By: Grace Metzger
In all toil there is profit,
but mere talk tends only to poverty.
Proverbs 14:23 ESV
A little over a week ago I had to have surgery on my femur bone. Because of this I am unable to work, babysit, or do anything that normally do takes most of my time up for 3 whole months. I won’t lie, I was very excited at the prospect of having 3 months where I am able to relax and enjoy my time for myself. I had a plan on how I was going to use this time to up my Bible reading, going to start another devotional, basically just going to put in a ton of effort into my walk that normally I say I don’t have enough time for. However after a week of doing the same thing I’ve done before my surgery, I’ve come to the realization that time was never my issue, it was the lack of effort on my part that caused me to procrastinate these things.
One of the most common excuses for people about their faith is the “I’m just too busy” or “I just don’t have time.” I won’t lie, I have used these excuses more times than I would like to admit. It’s easy to look at your day and get overwhelmed with the amount of stuff needing to be done, but because of this God is usually placed on the back burner. We try to justify this by saying that we will do it later when we have time, ignoring the fact that time was never truly the issue in the first place.
And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw
near to God must believe that He exists and that he rewards those who seek Him.
Hebrews 11:6 ESV
Time is an excuse that we need to stop allowing ourselves to use. We have time to play on our phones, time to catch up on our shows, time to hang out with family and friends, but no time for God? We put a tremendous amount of effort and time into things that bring our flesh joy, things that we think will make us truly happy in our life, forgetting about the one thing that brings true happiness to us.
Having faith is a great thing, but having faith that God is real isn’t going to create or keep a bond with God. If you actually want a relationship with God then it requires effort on your part. God already is putting in the effort to maintain His relationship with you, but you are giving Him the bare minimum because you aren’t wanting to put in the work into your walk?
This isn’t just me yelling at you, I wrote this after the Holy Spirit put a convention on my own heart. This post came from God speaking to me! But I think this is something that we all struggle with in some capacity. It’s so easy in our busy lives to forget to take time to slow down and be with God. That’s why we have to make a conscious effort to devote time to doing it. It’s not going to just happen, you have to make it happen!
I challenge you to block out some time with God every day next week. If you use a planner, put this in your planner, or if you’re like me who can’t plan for the life of me, then put a reminder on your phone. Whatever you can do to block out a chunk of time that is strictly devoted to spending time building a closer relationship with God, do it! Don’t allow anything to distract or disrupt this time, turn your phone off, go to a quiet place, tell those in your house that you are busy and can’t be disturbed, or whatever you have to do to allow yourself to fully give your attention to God. After doing this for a week take some time to reflect on how this changed your week, did you have a more positive outlook during the week? Did your relationship with God grow? Did you feel less stressed about time? Take time to see how it changed your life, cause it will, and then put this into a daily practice! Remember faith takes effort, it doesn’t come automatically!
Discussion Question!
How do you ensure you make time for God?
I try to ensure my time with God by doing it first thing in the morning with my coffee. I always woke up an hour before the rest of my family so the time would be quiet. I hope the Lord brings healing and continues to grow you in your walk with Him as you recuperate. Blessings!
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