Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! -1 Chronicles 16:11
There are times in my life that a day goes so smoothly and I look forward to the dawn of a new day. I wake up and the first thing I do is to say a cheery good morning to God and pray. But there are the days I’m dealing with disaster after disaster. Or the unexpected days like I’ve had the past 2 months that derailed the summer I was planning to be replaced with doctor appointments and PT. The hard days. The hurting days. I wake up wondering if I’ll find comfort. The days that I may just send up a thought or a word like, “HELP!!!!” to God.
It makes me wonder what it’s like for God to not hear from me for a while. Does He shake his head missing me? Is He watching me trying to get through a day without time with Him? How many people are so busy in their lives they forget to stop and share some quality time with God each day?
During those chaotic or painful days, I know God is always with me. I imagine that He’s looking down upon my crazed self wondering when I’ll stop and just rest for a minute with and in Him.
It’s so easy to let my personal prayer time slip away with the quite truthful excuse that I’m busy. Busy with family, busy helping others, busy with church activities and God’s work. It’s easy to give excuses. But is there really a valid excuse? I’ve noticed that God doesn’t take time away from us. He’s always there for us.
When I start my day in prayer, I have a calmer mind, I’m more focused, I give thanks for my blessings, and draw nearer to God. Therefore, it makes sense to make sure I start my day in prayer. But how do I achieve that? Well guess what! In one of our Bible studies, a suggestion was made to put a reminder on our phones. Brilliant idea! So, on my phone I have put on my calendar a daily reminder that will chime and send out a message that, “God is near, God is with me.” It’s a visual and audio reminder for me to stop, pray, read a Bible verse and just be with God for a while.
Prayer: Thank you, God for always being there for me. I pray that I will always stop to be still and hear what You have to say.
Epilogue – I have to laugh! As I was writing this, trying to make sure I would get the devotional finished and edited, my phone chimed to remind me to pray. So, I put this aside and spent a few minutes of my time with God. I just didn’t think that I should put God on hold as I was writing this devotional.
