Time is of the Essence

Last night, I decided to clean my house and spend some much needed time with God. The funny thing is my pastor told us that once we started trying to kick it with Him, things would come up to inhibit that time. Last night, it was the telephone. I ended up chatting with Tammy for an hour or so. I have to learn to turn the ringer off when I'm going to hang out with the Lord. He truly deserves all my time, but He lets me do my thing because He's so patient.

I'm sure this sounds crazy, but I actually had a great time with Him last night. I put on some good gospel music and thanked Him for everything that He'd done for me yesterday. I was thankful for having a house to clean and a car to drive. I've heard people say that once you start giving thanks for what you have, you don't focus on the things you don't have, and I think that's probably true.

I couldn't focus on not having a boyfriend or not being married when I was thanking Him from delivering me from several awful relationships in the past. You know, the relationships where you're giving 99% and getting less than 1%, or relationships where your mate is verbally abusive, untruthful, manipulating, or mean. I can appreciate how much I've grown since those days.

Psalm 30:11 reads "Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;" I think what is so awesome about God and spending time with Him is that once you start focusing on how amazing it is for an eternal, self-existing Creator to even want to spend time with you, you realize that the drama you may be going through doesn't really matter. Regardless of what happens everything is going to work out.

So, even with bills piling up, credit score going down, car trouble, empty refrigerators, etc. You have to be thankful for another day to glorify Him in spite of everything that's going on. If you have the strength to move without the assistance of machinery and if you can think and process the information your senses are gathering in a rational and accurate manner, that's something for which to be thankful.

The song writer put it like this, "I know who holds the future, and I know who holds my hand." We don't have the power to predict our futures. All we can do is utilize our time and live so that people can see Christ shine through us. We're not perfect, and we won't be on earth, but we're striving to be like Him, holy, compassionate, merciful, diligent. Start thanking Him for all He's done, focus on Him and His goodness, and try to live a life that reflects Him, everything else is just a waste of time.