I'll even give us all a hint, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness..." If you are an old-time Bible reader, you might recall the King James which starts, "Seek ye first..." Well, I am a 'ye' too, and I need to put first what needs to be first, seeking the Kingdom of God.

Since having a quiet devotional time each morning before I start my work, my book writing has taken off once more. Ye olde seeking first seems to worke very well! Is my Bible study and prayer time the absolute first thing each morning? No, I have to roll my carcass out of bed first. I also read e-mails, including devotionals, write my own devotional, have breakfast, and feed the hungry cats, not necessarily in that order depending upon the level of racket coming from the felines. Tuesday, I even went down to breakfast at the restaurant before the study time. God didn't smite me for it. Some folks are very religious about rolling over in the morning and grabbing their Bible, good for them. For me, that doesn't seem necessary, but doing my quiet time before sitting down to make my living writing novels does seem to be what God wants. Perhaps seeking first means that we put it first in our lives and in order of importance, but not necessarily first in chronological order in the morning.

We receive the command from Jesus, and we get guidance from our pastors and brothers in Christ, but the main thing is to listen to what God is telling you! How do we learn that? Well, you might try seeking Him first to get the answer on that. Your quiet time could be later in the evening. And I think we can all see reasons for putting time with God before prime time television!

Have a wonderful day in Christ!

Bucky