Trust me when I tell you: you will never “find” some quiet time–not on a regular basis. You have to choose to make it happen.
“If the Devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.”
That quote has stuck with me since I first heard it and I have to repeatedly remind myself that the Devil will use every trick in the book to veer us off-target from God. Satan doesn’t have to tempt us with sin to drive a wedge between us and God. All he has to do is get in the way.
In our efforts to maximize every available waking moment, we’ve ceded the Sabbath–a gift from God for our rest and restoration–to the Devil and along with it, any sense of the idea of solitude, reflection, and stepping away from the demands of the world. When we buy into this idea of packing as much “life” into life as we possibly can, we train ourselves to view down time or stillness or peace and quiet as a waste of time or maybe as a waste of an opportunity to make up lost ground and get ahead on that giant to-do list of life we never seem to catch up to.
“If the Devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.”
We bounce around like balls in a pinball machine rushing kids from one side of town to another for this activity or that because the world says that’s what we’re supposed to do to prepare our kids for high school, college, or career. We sacrifice Sunday for traveling sports, work, or activities that require others to work for us (going to restaurants, shopping, etc.).
I’ve written here before about the significance of having a daily–yes, daily–quiet time. NOTHING has impacted my life more than when I finally made the decision 4 years ago to rearrange my schedule so that my quiet time was a structural part of my day. I get to the office about 45 minutes before anyone else and have that time for myself to read the Bible and pray.
Amazingly, when we submit our time to God, He multiplies it, and somehow the work we didn’t have time to do gets done anyway–and in less time. God is awesome like that.
The Holy Spirit is described as a “whisper behind the ears”, but who can hear a whisper in the tornado of modern life? Psalm 46:10 tells us, “Be still and know that I am God.” How soothing and calming would it be to hear that Voice every day? We spin our wheels constantly trying to figure out for ourselves how to make sense of our world, our finances, our family and a hundred other things–when all the while God has so much to tell us that we desperately need to hear for wisdom, comfort, and peace of mind.
Trust me when I tell you: you will NEVER “find” some quiet time–not on a regular basis. You have to choose to make it happen. You have to decide that spending time with God is worth your commitment–that stepping away from the world for even a brief period of time is an opportunity to escape the hustle and bustle, escape the noise and hear God’s voice within the quiet.
If only we would be still.
