It's about Time (Part 2)

By Jace Biendara

I didn’t write last week’s post... but it goes along perfectly with what I had been preparing to say this week. Not only is it about time, but it’s about “what time?”-- where in your day are you making time for God?

For most of my life, time with God was never a planned part of my day, instead relegated to whatever spare moments were left, which often meant time with God never actually happened. I always had good intentions, but somehow the day would be done and I had forgotten once again to carve out time with Him.

This changed in January as our Life Group began a series about time by Andy Stanley where we were challenged to start each and every day by spending time with God. Yes, I know that requires getting up even earlier than we already do, but spending 15 minutes fewer online in the evening gets you to bed earlier and you won’t lose any sleep!

Mornings are quiet. The events of the day have yet to play out, the kids are still asleep, and all the other distractions are still on the horizon. Starting your day focused on God and His Word transforms the rest of the days’ events to be viewed through that lens. While the verses may not always fit your exact situation, the fact that your day started with God puts Him at the forefront of everything you will do throughout the day. I’ve found that I can't help but look at the events of my day differently when I’ve done my devotion in the morning.

In many ways this is similar to what God say’s about the tithe. Before my family began to actually tithe the way the Bible instructs us to, we would give based on whatever was left in the checking account at the end of the month. If your account is like ours, that’s usually not very much, but when we decided to give 10% we knew we had to give that first 10%, before anything else had been spent. The math shouldn't have worked, because how could we give 10% when we’d rarely had 1% left at the end of the month, yet God is faithful when we trust Him, and we’ve never run short!

God wants us first, before the day has taken hold and worn us down. He wants to be part of everything we go through, to be the one we seek for comfort, support and strength. The days’ events will come as sure as the sun rises--but who better to start them with, than the One who created the day and knows exactly what lies in store for us.