The Lord wants us to spend time
with Him. He wants us to get to know Him better and better in order
for each of us to be able to grow spiritually and to live our lives
the way He intended. And most importantly, He wants us to spend
time with Him simply because He loves us and wants to be with us.
It is like any other relationship, if you want the relationship to
deepen and to grow, you need to dedicate time to it.
The other day I was sitting in the
garden during my quiet time with the Lord. I looked up to the two
thorn trees we have in the garden. It was spring, but it hasn't
started raining as yet, but we use irrigation to water our other
plants during this time. Some of the irrigation reached the one
thorn tree, but not the other one. I noticed then that the leaves
of the thorn tree that got extra water started to come out, but not
the leaves of the one who didn't. The one tree looked green and
fresh, while the other one still resembled winter. At the end of
the day, the leaves of both the trees will eventually come out, one
would just be quicker than the other one. And then I realized that
it is the same with us. Our spiritual life will grow faster if we
water ourselves spiritually. At the end of the day all Christians
will go to heaven, but if you want to grow spiritually, look green
and fresh, lead a life of abundance and be the first to hear from
God, then you need to make time.
It is like Paul says:
"Yes, everything else is worthless
when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my
Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage,
so that I may have Christ and become one with Him." Philippians
3:8,9
And how did Paul get to know Jesus
better and become one with Him? He spent time with Him. A lot of
it.
A while ago I had to find the
answer to a certain aspect in my life. I needed to find the answer
from the Lord. I asked three Christians close to me to pray about
it and tell me what they hear from the Lord concerning this issue
of mine. Each of them came back with either a dream, text verse or
a feeling that they had. None of it was straight forward. It was
like a riddle I had to solve. I wrote everything down and tried to
make sense of it all. I looked up to the Lord and presented it to
Him and asked Him why He made it so difficult. Why couldn't He just
plainly tell me what to do, why all these riddles? And do you know
what He said? In the first place He said He will only reveal as
much as we need to know/can handle at a certain stage, but most
importantly He said that He speaks in riddles in order for us to
make time to spend with Him. If we make the time, He will make the
riddle clearer and present us with our solution. If He gave us the
answer on a straight forward basis, we will not have the need to
spend the time with Him, but we will rush on with the task
ahead.
Don't fall into the trap of simply
rushing to the Lord whenever you need Him. Rush to Him every day,
because whether you realize it or not, you actually cannot cope
without His love and His guidance. You need Him to be able to
function properly and to make the right choices.
Lord, we love You and ask
forgiveness that we do not make enough time for You. Other things
always seem more important, while it is not even close as important
as spending time with You. We look forward to feeling Your warm
embrace and greeting You every morning. Amen