ApprehendingGrace.com

Here’s a paragraph I wrote back in July for a blog that I never published:
How do you unplug? I’ve just joined facebook. I’m also a member of two business online networking groups. I’m a little addicted to e-mail.  I maintain my work and personal calendar online using Google Calendar. And after a morning of updating my various “in touch” media, I’m sitting down to study and my head feels a bit buzzed. I realize my significant need to unplug before I turn my attention to studying. Hence, the question, “how do you unplug?”

Why do I bring this up now? Here’s a few paragraphs I wrote this morning:
It’s 11am –  I started reading my Bible an hour ago…and I’ve just finished my first chapter. Not because it was a long chapter, mind you, or because I stopped often to reflect on what God was saying, or even because I stopped after reading a single verse or two to write a blog. Nope. It took me so long because it was interrupted so often by my brain misfiring in other directions.

Usually I ignore the misfires – mentally set them aside until I’ve finished reading. Sometimes I sense that they aren’t really misfires – sure, they’re headed in a different direction than my planned journey, but they seem to be a “God direction.” Those can be great misfires (obviously making the term “misfire” a misnomer, but I’m going with it just the same). Then there are times like today when it seems that each misfire “needs” to be acted upon, or acting upon a God-directed misfire, I get distracted with other things.

Here’s today’s example: I’m reading along in Ezekiel and I come to this great verse:

Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?
Ezekiel 18:23 – What a gracious God we serve!

I knew I wanted to post it in Facebook. I don’t typically post Scripture in FB, but I suspected this was a God-directed misfire, so I went with it. I made my post, then of course, glanced over the page. There was a comment from one cousin to another about some pictures of her skydiving adventure.  Wow! Of course I had to go look at them – twice! Then I had to add a note to her FB page. I returned to my FB page and saw another entry about a “God-moment.” I had to respond to that. Then I checked e-mail (because, hey, I was in an on-line moment…). That reminded me that I’m going to be out of my office a lot more than usual during the coming week so I sent an e-mail to employees about my crazy schedule. After that I glanced at the time and saw it was getting later, so I did a quick calculation about when I needed to put dinner in the slow cooker (pork roast tonight – yum – but only if I get it in the slow cooker!). Finally, I went back to Ezekiel. A few verses later and I realized that I’ve read…one chapter in one hour! And trying to start the next chapter, my brain is still misfiring. Aargh. So I remembered the blog I started back in July and it seems to be time to revisit it. (While typing this my computer kept clicking – turns out I hadn’t left FB and a friend was IM-ing me from her vacation. I stopped to visit…then closed FB.)

Do you suffer from a misfiring brain when you want to spend time with God?
I imagine we all do at times and sometimes those times are God-ordained (God-directed misfires, as I’ve called them). Most of the time, though, it’s a result of our frantic lifestyle and patterns – slowing down and stopping are things we learn with practice. They do not come naturally to most of us.

How do you unplug?
I unplug in a number of ways, not the least of which is writing. It helps to clear and to clarify my jumbled thoughts. It also provides a record that helps me to see how I ended up where I am. I like that.

I also unplug by becoming a vegetable in front of the television. I don’t like that so much, but obviously haven’t made the decision to change it. Writing has way more benefits than television, but it also requires that I use my mind and sometimes my mind just doesn’t want to be used! Even so, vegging in front of the tube isn’t very edifying and it’s not going to put me in a place to hear from God (usually).

I love to worship and would like to develop the pattern of releasing my mind with worship music in the background – but I’m not very good at that…yet.

Obviously, my cousin unplugs by jumping out of airplanes! Hmmm….I don’t think so.

Purposes of Unplugging
It occurs to me that there are multiple purposes in unplugging and that we might have different methods of unplugging for each purpose.

• To enter God’s presence.
• To focus on any task at hand.
• To release the tensions of the day.

OK, this blog is certainly a reflection of my scattered brain this morning. Unlike my attempt in July, I’m going to publish the blog this time, as a starting point for the blog I’m trusting God will give me to publish on Monday. I’ll pick up with purposes for and approaches to unplugging (I think.) In the meantime, feel free to leave your own suggestions here and I’ll include them in the next blog.

Now I think I’m going to go put the pork roast in the slow cooker.

Oh, BTW, the title of this blog – “Unplugging! Part 1″ – that’s a “by faith” title – I don’t have “Part 2″ yet, but I’m trusting God has a “Part 2″ in mind. Pray that I’ll be able to hear it!

I love it when God is clear! I don’t  always love the message I receive clearly, but I love it when “coincidences” make it evident that He is teaching me something. In the past thirty hours, God has spoken the same message to me three times, from three different sources. In each case, I was doing something that I hadn’t planned to do.

Punch 1) Yesterday, Phil & I drove to Cleveland. As we often do, we picked up a book before we left so that we could spend the travel time reading to one another and discussing what we had read. We picked up a book we had started during our Emergency Room visits and hospital stays while Phil was recovering from his heart attacks. When we returned to a more normal life, the book was laid aside, never finished.

The book is called Worthy Vessels, Clay in the Hands of the Master Potter. The author, Nell Kennedy, spent years learning about pottery from master potters. She then applies those lessons to the relationship between the Master Potter and His clay. We are finding it fascinating reading. It turned out that the last time we read, we left off at the beginning of a chapter about rest and solitude. The chapter included a long narrative about George Washington Carver. Carver spent long periods of time in solitude out in nature and it was during that time that God spoke to him and essentially used him to turn the US economy around in 1921. 

“Rest is a stabilizer that gives balance to life. It is often in the resting that the remainder of life takes on meaning.”
          Worthy Vessels, p. 52

“There is power in being still…It is in the stillness that we hear the voice or God. Through times in which we are forced to rest, God shapes us and uses us.”
          Worthy Vessels, pps. 61-62.

Punch 2) That was yesterday. Today, I went to have my hair cut and colored. Again, I picked up a book to read while waiting. It was a book I had started a long time ago but, like Worthy Vessels, it had been set aside for some time. The book is titled Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation and was written by Ruth Haley Barton. When I opened it to my bookmark, I found myself at a chapter titled “Solitude, Creating Space for God.” In writing about her first experience with extended solitude, Barton says:

“All of a sudden I was awake and alert to a level of overstimulation and exhaustion that I had come to associate with normal Christian living.”
          Sacred Rhythms, p. 30

She goes on to discuss the great toll that technology has on us. She’s not against technology, she simply recognizes that constantly being “available” via cell phones, e-mail, texting, twittering, etc., takes its toll: 

“Constant noise, interruption and drevenness to be more productive cut us off from or at least interrupt the direct experience of God and other human beings, and this is more isolating than we realize. Because we are experiencing less meaningful human and divine connection, we are emptier relationally, and we try harder and harder to fill that loneliness with even more noise and stimulation. In so doing we lose touch with the quieter and more subtle experiences of God within…Solitude is an opportunity to interrupt this cycle by turning off the noise and stimulation of our lives so that we can hear our loneliness and our longing calling us deeper into the only relationship that can satisfy our longing.”
          Sacred Rhythms, p. 36

Do you see the relationship between rest and solitude? Both books addressed both issues, and they are interwoven such that you or I cannot fully experience one without the other.

Punch 3) So feeling a little bruised this evening, I wanted to read a Psalm. I looked at the Resting at the River’s Edge schedule and saw that we are slated to return to Psalms on Wednesday, beginning with Psalm 90. Great! I thought. I’ll just read ahead a little. I came to the following verse in Psalm 90:

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
          Psalm 90:12 (NIV)

 Teach us to make the most of our time, so that we may grow in wisdom.
          Psalm 90:12 (NLT)

I am convinced that in the heart of God, numbering our days aright, making the most of our time, doesn’t just mean planning how we are to accomplish everything on our To Do lists and following that plan well. It doesn’t even mean planning how we are to accomplish everything we understand to be God’s plan for our lives. 

The heart of wisdom is gained not so much by doing for God as it is from being with God.

The heart of wisdom is gained through rest and solitude, when God can speak into the silence and we can hear without distraction.

Lord, I long for more of you that can only be found in solitude and rest. Lord, teach ME to number my days aright, so that I might gain a heart of wisdom.

Note: you can purchase each of the books discussed in this blog simply by clicking on the name of the book.

Having graduated with my masters a few weeks ago, I have been thinking a lot about “what’s next?” I want to pursue more speaking and writing, but I don’t think that’s the whole picture and I don’t have many answers to that question. I am, comfortable resting in God as He unfolds things before me, yet “what’s next?” keeps reverberating in my mind. It’s created in me a more watchful state about opportunities that might appear on the horizon (at right in front of my nose).

It’s also had me thinking very specifically about what I’d like my life to be. I am regularly and eagerly praying “Lord, Your will, not mine – where can You best use me in Your kingdom,” but I am also thinking through what I would like to do in this next phase of my life and asking God to fulfill those dreams.

With that as a backdrop and having been released from “required reading,” I’ve read three fiction books in the past month (!). Interestingly, each has lent its perspective to the process and has made a strong impression on me. Curiously, I didn’t choose any of these books:

• My husband, Phil, picked the first book – one that had been sitting in our library for quite some time and neither of us had read yet. It didn’t appeal to me at first, so I laid beside my bed and it stayed there several days – until I was leaving for an appointment and wanted to something to read should I have to wait. I quickly grabbed the book and was out the door.
• A few days after finishing that book, I picked up another book at the retreat house I stayed at for a couple of nights. Having read Scripture and a devotional book, meditated, prayed and worshipped, I felt ready for something lighter and found a basket of books. I picked up the one by an author I had read a book by almost thirty years ago.
• Finally, two weeks ago, Phil stopped at a discount store and for only $1.99 they had a copy of the first book in a six-book series by my favorite fiction authors. Who could resist such a bargain! Being side-lined a bit after my knee surgery, I’ve had plenty of time to read it.

I’ve provided this detail because it’s so interesting to me that I truly had little to do with choosing the books I read, and each has challenged me in the same way, while weaving stories across three continents and sixty years.

Can you say “God speaks?” One of the way God speaks to us is by the repetition of a theme – it comes up in a conversation with a friend, then we read an article that touches on the same topic, then our Scripture reading that day reinforces the message…or perhaps we just read three books in a row with the same message. Clearly, God is speaking.

Each of these books has made me very aware of the blessed life I lead and even more aware of how warped my definitions of a “blessed life” and “success” are. But I’ll get to that. First, a little about the books I’ve read:

Safely Home, by Randy Alcorn, was the first book I read. It is a story about a Chinese man, educated in the United States and on the fast track to becoming a professor and famous thinker of his time. He is also a Christian and upon returning home, he finds all opportunities closed to him…except that of a lock maker. He becomes the best lock maker, living a life that challenges the reader to make sense of the world in which we live and the purposes of God in one man’s life. “Is this the day I die?” the lead character asks every day as he lives for eternity instead of for himself.

Secret Believers: What Happens when Muslims Believe in Christ, by Brother Andrew and Al Janssen, is the fictionalized account of real people who live in Muslim countries and come to faith in Christ. How are the people in the story to fulfill their calling to strengthen the Church when it is illegal for the Church to exist? It is a story about how believers live, struggle, and glorify God when the place to which they are called is hostile toward them and their faith.
    
    

Jerusalem Vigil, by Bodie & Brock Thoene. The Thoenes are masterful authors of historical Christian fiction. Jerusalem Vigil is the first book in the Zion Legacy series and begins with the creation of Israel is a nation. Jews and Christians attempt to make their home in the war-torn city of Jerusalem as neighbors on all side seek to destroy the nation before it has a chance to live. It is a gripping novel about the lives of those transplanted from safety to a place requiring all they have to give and more – all the compassion, all the strength, all the love, and most importantly all the faith.

In all cases, the main characters lived with great fear and sadness. In all cases, the main characters redefined for me the phrase “blessed life” and the concept of “success.” Both have little to do with circumstances and everything to do with perspective. I am blessed to serve God in my circumstances. Success is a life lived for God with integrity and purpose…regardless of whether that life is lived out in a place my “dreams” would never take me, or exactly in the place my dreams would take me.

I’m reminded of what Paul said:

²⁰For I live in eager expectation and hope that I will never do anything that causes me shame, but that I will always be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past, and that my life will always honor Christ, whether I live or I die. ²¹For to me, living is for Christ, and dying is even better.
          Philippians 1:20-21 (NLT)

²⁰I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. ²¹For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 
          Philippians 1:20-21 (NIV)

As I recall, there is also that phrase in the Bible about sharing in Christ’s sufferings:

¹⁷Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
          Romans 8:17 (NIV)

Wow…we are His children IF we share in His sufferings. And sharing in those sufferings is living for Christ, seeing Him exalted in our bodies. Somehow I think that message gets lost in American Christianity. Lord, forgive us.

Can you pray this simple prayer with me?

Lord, continue to shape and mold my understanding of success and blessing. I submit to Your will for my life…where ever it leads.

On Monday, a blog about destiny…..hmmm, I see a theme here!

 Our Resting at the River’s Edge reading for Tuesday included Numbers 13 – the story of Moses sending out the thirteen leaders (note that they were the leaders of their tribes) to spy out the land God had promised to give them.

     Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
    But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
          Numbers 13:30-33

It seems to me that there will always be giants in the land the Lord has promised us. If there weren’t, there would be no need for us to conquer it.

As I read the passage, the Holy Spirit was whispering a question in my ear. I’d like to share it with you.

“What giants are in your life that you need to conquer?”

Sometimes the answer to that is obvious – you know you’re fighting giants and you’re calling out for God’s help. Other times, though, we get so caught up with life that we don’t recognize the giant that has his hand on our forehead holding us in place while we pump our arms and legs trying to run.

I immediately stopped writing and started journaling – listening to the Lord and praying, then writing what Giants I am allowing to keep me in place so that I am not entering the land the Lord has promised me. I confessed unbelief that I didn’t realize I had, and I expressed confidence in God’s ability to take me into the promised land.

Now it’s your turn. What giants are in your life that you need to conquer?

I concluded my journal with the following simple prayer:

“Lord, You are greater…Help me to walk with confidence into the land, knowing that You have gone before me and have paved the way….Lord, I want to be Joshua and Caleb, not all of the other ten…Lord help me to move to that place beyond faith where I know, despite what I see…”

Do you want to be like Joshua and Caleb or the other ten? I encourage you to take time today to ask God for the vision and courage to fight the giants He has allowed to inhabit your promised land.

Our Pastor said something that has stuck in my brain this week. He was describing the frustrating Sunday morning he had had – nothing big, just lots of little things that were starting to annoy him. Pretty soon those little things add up and the annoyance grows and if you’re not careful all that UN-Christ-likeness inside of you spills out on everyone around you. (Well, maybe not you…but that’s how it happens to me.)

In his frustration, he muttered the question “what’s going on here?”

And the very act of asking the question brought enlightenment. It gave him enough of a pause from the earthly frustrations to let His spirit kick in and remind him that what was going on was the enemy trying to arrest his attitude and mood. He saw the day for what it was – a day to worship the Lord (like every day is, of course), a day for allowing God to enable him to rise above the frustrations, a day to serve others as the hands and mouth of the Lord. If he had not asked the question, he would have continued to get ready for church, but his frustrations would have continued, and perhaps even increased. Eventually, they would have “spilled over” onto:

• Spilled over onto the worship team
• Leaked on all those who help prepare for the Sunday morning service
• Creeped into his tone of voice or expression as he delivered the message and prayed.

Eventually, everyone attending that morning service would have been affected by his frustrations. Wow! The enemy sure can get a lot of traction out of a few frustrating annoyances.

You may not be preparing to lead a Sunday morning worship service, but your life is not so very different. When I allow the frustrations or fears of the day to impact me, those frustrations and fears leak out onto my husband, everyone in my office, and everyone I meet during the day. We’ve all experienced it –been waited on by the person who is annoyed about the previous customer in line. Or we’ve waited on someone and their attitude has spilled over onto you. It doesn’t matter which side of any transaction you’re on – if you have allowed the frustrations of the day to seep into your soul, it’s going to spill out on those around you.

I don’t want that to be my legacy. The easiest way to stop the whole process is to ask the question early. “What’s going on here?”

I’m not trying to write an easy-fix-it blog or a pie-in-the sky remedy for difficult circumstances. I’m not even saying that adjusting your attitude is easy after asking and getting the answer to your question. I am saying, however, that if you don’t ask the question, you continue down the negative path and the farther you walk down that path, the farther you have to walk back before you can go down the right path again!

God has been speaking to me a lot about perspective lately – how important it is to look at things from God’s perspective, not mine. That’s another blog for another time…but I know that one of the first steps in keeping the proper perspective is to quickly recognize when I’m drifting. It’s at those times that it is most important to just ask the question!

Because today is a day to worship the Lord, a day for allowing God to enable you to rise above the frustrations, and a day to serve others as the hands and mouth of the Lord.

And the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.” Exodus 19:10-11 (NIV)

Imagine if you knew the Lord was coming to visit you the day after tomorrow. How would you prepare? What would you do for the rest of the day today and all day tomorrow? When I read this passage, I was caught up in such excitement that God was going to come down from heaven to visit with the people of Israel.

Moments later I was a bit convicted. God wants to come down and visit with me regularly, but I don’t always spend the time and effort necessary to prepare myself to receive Him. Perhaps even worse than that, I don’t anticipate God’s visit. I want to always be excited that TODAY is the day I will meet with God and He with me. What a way to live! In anticipation of hearing from the Creator of the universe.

God told the Israelites to “consecrate” themselves, to wash their clothes and to “be ready.” The word translated “consecrate” (or “sanctify” in the King James Version) is qadash and means “to make clean” or “keep holy” or “purify.” Before the Israelites were to meet with God, they were to clean themselves up and remain holy or set apart for Him. If I want to meet with God, I need to do all I can to make myself clean and keep myself holy. That means avoiding those conscious sins and asking God to reveal things in my life that are impure. It means going to God regularly and asking for His forgiveness and sanctification.

God also told the Israelites to “be ready.” As I read the passage, I was reminded of the night before a family vacation – we were to “be ready” to leave when we woke up (which was always at 4am because my dad was a truck drive and he wanted to do as much driving in the dark before the rest of the world woke up). That means we had our bags packed and our clothes laid out, but more than that, it meant that we were emotionally ready to jump out of bed and hit the road. And we were excited about it.

Being ready to meet with God is very similar – it means that we have an anticipation, a physical and emotional willingness to “move” when God says to move, and a spiritual openness to hear what He says. Perhaps most of all, it means that we are excited to hear from Him. God wants us to want Him. He responds to our openness to Him. The oft-quoted verse from Revelations is “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me.” (Revelations 3:20) Jesus is speaking to believers. He is saying that He won’t knock the door down, but he will knock. If we open the door, He comes in. He waits to be invited.

I want to live my life in the mode of making myself ready and anticipating God’s visit. Then when He knocks, I want to be there to say “Lord, I’m so glad you’re here. Welcome. Let’s share the day together. Make my heart your home today, Lord.”

  The LORD is my shepherd;
  I have everything I need.

  He lets me rest in green meadows;
  he leads me beside peaceful streams.

  He renews my strength.
  He guides me along right paths,
  bringing honor to his name.
            Psalm 23: 1-3

This is an invitation. I’m conveying it, but it is being extended by the creator of the universe. He would like you to Rest at the River’s Edge with Him each day. He’d like to teach you a little about His ways, bring you peace, give you wisdom, have fellowship with you. Allow Him to lead you to beside the peaceful streams and your strength will be renewed.

I’m providing a daily Bible reading plan that will help you read through the Bible in a year. When some people hear that, they easily become overwhelmed, and that’s quite understandable – there are 1168 chapters in the Bible! But 1168 chapters divided by 365 days is only 3.2 chapters each day. And that’s easily do-able. The plan I’m providing is a little different  it will identify 4 or 5 chapters every day 5 days a week. That allows for two “grace” days (also known as “catch up days”).

If you read along with us, you’ll find that many of my blogs come directly from what I’m reading in Scripture. The blogs you read will often reinforce what you’ve read or give you insight into how God speaks to me from what I’m reading. I’d love to publish some of your thought as you read, too.

Let’s rest at the river’s edge with God. I am confident He’ll meet you there.

Watch for January’s recommended reading plan in tomorrow’s blog.

⁵    Trust in the LORD with all your heart
     and lean not on your own understanding;
⁶    in all your ways acknowledge him,
     and he will direct your paths
                 Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust, Lean, Acknowledge
Trust God. Lean on Him, not your own understanding. He is trustworthy. Seek Him for wisdom. He gives it generously to those who ask. He knows the big picture. You don’t. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will direct your paths.

“He Will Direct Our Paths”
Your translation of the Bible might say “He will make your paths straight.” The word that’s translated “direct” or “straight” really means both things (and an exciting third thing we’ll see in a minute).

He will direct our paths – We can have confidence that God will give us direction. He will put people in our paths that make the action we should take clear, or He will whisper into our spirit which choice is the right choice for now, or He will highlight a verse of Scripture that makes it clear which direction we should take. He will direct our paths.

He will make our paths straight – He will also straighten out the path, making it smoother, avoiding some of the obstacles that we would run headlong into. He will keep our meandering, “wandering in the wilderness” to a minimum – when we trust God and acknowledge Him in all our ways, we’ll only wander when God has a purpose for it. I like that. Wandering with a purpose!

He will find the “well fitted” path – The word translated “direct” or “straight” also means “well fitted.” I love this! God will direct each of us to the path that is well fitted to us – the one that fits us like a glove. One of the ways the word is used in the Old Testament is in the discussion of the building of the Solomon’s Temple. There is a discussion of carved pieces of wood that are overlaid with gold. When gold is overlaid on wood, it is perfectly molded to the wood. The word “overlaid” is the same word as used in Proverbs 3:6. That’s pretty exciting to me. God is going to lead me in the paths that are perfectly molded to fit me, the one that best matches my talents and temperament and passions. He knows those things better than I do because He created me in my mother’s womb. He knew me before the world was formed. The path He will lead me in will be the best fit possible – and that will be incredibly satisfying.

And He’s just waiting for me to rely on Him for guidance. He is eager to lead me into those perfect places, even joyful watching me take those steps that demonstrate my trust of Him.

There’s one more blog in this series – the practicals of putting it all in action. Watch for the next blog.

If left to my own devices, I’m a late sleeper. Even when I go to bed early, I can sleep late. I am also a heavy sleeper. I frequently don’t hear the alarm clock no matter how loud it’s set. And since every other day of the week I have a reason for being up early, I have always treasured Saturday morning as the day I get to sleep a little later. Not as late as I’d like, mind you, but until a respectable 9am or so.

About a year ago, God began to wake me up early on Saturday mornings. I admit it…for quite a long time, I resented this. Saturday morning is my only morning to sleep late, I like to sleep late, I’m still tired, but I’m lying here in bed awake. What’s with that? No matter how late I go to bed on Friday night, I’m awake early on Saturday morning. If I don’t get out of bed, I just lay there staring into space. I rarely fall back asleep.

Eventually I remembered that when things aren’t as they normally are, when things seem out of place, always look for the hand of God. Since I had spent my life sleeping in on Saturday mornings and now that seemed an impossibility, I realized that it was God who was waking me up.

And Saturday  mornings have become such a special time with God. I don’t do anything significantly differently from what I do most mornings, but on Saturdays (because I’m awake and getting an earlier start), there is less pressure from the things that have to be done later in the day. The house is quieter, the spirit more peaceful. God seems more accessible.

Now the truth is there’s nothing different about the house on Saturdays than on Wednesdays or Fridays and God isn’t any more accessible on Saturday than He is on Wednesdays or Fridays. The truth is that I’m different. I’m more relaxed and looking forward to hearing from God on these early Saturday mornings than on other days. Because I’m up earlier than I need to be, I can enjoy Him without other distractions. And our time together is longer than other days of the week. I worship Him longer, I read more, I listen more, I write more.

The very cool thing is that this was all God’s idea. He initiated it. I’m so thankful that we serve a God who initiates a relationship with us. As A.W. Tozer writes in The Pursuit of God, God is always previous. He always reaches out to us first. He goes before us in everything we do, arriving where we are before we get there. He is always previous.

So God and I have an appointment that He helps me to keep every Saturday morning. Actually, we have an appointment every morning, but Saturday’s appointment is more like a date.

I bet God would like to have a date with you, too. I’m praying that He would begin to awaken readers of this blog early one day next week. Just so you and He can spend more time together.

Let me know how it goes.

⁴¹But as they came closer to Jerusalem and Jesus saw the city ahead, he began to cry. ⁴²“I wish that even today you would find the way of peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from you. ⁴³Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you. ⁴⁴They will crush you to the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you have rejected the opportunity God offered you.”  Luke 19: 41-44, NLT

“Because you have rejected the opportunity God offered you.” The NRSV says it this way: “because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”

Our God is such a gracious God. One who is not slow to act, but gives ample time for people to repent. And yet a time comes when the window of opportunity closes, when the visitation from God leaves. Lord, I don’t want to miss that opportunity. I don’t want to allow that visitation to go unrecognized.

The things that might cause me to do so are largely summed up in the busyness of life. Lord, help me to get away with You. Lord, thank you for helping me keep our weekly appointment.

The more busy I get, the less I am able to truly hear those around me, let alone God. Think about it…when was the last time you misunderstood your child or husband or friend simply because you were too busy to hear the whole story, both what was said and what was left unsaid?

Lord, save me from the self-absorption that comes with busyness.

A friend sent me an e-mail recently. You know, one of those that is passed around to everyone and many people find a blessing while others only find it annoying. (I fall somewhere in-between, depending on how busy I am!) Anyway, this one included a quote that I thought was worth saving and it relates here: “God whispers in your soul and speaks to your mind. Sometimes when you don’t have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at you. It’s your choice: Listen to the whisper or wait for the brick.”

Listening for the whisper is listening for God’s visitation, watching for His opportunities. Lord, open my ears and my eyes to hear and see You in my world today.

Watch for tomorrow’s blog for more from this passage.