Time Out—To Fill YOUR Cup! by Cindy Rushton

Time Out—To Fill YOUR Cup!

By Cindy Rushton

Parched? Dry? Weary in your well doing? You are not alone!  Studies overwhelmingly show that today’s Christian woman is busier than ever balancing more demands than ever before!  The typical Christian woman balances a wide variety of demands ranging from marriage to mothering to homemaking to homeschooling to home-business/career to ministry, in addition to somehow fitting in time to develop and deepen her relationship with the Lord.

If you are like me, you don’t have to have a study to confirm your suspicion that you have a heavier load than ever before. You sure don’t need to hear that we are busier than ever. You KNOW it!  However, if you are like me, one thing that may need to be a constant reminder is that YOU need time out in the midst of your busy life so YOUR cup can stay full to overflowing!  Well, just how do we do it??  And what can truly fill our cups back up? Well, let’s go back in time and learn from our Master!  Let’s look at the life of Christ!

A Ministry that has ROCKED the World!

You know, when I think about ministry or my life’s impact, I really want to come to the end KNOWING that I have stepped up to the call and been faithful.  But, I also want to know that what I did had purpose and meaning!  This is how God has designed us!

Looking at the life of Christ, we see the ultimate example of a life that had purpose and meaning…a life that made a difference! Not only did Jesus Christ ROCK the world while He walked upon the earth, but He has impacted lives for eternity!

If we look at busy lives, we may think that today’s Christian woman is busy, but I still do not know of anyone with a “daily planner” as packed as Jesus’ daily planner was! Skeptics may think that I have lost my mind completely.  But, we can take a glimpse into His jam-packed schedule, along with His priorities and insights, by looking into the pages of His “daytimer” that is in print to this day JUST FOR US! In fact, I love that each of us have a benefit of owning our VERY OWN personal copy of His “daytimer.”  Yep! We have the four gospels right at our fingertips!   

In the pages of our precious Bibles, we see “appointments” that Jesus had set…we see His “to-do’s” that were to be accomplished…we see a record of His “life purpose” and goals that helped Him to meet His awesome life purpose…we see added “meetings” and “bookings” that He constantly added into His planner…we see a VERY BUSY MAN!

Christ lived His whole life for THE CALL. He lived out a world “rocking” ministry lifestyle! But how on earth did He have strength to do it all…to make it through the tough times—even death on the disgraceful cross?  How did He keep His perspective? What were His secrets to keeping on in the face of adversity?  What did He do to keep His cup filled up so He could minister to the whole world in the midst of heartache, grief, loss, persecution, pain, and even death?  Glimpses into His “daytimer” show us the most life-changing ideas for keeping on, keeping on for the long-haul in spite of the demands of each day!  So, let’s go back in time and take a look at the Master!

KNOW the Call!

Yes! I love that in the life of Christ, we can see that even in the tough stuff, He KNEW His call, the purpose for His life, and He stuck to it EVEN when it hurt—even to death on the cruel cross!! Temptations did not sway Him. Loneliness did not sway Him.  His flesh did not sway Him. He knew the call, counted the costs to fulfill the call, and stuck it out—to the point of death (the ultimate fulfillment of His life purpose!!)!

Key #1 from the life of Christ: get to KNOW the call before you! If you have jumped into your daily life without giving consideration to WHO you are and WHY you are here, now is the time! Otherwise, it is so easy to get busy with life, live a complete lifetime and come to the end having done it all, but it really not counting!

So, first of all, take time to get to know YOUR CALL! What is it that YOU and ONLY YOU can do?  Look at your gifts…talents…strengths…interests…  Who are you? What DO you have to offer others?  Live for it! What is your hold-up?  Go for it!  Yes, go for it with your WHOLE life! The rest just keeps you going, but this is the way to set forth on the path toward a life that counts! Know YOUR call!

Watch Out for Prayerlessness!

Look at the life of Christ! Go back and take a peek at His life just looking at His prayer life! It is astonishing! Want to know one of the greatest keys to His greatness? It was His commitment to living a life of prayer!  Sound simple? Well, I find that this is one of the areas that tends to be my weakest link! 

Oh, I really KNOW the power of prayer!  I KNOW the strength in prayer! I KNOW the satisfaction in prayer! I KNOW the contentment that comes from a life committed to prayer! I have watched prayer extinguish fiery darts and javelins that have come my way. I have watched God miraculously answer my deepest needs that were only a whimper through prayer!  BUT! I still find that at my most parched moments—those moments that I am battle weary, frustrated, touchy, and ready to give it all up—that somewhere along the way I have lost that passion for prayer and moved into a state of prayerlessness! Talk about an easy defeat! My enemy doesn’t have to do ANYTHING at that time, I EASILY throw in the towel! I take my own self out! 

Relate? We ALL have a deep personal need for a deep personal walk with our Almighty God. This relationship does not sizzle without building a deep relationship! Just as our marriage could not survive without spending time together talking, listening to each other’s hearts, seeking to know each other’s heart-beats, and wanting to grow closer and closer; neither can our relationship with God grow and deepen without a passionate prayer life. 

It is through prayer that we can share with God those things that come up in our daily walk—excitement, problems, passions, fears, praises, needs.  It is through prayer that God can wrap His caring arms around us to care for us, comfort us, restore us, affirm us, instruct us, and whisper into our spirits!  Prayer is KEY! It does not involve a daily ritual—in fact, true time out with God requires that we be willing to get BEYOND the ritual and really learn to commune with Him!  It does not involve a set place—in fact, true communion, or relationship (less religious word!), does not even happen at a set place and in a set way but rather ALL ALONG THE WAY!

In Hosea 2:16, we see our broken-hearted God wanting much, much more than this STUFF that we so commonly offer Him as a relationship.  He wants to walk with us and talk with us and show us HIS heart while we walk with Him and talk with Him and show Him our heart!  He wants to be our very first love! He wants to be our soul satisfaction! Nothing or no one else satisfies! Nothing or no one else brings contentment! No other relationship is able to compare!  Tired and weary? Cast ALL of your cares at His feet!  Pour your WHOLE cup out! Then…wait upon the Lord and soon your cup will be overflowing!

Get ALONE with God Regularly!

Relationship is MORE than just communication and our relationship with God is TOO!  There is just something about getting into the presence of God and just basking there!

As we look back at the life of Jesus, we see that He made this a priority in His life too.  Jesus made time in His busy schedule for God as His first priority!  We see that as He began His earthly ministry, He began by entering into a time of solitude in the desert.  His time alone with God did not end there. In Mark 1:35, we see that “in the morning, long before daylight, He got up and went out to a deserted place, and there He prayed. (Mark 1:35).”   Also, Luke 6:12 says, “Now in those days it occurred that He went up into a mountain to pray, and spent the whole night in prayer to God.”  Just Jesus ALONE with God! 

Oh, but Jesus did not get alone with God just in the lull of things. Rather, He knew how vital ALONE time with God was. We see in His life time-after-time that He consistently pulled back in the thick of demands!  Luke 5:16 comes in the midst of His growing fame and growing crowds and in turn, growing ministry needs. We see in Luke 5 :16 that Jesus withdrew to the wilderness/desert and prayed. 

Even during the most difficult and painful situation of all—the crucifixion—we see that He prefaced the toughest of times by pulling aside to be alone with God!  There is just something about solitude to equip and sustain the man and woman of God perfectly for their call!  This is MORE than just a snippet of prayer, Bible Study, and quiet time! It is DEFINITELY more than just that weekly (or yearly!) visit to church. This is a time of retreat to get alone with God! 

Some of the best advice that I have been given by those pouring into my life and ministry has been the counsel to set aside REGULAR times to pull back, pull away, and snuggle up to the Lord for a season of refreshment, renewal, and refueling! I laugh, but I don’t just get this “counsel” occasionally when I am tired and weary. I am delighted that so many people care about me enough to constantly remind me to make it a regular thing, not an exception!  Sure, at the point of exhaustion, mighty warriors need MORE time alone with God, possibly a whole season, but I am talking about the need for something more preventive in our journey: REGULAR time alone with God! 

Now, I can almost imagine the response here, “OH, this is not FOR ME, I am not in ministry…”  “OH! I have a quiet time…” Beloved, this is not just a ministry tip! This is a necessary way of life!

Right here in the pages of Jesus’ “daily planner,” we see the priority that He gave to solitude. We see that He did not let the other “to-do’s” steal the time from Him. In fact, it seems from these passages if you will take a closer look, as though the busier He was the MORE He pulled back, pulled aside, and snuggled up close the Father!  Here in Scripture, we also see that He did not let His environment influence whether or not He pulled back into solitude. Rather, it seems that His environment brought about a greater need to get alone in the presence of God!  So, whether we are needing to prepare for our call as so many of the great men and women throughout time (which happened to also pull aside for a season in solitude) OR we are needing more strength for our daily walk, follow the example of Jesus and take time out to get completely alone with God!

Time to Learn!

Looking back to the life of Jesus, we see that although being completely God incarnate, Jesus was also completely human!  Does it excite you as much as it does me when you read of how Jesus kept learning and how Jesus kept teaching the greatest truths through things He did in His everyday life? Even as a child until His death, we see that Jesus never stopped learning and growing.

While not written on this topic, Romans 2:21 still gets me back to the basics!  It says, “Well then, you who teach others, do you not teach yourself?”  This little verse brings me SO much conviction! My ministry began from my TOTAL addiction to the Word of God! It is funny when I think back to my childhood and remember one of my greatest delights from watching my daddy. I remember his total delight in Scripture. Those verses that God gave JUST to daddy would FIRE him up! I loved that!

As I grew up and began my own family life, one of the things that God began to do for ME was to take His Word and not just make it a thing for my parents…or my pastor…or for missionaries. He made it mine! I began to know verse by verse that awesome delight that daddy had in Scripture! Then, came ministry—simply sharing those delights with others!

What is YOUR story? Well, let me share the warning…

Yep! The warning is that it is so very easy to get so busy teaching our children… writing our Bible Studies… teaching our workshops/Bible Studies… that we forget our first love and get stale in our relationship! Then, you know what happens next! We try to keep on in our own strength. We try to pour out what is not inside.  We get more and more malnourished.  Eventually, we fall back or drop out!

This is not what our precious Lord wants! It is not what WE want! So, as we follow the footsteps of Jesus, we need to take TIME OUT to learn! Bible Study and Bible Reading needs to get beyond the boredom! Actually, we need to keep on reading until we get our FOOD for the day! Prayer needs to become more—sitting there and not getting up until we have poured our whole heart out and soaked in the heart of God!  Worship needs to get beyond the rules and regulations…the preferences and quirks…we need to get into the presence of God! We do not ever need to stop growing and learning! We constantly need to keep feeding our minds!

Our minds are no different from our children’s minds. We are created as hungry beings that must be nourished each and every day. One of the reasons that our children are not learning in schools today is that the diet that is served up in their lessons is simply disgusting! Their young minds need great ideas to feed and nourish their souls and help them to continue to grow healthy! 

Likewise, we are no different than our precious children! Talking to moms, so many of us almost feel that taking time to ourselves even to have a quiet time is an indulgence, much less to keep learning and growing—that becomes…well, SIN! (Ha!) Actually, what happens as we keep our hearts and souls malnourished on a diet of fast-mind and spirit food, we actually get into silly sins and miss God’s best for our lives. Time alone with God is critical to our spiritual preservation! Knowing our life purpose is essential to step up to our call. But, we must keep on learning and growing in order to stick it out for the long-haul!

Time OUT!

It is time for us to take some TIME OUT!  We need to kick back and really search out what God has called us to do!  We need to live a life ON purpose for our purpose!  We need to make a commitment for a deeper relationship with God than ever before!  As we regularly withdraw to be alone with God in prayer, we are strengthened by God, Himself!

Ever feel weak and weary? Ever feel too feeble to do great things for God? Draw strength from the Master! Learn of Christ!

Cut it all back to the MAIN thing!Try withdrawing from your life for a little while each day…try to set aside regular time to get alone with God…keep on learning and growing! I guarantee that you will come away with not only strength, but also the inspiration to do the work that God has set aside for you alone! 

Withdrawal will have another benefit. You will mature much quicker because you will have that renewed mind that God promises!  You will understand  the things of God.  This will help you to turn away from the “busyness” of daily life so you may get an eternal perspective on a daily basis!  Withdrawing to God will comfort you in the tough times...give you the security of an intimacy with God in times of loneliness...and give you a passion for Him that will turn our culture upside down!

Sound easy...but, you KNOW it is difficult!  I know! There is a battle waged from our enemy to keep us OFF of our knees, too busy to spend time with God, and too focused on the urgent to get around to the eternal!  So…ready for some time out? Go for it and let your Heavenly Father FILL YOUR CUP!