Time Alone with God

by Terri Webster

How is your year going? Are you ready to see 2017 fade away and start 2018 with a clean slate?

For some of you it’s been a tough year. Some hard stuff mixed in with the good.

This is the time when I begin asking the Lord what my word/theme will be for next year to represent my quiet time with Him. 2018 will begin year three of intentionally setting aside time alone with Him every day.

It’s not because I’m so godly and mature, but because I was hungry and desperate.

Are you hungry? Feeling empty; like there must be more to this life; more to this Christian life?

A year ago I shared with you about this new venture with the Lord, which began two years ago. In my blog post titled, Color Your Year, posted December 19, 2016, I explain in more detail.

Before reading further you can catch up by reading Color Your Year here, then pop back over for today’s post.

Color Your Year

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quiet time, devotion and Bible reading. We call it different things, but it’s that daily block of time set aside for time alone with Jesus.

This is something I’ve discovered I’m desperate for. I must have it.

Like water is necessary for my body, so is my time alone with Jesus, His word, prayer and writing in my journal.

The past two years have been life-changing. My life’s circumstances haven’t changed, but I have. The change isn’t complete, but will take the rest of my life.

It’s a process.

Throughout the years of my life with Jesus, I’ve always known I needed to spend time with Him. At times my efforts were minimal. I thought as long as I opened my Bible, sat in His presence, read a devotion of the day, then prayed a little that this was enough to grow and change me; enough to know Him.

It wasn’t until the end of 2015, that I became aware of my great need. I couldn’t continue doing the same thing and expect change.

January 1, 2016 was a new day of a new month of a new year. I was focused and ready to make my time with the Lord top priority and yielded to Him in a fresh way.

Ten minutes a day turned into 30, when before I knew it, my “dates” with Jesus became the fastest hour or more gone by of every day!

The room above our garage has become my HAPPY place, even with the hard, disciplining, pruning and burning off the dross by His refining fire. 

I’m nowhere near where I need to be, but learning to simply BE with Him, and let Him do His work in me is priceless. It’s not my work, but HIS.

What relief it is!

How is your daily quiet time with God? If you don’t have a regular time set apart for time alone with Him, I encourage you to begin plans to make this a priority in your day. This is where you’ll find direction, healing and peace that the world will never provide. This is where the change you’re longing for takes place.

The Lover of your soul waits for you. He will never NOT show up.

I encourage you today, to step outside of the noise and busyness for a moment to ask Him for a word/or theme to represent your time with Him for 2018. When He shows you, (and He will), set up your personal space that’s just for you and Jesus. Let Him surprise you!

I invite you to share your thoughts too and how you spend your time alone with Him. Also, feel free to email me by using the form on the right side of this page to ask questions or request prayer.

Staying the course from surprise to surprise,

Terri

Dating Jesus

I shudder to think where I’d be if not for Jesus. His presence in my life is everything to me. I can’t imagine life without Him. I just can’t.

It makes sense that I long for time alone with Him. I recognize though, there’s no way this longing comes from within my heart, in and of myself. He put it there.

Not too long ago I was growing dangerously numb to His prodding. Yes, even after all these years. I’m humbly grateful for His relentless pursuit of me. Makes me feel truly loved.

He’s relentless with you too. The cravings, longings and unmet needs sitting like lead weights in the bottom of your heart, can only be satisfied by Jesus.

Last Monday I wrote about becoming more intentional with my time alone with Jesus. I’d come to the place where I realized I couldn’t afford NOT to dig, plant and grow.

Merriam-Webster defines intentional as Done in a way that is planned or intended.

What does this look like? It means setting our alarm clocks earlier than usual. Or writing it on our calendar or phone’s calendar. 

Then guarding that time. Our meeting with Jesus each day is more important than any other meeting we could schedule.

The three must-haves are:

• A quiet place/spot. Uninterrupted and not distracting.
• Your Bible or Bible app on your mobile device
• A notebook for writing down your thoughts, prayers and all the awesome things God will show you.

As I began with a clean slate on January 1 of this year, I didn’t get too far with my plan before I hit several hurdles.

The first hurdle…ignoring God.

I was out of town for my job and had set my alarm for 5:00am, allowing plenty of time with Jesus before meeting my coworkers in the hotel lobby. 

I woke up at 4:00am. Lying there in the dark I heard these words:

Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. Jeremiah 33:3 (NIV)

I knew it was God. How else would this verse pop into my head at 4:00am?

I thought about how tired I’d be during the day if I got up, and felt that 5:00am was already pushing it for me. So I rolled back over and dozed off.

Have you ever had a friend or family member leave a voicemail on your phone saying, Call me!

That’s what God did. And I shrugged Him off.

An hour later I got up, gathered my “quiet-time” things and settled cozily against my pillows in bed with a cup of hotel coffee.

I didn’t bring my Bible, since I have a Bible app on my phone. I tried to access Google Play for a little worship music. Nothing. It wouldn’t work. I was immediately irritated.

My irritation intensified when the Bible app wouldn’t work either. I suddenly felt alone in my room, like Jesus was nowhere. I dared to say to Him that I felt stood up. Through tears.

During my little tearful fit, I felt a gentle ping in my heart and mind. I had stood Him up. He called me. Jesus called me! And I brushed Him off.

I was mortified.

I got over that hurdle, but not without a painful lesson learned.

My 2^nd hurdle came when certain expectations weren’t met. Such as, all the wonderful things God would show me. Direction for writing, single-parent ministry and other warm-fuzzies that come when sitting at His feet, learning from Him. 

Those things did come, but in very small portions in comparison to the surprises God showed me.

I’d been struggling with stinking thinking. My thoughts caused a bubbling brew in my heart that was going to spew uncontrollably if not dealt with. 

Here I was, with my devotionals, Bible reading, journaling and praying. Yet how I was thinking and what I harbored in my heart were wrong. Pure sin. I couldn’t even stand myself.

God’s majestic finger touched my heart, as if He pointed straight to the root cause of my impure thoughts. The bubbling brew had gone on for so long it took

a while to simmer enough where He could toss it out.

Hopefully for good.

Remove the dross from the silver and out comes material for the silversmith. Proverbs 25:4 (NIV)

Dross is the scum formed on the surface of molten metal or waste matter; worthless stuff; rubbish. (Webster’s New College Dictionary)

God is the Silversmith who scraps off the dross and tosses it.

The last hurdle is worrying about what’s going on outside my closed door. 

Worrying about what someone else thinks of me when I disappear for an hour. 

Or worrying about all the other things I need to do, feeling like this precious time is unproductive or frivolous.

Ladies, meeting and sitting at Jesus’ feet every day is the life-breathing, fresh touch you need to satisfy your deepest longings. He wants you to be in love with Him, like He is with you.

Remember my friend, Sande, founder of The Planting Place, I spoke about last week? She’s joining us next Monday to share her story of finding everything she needs at the feet of Jesus. You won’t want to miss her!

Until then…stay the course

Terri