From my childhood, I have heard phrases like “the older you get, the faster time passes” or “time flies when you’re having fun”. Unfortunately, it has taken me a few years before I began to realize how fast time does indeed pass; regardless of fun or not.
We set alarms to wake up in just enough time to get ready and make it to work on time. We know just how much time is needed to get the kids ready and to school, how much time that we have for breakfast, and how long the drive should take to get to the office. It is not unusual that a calendar dictates our activities for each day. We can block it down to 15 minutes or 30 minutes to increase the efficiency of our time management for the day. We intentionally set aside time for the things that take priority; the things that we feel are valuable and important to us. Upon reviewing our schedules and calendars through those lens, would we be shocked to see the clarity of our priorities?
At the end of the day, whatever is left undone on the calendar or not checked off on our “to do” list is penciled in for attention on the next day. Life is busy and full of distractions in addition to our already busy schedule. It is so easy to allow our prayer time to become a stale laundry list, and our Bible study time to become intermittent, and to go through another day without witnessing or inviting someone to church. How many days has our Bible study been pushed back? How many days has it been since we marked prayer off our list?
I encourage each one of us to reevaluate the necessity and importance of our devotion and witnessing in our life. I suspect that each of us, if completely honest with ourselves, recognize the importance and can admit there are areas that offer room for improvement. I am convinced these improvements will only come through intentional forethought and planning. With intentional planning, our devotions aren’t limited to “if I have time” but can be intentionally placed into our schedules. Now prayer, Bible study, church attendance, witnessing, etc. has a purposeful place in our lives.
Please know that I am not suggesting that we need to turn our devotions into little more than a checklist. On the flipside, I am suggesting that if we want to be consistent and faithful in our devotion to Him, the first step is to make a conscious decision to be intentional.
Our devotion(s) deserve to be intentionally placed on our calendars and are important enough to be prioritized at the top of our lists. There needs to be that spot in our day that is marked out for uninterrupted time with Him. My Savior. My Father. My Friend.
Blessed to serve,
Michael Luttrell
Azusa StreetRiders, Inc.
Secretary
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