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I’m a little ashamed to say I’ve been putting this off. Not because I didn’t want to write, but because I didn’t know what to write. Normally the Lord impresses something on my heart and mind, and it just flows out. This month nothing was coming. I have asked many times in the last couple of weeks for the Lord to help me out, but still nothing.
I mean, in the last few days the prayers have been more like, “Hey God, You’d better give me something, ’cause I got nothing.” Of course that didn’t really work, and I went to bed last night knowing I had very little time before July came to a close and August came barreling in, and I still had no idea what to write.
I knew God hadn’t abandoned me, and I felt confident He wanted me to keep writing. He has opened up other doors where I could use the gift of writing, which He gave me, to glorify Him. So that wasn’t the issue. Even when God has changed what I am writing at the last second, I’ve had a previous idea, but not this month. I was really at a loss.
I lay in bed last night, giving up on asking God, because I wasn’t getting anything, and trying to figure out something to write on, when the whole problem became perfectly clear, kind of like Moses had dropped one of the tablets square on my head. This wasn’t a God problem; it was a Noah problem.
Every summer when school is over, I have grand plans of how I’m going to really dig into God’s word. I look stuff up and find great studies. I talk to people close to me about what devotionals they may be doing, and I just plan to spend the time with the Lord that I’ve been putting on the back burner for months because I’ve been too busy teaching, coaching, etc. My attitude is summer is here and now I’ve got the time to dedicate to the Lord.
Well there are two problems with this line of thinking on my part, and really it is what has the Lord and me not communicating the way we should.
This Doesn’t Work
In my very human brain, this makes perfect sense. I will really get after it now that I have the time to dig into God’s Word. Then guess what happens? My daughter gets married at the end of June; I’ve got three camps in June; I’ve got to catch up on the TV and movies I haven’t seen; Pam and I are going away for a few days; we spent all that money on the pool so we should use it; got to fix those shelves in the closet; we need to have people over, and the ongoing supply of summer “got to dos” never ends.
Are any of those things wrong? Not in the slightest. But if we are planning to have this extra time for the Lord, it’s not going to happen. We, with the evil one’s help, will find plenty of stuff to keep us busy. Saying you will spend more time with God when you have more time is like saying you’ll have a kid when you have enough money. Neither one is going to happen.
As you can see from the list above, I’ve found plenty of other things to do this summer. In fact, even though my plans were to spend more time, I probably have spent less. I have lost my connection to the Lord, not because of Him, but because of me. Maybe that’s why nothing was coming to me concerning this blog.
Why is God on the Back Burner?
Notice that my best-laid plans for summer were to make up for my lack of spending time with the Lord the other 10 months. While in church on Sunday, I felt like I should spend some time in the book of Joshua. After the epiphany last night, I decided to get my butt out of bed this morning and spend some time in God’s Word before starting the day. Joshua 1:8 says, “Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.”
I read that and really just felt like a complete moron. Here are instructions, not just for Joshua, but for all of us as well. Study His Word. Meditate on it day and night. I’m lucky if I spend ten good minutes a day with the Lord, and that includes reading and praying. Nothing I read said, “hey, cram in 147 readings and meditations into a two-month period and you’ll be all stored up for the year.”
However, that seems to be how I operate much of the time, and then I wonder why my 1-800-Hey-Lord number doesn’t seem to go through when I’m looking for an answer. Once again, the line isn’t dead because of the Lord, but rather because of me. I’ve been lacking in keeping those communication lines open and I’m the one who has suffered because of this failure.
Maybe you’re like me and you are struggling to find time for the Lord. Well for all of us, it is time to put the excuses away. God gave us simple instructions: study and meditate, day and night. What would life look like for us if we actually did it? So here is my challenge to you and myself – for at least the next month, let’s follow His instructions and see what happens to our lives. Until next month, stay cool.
