Matthew 14:23 "And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.” Today's episode discusses how important it is to begin your day with the Lord. Even just 5 min in the morning can transform your day. It also has a power called "The Difference" by Alan Grant. It is a great illustration of how different our days can be when we start them off with God. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
How Important is 15 Minutes?
Matthew 14:23 "And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.”
In the Bible it often mentions how Jesus would go off to be alone to pray. Jesus spent a lot of time healing people and helping people. He spent a lot of time talking to people also. However, he also made sure He fit in time to go off by himself and pray or spend time with the Lord, His father. The teacher in our class on Monday said she always thinks how easy it must have been for Jesus to go off and pray because God is His Father. It would be like going off and talking to your father. It probably wouldn’t be that hard for you to make time to do that. Even as I say that, I realize that isn’t a true statement. I enjoy talking to my dad and would love to talk to him more and yet, I don’t make the time. Jesus was super busy. I am sure He wanted to help as many people as He could. I wonder if it was hard for Him to pull himself away from all that was going on to find time to spend with His Father? I am sure Jesus wanted to help as may people as He could. I also wonder if there was a lot of pressure to work hard because he knew his time here on Earth was limited?
The teacher on Monday mentioned God had been giving her a lesson throughout that day. He was calling her to 15 minutes with him each day. I am sure He is calling all of us to the same. He was trying to get her to understand how important this 15 minutes was to her so he kept giving her different scenarios. For instance, how important would 15 minutes be if you are rushing to catch an airplane? (pretty important) How important would 15 minutes be if you were at dinner with your friends and you were sitting around talking while waiting for your food? (not too important) Then He said, how important is 15 minutes with me? She said she could just feel how important that 15 was to God. Then she said she felt sad because she can remember all the times she said to God, “I’m coming, just not yet.” How many of us have done this too? How many of us have want to spend time with the Lord in the morning but then we get distracted or busy and we tell God we will do it later? I wonder what we have to do that is so important?
I remember reading Resisting Happiness by Matthew Kelly. There was one place in the book where Matthew was talking about how he and is brothers would take turns asking their dad if they could stay home from mass that week. He said he remembered asking his father one time if he could stay home from mass and his father said yes. He was so excited. Then his father said, “You can stay home this week if you an tell me what you are going to be doing at home that is more important than thanking God for giving you another week of life.” Matthew just looked at him, not knowing what to say. His dad said, “It might take awhile to think of something that important so why don’t you go get dressed fro mass while you are thinking.” It was about 5-7 years ago that I read that and it left an impression on me. What is more important than thanking God for another week of life?
Sometimes if I have a busy day I will cut my prayer time short so I can prepare for the day. Have you ever done this? However, prayer time is preparing for the day in the most powerful way. Prayer time can be inviting God into your day and asking Him to help you throughout the day. Have you ever noticed the days when you do start with spending time with God go way better than the days you don’t. My sister gave me a wooden plaque with a poem on it called “The Difference” by Alan Grant. It really changed the way I thought about prayer, and not having enough time in the morning to pray. Here is the poem:
I got up early one morning
and rushed right into the day:
I had so much to accomplish
that I didn't have time to pray.
Problems just tumbled about me,
and heavier came each task.
“Why doesn't God help me?” I wondered.
He answered, "You didn't ask."
I wanted to see joy and beauty,
but the day toiled on, gray and bleak;
I wondered why God didn't show me.
He said, “But you didn't seek.”
I tried to come into God’s presence;
I used all my keys at the lock.
God gently and lovingly chided,
“My child, you didn’t knock.”
I woke up early this morning,
and paused before entering the day;
I had so much to accomplish
that I had to take time to pray.
I really liked this poem. I think it is a great reminder of how important prayer is, even just 15 minutes, even just 5 minutes. It is also a great reminder that things just work better when we invite God into our situation. When we stop and give him permission to do what He wants to do in our lives. When we stop to go over our day with Him and let Him know we are thinking of Him. There was something else our teacher said that really hit me. She was talking about how she was planning a conference and it was getting difficult. She was feeling abandoned because she was only a few weeks out, she didn’t have a lot of help, and there were several things that hadn’t come together yet. She knew God was helping and at the same time she felt abandoned. She said she called out to God and asked why He wasn’t helping. She said she got the impression God told her she could do it. Look at all Jesus did. She said to God, “Of course Jesus could do all of that, He had you.” And God said back to her, “So do you.”
God is our Father too. We are His adopted sons and daughters. When we go off to pray like Jesus did, we are talking to our Father, our dad, our daddy, our papa. When we are doing the Lord’s work, we have God on our side, just like Jesus did. God will help us, just as he helped Jesus. Whatever we do in Jesus’ name is all for the Lord’s glory. He will be there for us just as He was there for Jesus. God is calling us to spend time with Him. He is calling us to just start each day with Him. He is calling the woman teaching our class to 15 minutes a day. Matthew Kelly says to start with just 10 minutes a day. There was a word of prophecy at prayer group recently that said just 5 minutes a day. Whatever you give the Lord, He will give you back 10 fold. I don’t think God is sitting up there worrying if you gave him 5 minutes or 10 minutes, or 15 minutes. God just wants to spend time with you. I know you are busy, I know I am busy, I know we are all busy, but too busy for God? Too busy for 15 minutes thanking God for another week of life and inviting Him into our day? If we truly are too busy to spend 15 minutes with God each day, then we really need to revisit our calendar and see what we may need to give up. God should be our priority, let’s make that happen!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, help us to put you first. Help us to start our day off with inviting you into our day and thanking you for giving us the gift of a brand new day. Lord, we are sorry we allow ourselves to get so busy that we don’t make time to pray. We are sorry we are not starting our days off with you. Please help us Lord. Please show us where we could rearrange things so we can put you first. We love you Lord and we want to spend time with you each day. You are awesome Lord. You are the almighty and powerful Lord. You are the light of the world. We adore you and we glorify you. We give you thanks for your great glory. We are so grateful for all you do and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Could I ask for a favor? If you are enjoying this podcast, could you share it with a friend? Also could you rate and review the podcast as that is how other people will find it. Thank you! I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day.