May 18, 2004

[shooraijin]

In Rev. Doc's absence, I will be posting his devotionals (written before he left for his trip) for him from 17-28 May. -- S.

Time With God

Psalm 25:5
"Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long."

There is never enough time in one day to do everything. But, if we have not set aside the time to focus on God, will anything else really matter?

Dr. Harry A. Ironside told of visiting a godly Irishman, Andrew Frazer, who had come to southern California to recover from a serious illness. Though quite weak, he opened his worn Bible and began expounding the deep truths of God in a way that Ironside had never heard before. Ironside was so moved by Frazer's words that he asked him, "Where did you get these things? Could you tell me where I could find a book that would open them up to me? Did you learn them in some seminary or college?" The sickly man gave an answer that Ironside said he would never forget.

"My dear young man, I learned these things on my knees on the mud floor of a little sod cottage in the north of Ireland. There with my open Bible before me I used to kneel for hours at a time and ask the Spirit of God to reveal Christ to my soul and to open the Word to my heart. He taught me more on my knees on that mud floor than I ever could have learned in all the seminaries or colleges in the world."

We will never really know God, or His direction for our daily lives unless we seriously spend the time to learn His truths and apply them. No college or seminary can supply it. Let the Holy Spirit be your teacher and guide.

Prayer: Ask God for help in setting aside the time you need to develop and maintain an intimate, ongoing, ever growing relationship with Him.

"Having a Quiet Time looses the spirit of wisdom, revelation, insight, understanding, knowledge and instruction within you." ~anonymous

[Gypsy]

Yes, I can't stress enough the value of time spent in prayer and deep study of God's word. I've always, always had a struggle with making myself set time aside for worship, devotionals, and prayer. However, this usually ends up being one of the better times of my day. In a long-term sense, my time with God is the most important thing that I will do all day. And yet I can still so easily allow it to be crowded and rushed because of other things. I suppose it's selfish, human nature, but I hope that in the future I won't have to daily talk myself into spending time with my God.

[wiggins]

Cool! That's awesome. I also now think, that it is not only important for us to have that quiet time, but it is also important, that during that quiet time, our hearts, souls, and minds are wholly focused and fastened upon the Lord, upon God, and that we are not distracted by things we have or want to do, but we just put everything aside, hard as that may be, and focus on God.

[shooraijin]

> but I hope that in the future I won't have to daily talk myself into spending time with my God.

I hope that day will come for me, as well.

[wiggins]

> but I hope that in the future I won't have to daily talk myself into spending time with my God.

I hope that day will come for me, as well.

Me too.

[true_noir_chloe]

That's funny that this subject has been coming up so much lately in discussions I've had with friends. I forget who I was talking to and I told her, you know I took lay courses in theology and spent hours upon hours of witnessing on colleges, read R.C. Sproul, Gresham Machen, Pink, and so many great writers of faith, and yet it wasn't until I really started spending time in the Word and only in the deep study of the Word of God and in deep prayer, on my knees, that I actually started to really know God. I'd say that didn't happen until I was in my later 30s. I hope one day I can be like that old man who was taught by the Spirit. ^_^