No time for God

I found it interesting that in preparation for last weeks sermon I found some interesting statistics on prayer. According to a 2016 survey posted in Christianity Today, the number one reason that people do not pray is that they do not have the time.  My natural inclination as a pastor is to say, "That is just crazy! How could people say such a thing?" I mean who wants to stand before God someday and explain that we put everything else in our life before Him? But, then I remember what our life was like when all four kids were home and in school.  I remember football practice and band practice and baseball practice and piano lessons and youth group. And our family schedule was subdued compared to other families.  I remember when I was bi-vocational and working 60 or 70 hours at my full time job and another 20 to 30 hours at the church. Time was a precious commodity and more than once did I crawl into bed at night, regretfully realizing that I had spent no real time communicating with God.  Oh sure, there was the quick, perfunctory prayer before meals and sometimes there was that "Lord, help, me prayer" throughout the day, but often there was not the deep, mystical, one-on-one time with God.

Prayer to so many becomes that last ditch, nothing else worked, I have no where else to go kind of thing.  When we are in trouble, when trials come our way, we reach out in prayer.  God becomes then our safety net. And in times of trouble we should absolutely be reaching out to prayer. But think about it his way. As parents our most precious memories of our kids are often those times of one on one. Not times of trouble, but happy times, relaxed times, times of closeness.  Think about how we would feel if our kids only came to us when they were in trouble or they had a need. Probably, as most parents do, we would do our best to meet that need and sometimes even bail them out of trouble.  That however is not upon what relationships are built.

The ancient Israelite King David wrote in Psalm 5:3 (NIV) These beautiful words, "In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation." David, knew how to get his day started right. How great would it be if we all followed that same pattern and got up a few minutes early and started our day with God. He would them become a focus of our day and not an afterthought.  It would give us a chance to lay at His feet our schedule for the coming hours and a chance to simply listen for his voice before our heads are jammed full of the noise of this world.

God wants to hear from us and he wants to speak to us.  Make time for God.

Pastor Jeff

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