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5 Minutes

I am a rule-follower. I like rules, order, and justice. I struggle in living outside of my safe comfortable box-shaped life. I try and I am learning to curve the lines, but I cannot proclaim victory just yet. When I started my Christian journey in the 90s, daily quiet time and devotions were buzz words. This is what you did if you were a good Christian: you wake up, roll over onto your knees on the floor, say your prayers, grab your devotional book, and have a little quiet time with God. Give me all the rules and structure. I am sold!

Life happened and daily devotions became difficult to complete. I never really found one that held my attention. Never did I go too deep in searching my faith through these devotions. Daily quiet time became a ritual; something to check off the list. And then I had kids. Not only did I have kids, I had my first child who LOVED early mornings. I'm talking, if I woke up at 5:45am to get my quiet time in, he was up at 5:30am. And then I kept having kids and the chaos and volume grew exponentially. Have you ever tried to have a quiet time with the Lord while nursing an infant, chasing a mischievous one year old, and entertaining a four year old? It's not going to happen. My only quiet time with the Lord during those years were whisper prayers to God asking Him to help me survive the day.

We like structure. We like someone telling us how to maneuver through the Christian life. We want a list of things we need to do to be good checking them off throughout the day. When all is said and done, we've given God five minutes of our time reading someone else's Words not really experience Him at all. We leveled our faith bar to five minutes a day and an hour on Sunday becoming "devotional" Christians.

We've cheated ourselves. We've limited our faith experience because we think we can't. We have convinced ourselves that all we can do is five minutes of someone else's words about the Bible during the week and sometimes a service on Sunday. What we don't realize, is that the Bible is not off limits to us. All we need to do is start. We don't need a certain time of day. We don't need to be Bible scholars. We don't need to understand everything. We don't need to read an entire chapter, an entire book, or even the entire Bible. We just need to start.

I am currently in a season where I can meet with God at a designated time each day. I haven't always been here. Sometimes my daily God time looked like reading a single verse and praying throughout my day under my breath as I laid a baby down for a nap. There is no formula to spending time with God in His Word. Just do it. He wants to meet us there.

Don't be intimidated by the Bible. God has given you and me the Holy Spirit to steer us through. Don't take an author's perspective or even your pastor's opinion as the only authority. Let the Word speak to you and through you. Ask God to open your eyes, mind, and heart to understanding what it is you are reading. The more you read the Bible, the more alive it becomes.

The more we live in this "devotional" Christianity, the less equipped we are to face life. We cannot have a firm foundation if all we are doing is reading a daily devotion in order to check it off the list. When the storms come or a big decision needs to be made, we are going to be swallowed by the waves because our foundation is weak. We need the purity of reading the Scriptures to carry us through.

God is there, holy present, waiting for us to pick up His Word so He may speak to us. He is waiting to meet us there. He desires to meet us there. He is knocking. Are you willing to answer?

Love & Blessings,
Meg

"A time will come when people will not listen to accurate teachings. Instead, they will follow their own desires and surround themselves with teachers who tell them what they want to hear. People will refuse to listen to the truth and turn to myths." 2 Timothy 4:3-4

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