Friends invited us to have dinner recently and I found myself saying, “Just name a time and place and we’ll be there!” When it comes to meeting with friends, we’re often eager to make time in our busy schedules. In fact, the first thing my husband and I do is mark it on our family Google Calendar, so we are in sync with each other and don’t forget. But when it comes to God…well… time with Him is often the first to be squeeeeeeezed out by other seemingly more important things. God is nowhere to be found on the Google Calendar. Oops.
Jesus is Our Model
But whenever I stumble across Jesus’ example, I am always reminded afresh of how meeting with God was a priority in His life:
“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.”
Mark 1:35
I don’t think they had alarm clocks or snooze buttons back then, but somehow Jesus had the discipline to roll out of bed – while it was still dark – to go off to a quiet place to meet with His Father. I love picturing Jesus rising from his floor mat, tip-toeing out of the house where he was staying and all groggy-eyed wandering to where he could get away from the busyness to a quiet, undisturbed place. He probably struggled some mornings to rise so early, just as we do, and perhaps was tempted to sleep in a bit longer? And there was certainly no Starbucks on the way to put that extra pep in his step.
If Jesus Needed Time with God, How Much More Us
So what are we to make of this little scene we’re given here right in the beginning of Mark’s gospel? Clearly, the writer was trying to communicate something by sharing these details. Perhaps it was to say something like, If time with God matters to Jesus, who was God himself, it should matter to us.
But how can we do this each day when so many other things compete for our time?
The Key to Consistency
Since having children, establishing a bedtime routine has been paramount in training children to sleep on time each night. The trick, we have learned over time is simple: “routine.” Without a doubt, the set rhythm we have established each night: dinner-bath-stories-prayer-bed, dinner-bath-stories-bed….repeat, has been the key to successful bed times. In a way, this consistent rhythm has programmed our children to want to go to bed each night. They love it. They anticipate it. They look forward to it.
This same principle can be applied to our spiritual rhythms with God. As creatures of habit, establishing a set routine can help us be consistent meeting with God each day. Mornings are my ideal set time to meet with God, so the second I get that coffee going, it signals to my heart and soul that it is time to meet with God. I also sit in my favorite chair looking out the window and close my door, which signals to my family that it is “mommy’s quiet time to be with God.”
It doesn’t have to be the morning, but as Simon Robinson says in his book Improving Your Quiet Time,
“It provides a good start, it gives you something to take into the day and it focuses your mind on the Lord before you throw yourself into the activities that lie ahead of you.”
Starting your day with God can be a very good thing to do, but there is no hard and fast rule about this. The important thing is to set aside a regular time each day to get away from the distractions and be with God.
Setting an Appointment with God
Author James Borst, who writes on the topic of contemplative prayer offers some tips on how to be consistent with our God time. He suggests examining our commitments – family, profession, church, recreation – and within that framework to plot a “daily appointment” with God, which we can endeavor to keep as faithfully as possible. Thinking of our time with God as an appointment, just like an appointment we would set with a friend, colleague or boss, might help to prioritize it in a different way.
As I examine my own life, I can definitely see how the setting of a distinct time and place does make a difference in the quality and consistency of my time with God. I have to admit, it’s been more of a challenge than ever before these last few years in a season of having young children. You can read my post on that here.
When We Face Challenging Seasons
I think we will all have times when our rhythms, patterns and routines change and evolve, whether due to a new job, marriage, having children, and going in and out of different seasons of life. But at the end of the day, we all must ask ourselves, God, am I putting you first? Do I value our time together enough, that I will make time to be with you? I believe when we resolve to love God with our whole hearts and express our desire to spend time with him, even though we don’t do it perfectly each day, He will work with the complexities and intricacies of our lives to help us prioritize Him, above all else. I am definitely in need of that right now!
Here are some questions for reflection:
- Is time with God woven into the pattern of my life?
- Where do I go to meet with God?
- What habits and routines have worked or not worked for me in the past?
- What changes can I make so that my appointments with God are the top priority and highlight of my day?
If all else fails, get God on that Google Calendar. My prayer is that the times we set to be with Him will increasingly go from being a nagging discipline that we know we should do each day, to a necessity that we absolutely cannot live without each day.