But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him.
Psalm 4:3 (ESV)
He Hears me
I think the beginning of a new year is a great time to focus on prayer and reconnecting with God. The holiday season is always so busy that it is easy to let devotional habits slip to the side. Our church does 21 days of prayer and fasting every January to help people jump start good devotional habits for the year. We are each encouraged to set a habit of spending fifteen minutes a day communicating with God. That’s it. Just fifteen minutes.
Just 15 Minutes
I probably spend at least 15 minutes a day on Facebook or Pinterest, certainly that much time is wasted in watching TV. So, some people choose to fast one of those things rather than food: giving something up in order to make room for a commitment to spending time with God for fifteen minutes each day.
Pencil Him in
The awesome thing is that when I pencil in God on my calendar, He is always available. When I show up for our appointment, I am not shown to a waiting room to flip through magazines for an hour until He is free. He hears me. Right now. Right then. Any time I call.
Any time I call
Whoa. Take a second and really think about that simple truth. God hears me when I call to Him. The God of the universe. The One who set the stars in place. The One who designed the intricacies of the plants, animals, human beings, and the very balance that makes earth a livable planet.
He not only hears me every time I speak to Him, but also is excited to hear from me. That is incredible to me. It fills me with hope.
I’m not a VIP – He hears you too!
It’s not just me that He hears. He hears you too! He longs to hear from you too! Everyday, He wants you and me to keep our fifteen minute appointment. Then He would love for us to keep talking to Him as we go about our day.
Romans 12:1-2
One of the texts in this past Sunday’s sermon at church fit so perfectly with what I have been working on here on Devotion in Action that I knew immediately I would share it with you.
Romans 12:1-2 (The Message):
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
He hears me
That’s the life I aspire to have. That kind of Christ-centered life where I am involving God in the everyday activities of my life. The God of Hope hears me all day, every day.
Action Step:
Pencil God in for fifteen minutes near the beginning of each day. The earlier the better. Some business gurus say you should do the most important things in your life before you eat breakfast every morning. For the next 21 days (at least) make sure that even if it doesn’t happen first thing in the morning, you keep a 15-minute appointment with God at some point during the day. That’s it. Just 15 minutes to a habit of getting the conversation going, of inviting God to spend the rest of your day with you too.
Prayer:
Dear God, help us to honor our appointments with You. You are always right on time for us. Thank you that You always hear us when we call to You. Thank You for giving us this jump-start to our year, for drawing us back to You when we start to drift in the busy-ness of our lives. You are so good to us and we love You. In Jesus’ Name, amen.