Time is such a crazy thing. We all have the same amount of time each day. No one can possess any more or any less. Time truly is a irreplaceable treasure, yet we tend to throw it away so easily. We can waste hours and hours of it online or staring at our phones. If you are my daughter, you can somehow spend hours looking up random funny videos of cats or dogs.  Sometimes being purposeful with our time can seem like such a chore. However, it is that time of year when most people are making goals and promises about how they are going to prioritize their time a little different than in the past.

This past week was the Assembly of God’s week of prayer. They hosted a special theme and emphasis each day. Our church participated by having an hour of prayer from 12-1pm daily. We already have Monday Night and Tuesday Morning Prayer, but this was on top of those meetings. So, just to make this clear to you- we very specifically set aside an hour every single day to meet together and pray.

Obviously, my family and I are Christians. We pray most mornings before Otis goes to work. We pray with the kids before they go to bed. We pray before meals. We pray before we start our school day. We pray when we hear bad news or when someone asks. We even have a habit in our family of praying when we are passed by a firetruck, police car, or EMS with their sirens going. My point is this- we pray.

The first day of our hour long prayer this week was hard for me. An entire hour….all at one time…with no distractions. No kids or youth to pray for or with. No guarding the door or watching for parents.  There was absolutely nothing there grabbing for my attention. Just me and God. I found my thoughts wandering and me wanting to check the time on my phone.

That’s horrible.

That is hard to honestly admit and even harder to type.

As day two came, I kind of realized what a treasure this time was. Something that my husband has taught me over the past few years is the importance of listening during prayer. . We talk and talk and pray and pray, but never take the time to just be quiet and listen to God. He does speak to us. We are just sometimes too busy to hear it.

This week I kept thinking about the words to that song The more I seek you by Kari Jobe.

The more I seek you,
The more I find you
The more I find you, the more I love you

I want to sit at your feet
Drink from the cup in your hand.
Lay back against you and breathe, feel your heart beat
This love is so deep, its more than I can stand
I melt in your peace, its overwhelming

The line that kept playing over and over in my heart was the “lay back against you and breathe, feel your heart beat.”

I felt like this week I had the time to not only listen to God, but to just be in His presence. Resting in His presence is such a sweet thing. Taking the time to just be with Him. You know why I had that amazing time this week to be in His presence? Because I scheduled it. I planned it and marked it on my calendar. I worked my day around it. School ran a little later for us each day, because this was made a priority.

Shouldn’t it be like that every day?

Now I know that with work schedules that not everyone is able to just devote an hour in the middle of the day to prayer. As wonderful as that sounds, it doesn’t always work out that way. If we are all honest though, I’m sure that we can take a look at our 24 hours and see some room to give God more. 

Don’t rush through your prayer time. Make time to listen for His voice and rest in His presence. It makes all of the difference in the world!!

^” For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,  for my hope is from Him.” ~Psalm 62:5