Do you have a favorite scripture verse? I have quite a few, but Psalm 27:8 in the NLT version is one of my favorites!
My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.”
And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”
But lately, my schedule seems to have hijacked my response, and instead of saying, “Lord, I am coming,” my response has turned into, “Lord, let me pencil you in next Thursday for 15 minutes!” Sad, but true. Between work, getting groceries, keeping up with the laundry, running kids to drama and track and youth and homework and dinner and, well, you get the picture……life has gotten kind of out of hand. And I was getting frustrated. I even tried getting up earlier a couple times, but it was like my daughter instinctively knew I wanted to be alone and just woke up too.
I would stare longingly at my Bible and my journal and my keyboard and almost cry. Ever been there? Then I thought – really, how silly would it be for me to relegate my conversations with my husband to having to be absolutely alone first thing in the morning? And if I missed my time slot, too bad for me. I would have to wait until the next morning.
This thing called walking with God is not some strict duty that we have to have on a certain time schedule every day and if we miss it too bad for us! Guess we’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning! And look out world, I am just going to be grumpy all day because I missed my time with Him.
No….prayer is not just some time slot in our morning. Prayer is a conversation, rooted in fellowship, and based on trust. It is a real, living, breathing, ongoing conversation with the One Who formed you, the One Who promised, and the One Who gives life. That is where trust is formed….and trust is where life is received.
John 15:7 says, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” It doesn’t say, “If you abide in Me from 6:00-6:30 am…”
Abide means to remain, to stay, to continue, to be present. It’s where we live. It’s a constant and continual awareness of being with Him.
I love when Jesus is about to raise Lazarus from the dead. He comes up to the place he is buried and tells them to take away the stone, and then He says this:
Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me…
That word hear means to give audience or to be in the audience of. So Jesus was really saying, “Father, I thank You that You always give audience to Me. I am always in the audience of You.”
We are not just with Him during our allotted time slot in the morning or at night or whenever your “quiet time” is. We are at all times in the audience of Him. He hears us ALWAYS.
That can also be a little scary. We are always in the audience of Him…when we are with our friends. When we are driving in our car. When we are all alone at home. ALWAYS. Selah —
He understands our times and seasons. He knows we will have times that are less busy and times that we just can’t seem to get it all done. He made time. He made us. He understands. He doesn’t beat us up for being busy….we do a good job of that all by ourselves.
We all know this. But sometimes we just need a good reminder of it. He is always with us. We are continually, at all times, in the audience of Him. So, when we get the “quiet times” in the morning, we need to take them. Enter into His presence and His goodness in prayer and the Word. But that’s not the only time He can speak to us. That’s not the only time He can breathe life into us.
We can abide in Him when we are in the car, or waiting in the doctor’s office, or running kids back and forth to practice and drama. We can abide in Him while we are doing laundry or cleaning the house or making dinner. And if we are with Him, His life is there, His peace is there….He is there.
So let’s do it. Let’s remember all day long that at all times we are in the audience of Him and see what a difference it makes in our lives.