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Please forgive the crazy colors in this post. I can't seem to get them all to change to the color I want.

Our pastor preached this weekend from the book of Malichi. It was a very convicting message which is great! At the end of the message he gave an invitation to all believers who felt that the Lord was speaking to them about any particular sin, to come forward and confess it to a prayer counselor. I was sitting there praying and asking the Lord if I should go up and speak to a prayer counselor. I knew in my heart that I have been giving God the left-overs of my time, if I even manage to give Him any! Not that I haven't been in the Word, but it hasn't been true fellowship. So I asked God to let me know if I should go up or not. Next thing I knew, our pastor said almost “word-for-word” what I had prayed about. I thought to myself, “Well, I guess that is a pretty clear confirmation!” 

I have not always struggled with spending time with God. It seems that I tend to go in cycles with this. Of course, daylight savings hasn’t helped at all either! My struggle has been and continues to be dragging myself out of bed. You can read about that in my blog titled, "Why is it so hard to get up in the morning?"

Another struggle has been that it never seems to fail that when I finally do manage to get up for quiet time, my kids hear that I am up and want my attention.

While I was in the church bookstore after service this weekend, I saw a booklet our pastor wrote called, “Spending Time with God”. I felt the Spirit telling me that I could use a refresher on this, so I bought it. As I was reading it, I came up to a section in which he was discussing the importance of keeping other things from crowding out our time with God.

The Lord really spoke to my heart when I read, "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon, and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: 'Everyone is looking for you!'" Mark 1:35-37. Here are some of the things He said to me:

·        My husband, children and home are my “ministry”, with other areas of ministry He has given me added on.

·        Jesus had to get up very early in the morning, while it was still dark in order to avoid being bombarded by the masses while having His time alone with His Father. (Ouch!!! “Lord, do I really have to????”)

·        When they did come and interrupt Him, He did not complain or get angry or even frustrated with them. He simply said, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.” Mark 1:38. In other words He got right to the business of ministry.

So, I guess, based on those things that He told me:

1.  I need to start getting up earlier so that my kids don’t bombard me.
2. I also need to give them a set time when they are allowed to get up and enforce it.
3. However, if my time should run long and they do need to interrupt me, I need to be like Jesus and jump right into the business of ministering to my children without my usual frustration.

There just is no easy way to die to self is there??? I did manage to get up this morning very early, while it was still dark. Please pray that I will be able to stay consistent in doing this.