“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:6-9 (ESV)

Sometimes it is difficult to make the time. Sometimes I cannot be bothered to make the time. Sometimes I cannot face making the time. So, I will do anything to allow time to consume me – in doing anything other than making the time, for the task I know I should be doing. I call it displacement theory: I displace the essential task with the secondary or ordinary.

Until this October, I have been able to attend our mid-week communion service that is presently held here at the university campus where I work. However, with the latest tabled changes in personnel I am not available to attend. I have to endure instead, the imposition of being placed on an inquiry desk until past the communion finish time.

Today, because of temporary staffing arrangements I have managed, for once, to get my lunch earlier, in time for the communion service. It was great to be able to attend and enjoy being in the presence of God and those few from my fellow believers who have made the effort and are based here.

It made me rather rueful for the times in the past when I occasionally did not go because something had come up and I had not made the time to attend. It has made me more appreciative of the opportunity I have had today to attend the service that I previously have taken for granted!

As we sit down today, why don’t we read our Bibles, and take the time to pray and ask the question: What have I taken for granted as a given today, such as my health, breath, faith and sanity that may not be so obvious a given tomorrow!

PRAYER: LORD, I thank you that you came into the world to spend time with us, to set us free from sin and from dissipation into the world. We rejoice that no matter what our circumstances are, You are always with us, even when we apparently cannot find the time, You do. Thanks LORD. Amen.

by Rod Marshall
Used by Permission

Learn more about knowing Jesus at: https://thoughtsaboutgod.com/four-laws/

FURTHER READING

Quiet Time with God

Time with God

How to Have a Quiet Time with God

The post Finding the Time appeared first on Thoughts About God.

God doesn’t desire more of our time, sometime, He desires more of our attention all the time.

Ever feel frustrated because you hear messages about getting closer to God and you definitely desire this for yourself, but you are inundated with so much to do already that this only makes you feel guilty because you are too busy for God? I think we all feel this at one time or another.

Some of you may need to carve out some time out of your busy schedule for more specific time to be with God, but that isn’t necessarily the only answer to this question. Look at the following scriptures:

“I have set the Lord always before me.” Psalm 16:8 (NIV)

“My eyes are ever on the Lord.” Psalms 25:15( NIV)

“I will extol the Lord at all times; His praise will always be on my lips.” Psalm 34:1 (NIV)

Reading these words makes you wonder if these are the words of a monk who had nothing else to do but devote himself to God. Actually, they are the words of David, King of Israel, a great ruler and warrior. How did he manage to run a nation and keep his eyes on the Lord at all times? The only conclusion is that he did this while you he did everything else. It’s a continual awareness of God that we are talking about here, not necessarily more time devoted to spiritual pursuits.

I once saw a sign that read: “Your God is what you pay attention to.” You see, I believe you can pay attention to God while you are doing everything else. It’s all about doing everything for God and seeing God in everything we do. It’s about bringing God into the boardroom, the exercise room, the living room, and the bedroom. Now of course He’s already there in all these places but we’re talking about being aware of Him being there at all times. That’s what it means to set the Lord always before us.

Worship is a frame of mind that always has God in the picture.

We don’t need church, or Bible study, or devotions to remind us about the Lord if we’re already aware of Him all the time. These opportunities then become more precious to us, because we can devote all our attention to that which we have been aware of all along.

Thought – Are you aware of God in everything you do?

by John Fischer
Used by Permission

FURTHER READING

• More Thoughts on Worship

• What is Worship?– by Sylvia Gunter

• Worship Changes Our Face

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The post Worship on the Go appeared first on Thoughts About God.

God doesn’t desire more of our time sometimes; He desires more of our attention all the time.

Ever feel frustrated because you hear messages about getting closer to God and you definitely desire this for yourself, but you are inundated with so much to do already that this only makes you feel guilty because you are too busy for God? I think we all feel this at one time or another, but carving more time out of your busy schedule to be with God isn’t necessarily the only answer to this question. Look at the following scriptures:

“I have set the Lord always before me.” (Psalm 16:8 NIV)

“My eyes are ever on the Lord.” (Psalms 25:15 NIV)

“I will extol the Lord at all times; His praise will always be on my lips.” (Psalm 34:1 NIV)

Reading these words makes you wonder if these are the words of a monk who had nothing else to do but devote himself to God. Actually, they are the words of David, King of Israel, a great ruler and warrior. How did he manage to run a nation at war, and keep his eyes on the Lord at all times? The only conclusion is that he did this while he did everything else. It’s a continual awareness of God that we are talking about here, not necessarily more time devoted to spiritual pursuits.

I once saw a sign that read: “Your God is what you pay attention to.” You see, I believe you can pay attention to God while you are doing everything else. It’s all about doing everything for God and seeing God in everything we do. It’s about bringing God into the boardroom, the exercise room, the living room, the bedroom. Now of course He’s already in all these places but we’re talking about being aware of His being there at all times. That’s what it means to set the Lord always before us.

Worship is a frame of mind that always has God in the picture. We don’t need church, or Bible study, or devotions to remind us about the Lord if we’re already aware of Him all the time. These opportunities then become more precious to us because we can devote all our attention to that which we have been doing all along.

by John Fischer
Used by Permission

Further Reading

•   Sample Prayers

•  How to Pray

• Struggles, Despair

The post Time and Attention appeared first on Thoughts About God.

A Time and a Place

“Let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action ”
1 John 3:18

Read only if you have time for God
Let me tell you, make sure you read all the way to the bottom.
I was blessed when I got to the end.

God, when I read this, I thought… I don’t have time for this…
and, this is really inappropriate during work.

Then, I realized that this kind of thinking is….
exactly, what has caused
lot of the problems in our world today.
We try to keep God in church on Sunday morning…

Maybe, Sunday night…
and the unlikely event of a midweek service.
We do like to have Him around during sickness…
and, of course, at funerals.

However, we don’t have time or room for Him during work or play…
because.. that’s the part of our lives we think…
we can and should handle on our own.

May God forgive me for ever thinking
that… there is a time or place where..
HE is not to be FIRST in my life.

We should always have time to remember all HE has done for us.

Author Unknown

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