My confession to you is this: I’ve gone lax on spending time with God. Things are busy. Family needs are high. People need stuff. Kids have just a little time left before they go back to school. We are looking for a new home. We are having issues with our current new home. We are in a new place with new stuff to figure out. There’s too much to do. (Insert my thousand other excuses here).
Life needs tackling, so I’ve done just that: tackled life alone….
…blazing ahead according to my thoughts, telling others what they need to do, fretting details, wondering why God hasn’t given me better answers, waiting poorly, pushing around like a bull in a China shop…
…until this morning, when I finally settled and heard God’s voice. It essentially said, “Kelly, the quiet place is your victory place. Here, you learn what you desperately need to know. Here, protection and covering push out sin and shame. Clarity trumps confusion, hope beats impatience and love rules over isolation. I put things in your heart in this place.”
Yes, God!!! I want that!
I couldn’t help but think God was right.
My victory is always found in the quiet. It is found in searching out God, in reading his Word, in praying, in seeking, in noticing, in abiding, in trusting, in faith, in praise, in thanksgiving, in expectant hoping, in longing, in asking.
God is right. This is my victory. And it is not one God casually calls me to. It is one that is critically important for me to respond to.
God gives us all a standing invitation to come into fellowship and communion with him, everyday, every moment. Do we respond? Or, like me, do we turn to other pressing issues, people, problems and life happenings?
Today, hear this word like an alarm: Responding to God is serious business.
Failed fellowship means we could:
– miss a word that could change our whole outlook on our horrible and frustrating ever-present situation.
– be unable to find God’s compassionate heart for that person we are so angry at.
– forego insight into that outstanding question we just can’t figure out.
– divert God’s love and walk in anxiety, worry and anger day after day.
– see no life change when God has huge transformation waiting for us.
– walk in the flesh, rather than the renewal Jesus prepared for us.
– miss the leadings of the Holy Spirit that will help us love, care and minister to our family in powerful ways.
– stay in a rut
Our “I’m busy, I’ll meet with God later” and “He can wait” moments don’t steal from God. They steal from us the very best God wants to give. We miss his gems. The transformation He’s prepared for us to dig up.
Obedience is quiet patience, securing us in God’s providence. Why would we ever want to miss that?
7 Tips to Powerful Fellowship Time with God:
- Pray the Psalms over yourself.
- Replace your fretting time with fellowship time.
- Create open space, free of future demands, to be, hear and unite with him.
- Wait on the goodness of God’s word. Don’t move fast.
- Seek God, and expectantly trust that he will answer.
- Take time to notice the beauty of God around you.
- Let him be the first one in your thoughts in the morning.
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Kelly, God’s been speaking the same things to me. After a crazy-busy summer, I came into last weekend feeling just how depleted I was because I kept putting God off. I’m thankful for His patience and His steadfast love for me (and all of His creation). And that He renews fellowship with us quickly when we come back to Him!
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I loved this: “The quiet place is your victory place”
So true and yet I so often overlook God in the quiet. I keep doing, running, striving. But I’m doing it all on my own.
Quiet with Him is more fruitful than anything I could accomplish on my own!
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Great advice to start early in the morning with our thoughts on God. Oddly, this starts for me the night before, as I fall asleep, I try to review the day in light of gratitude and to acknowledge the presence of God in all of it.
Thanks for this helpful post!
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Wren I open my eyes in the morning and try to remember what day is is;) I thank my Savor for allowing me to see another day. I ask Him for the courage, strength, and wisdom for what lies ahead. Your 7 tips are powerful Kelly because they are effective. God is always near, and we can sense His presence when we seek fellowship with Him.
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Great tips, Kelly! This is a powerful post. I think this is especially important to remember, that missing time with God can cause us to “miss a word that could change our whole outlook on our horrible and frustrating ever-present situation.” Thanks for reminding us of where our strength and peace and rest come from.
I have time. I am on disability, recovering from a complication from shoulder surgery. I have a space set up, with readings, my bible, journal and all. I haven’t spent the time lately with him.
Thanks for the reminder. Seeking God always puts me at peace.
I notice his beauty always, and am so thankful for it. Today I will remember to thank him for so much more.
Love reading your email every day. Thanks for sharing YOU!
Kelly, thank you for the reminders to rest and to remember to go to our quiet places. This was so well written and so honest. Very encouraging!
” The quiet place is your victory place. Here, you learn what you desperately need to know. Here, protection and covering push out sin and shame. Clarity trumps confusion, hope beats impatience and love rules over isolation. I put things in your heart in this place.” truer words were never spoken, I know the Lord’s voice when I hear it. May I quote you both on this?
In the last week I heard two people share what it took for them to realize they needed that quiet one on one time with God. One lost their phone, the other was in the hospital.
Thank you for this message, we need it every day, let’s not wait until we are without are phone or on the hospital to realize it. Starting a day in conversation with the Lord changes everything! I always say that a day I start with God is a day I stay with God.
When I don’t….I end up wishing I had, but, He is there for us all day long. All day long with new mercy for each moment. So, if you didn’t start the day with Him, run to Him as fast as you can right now. He is waiting for you! That is because our God who loves us!
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So many yeses here, Kelly!
I do so much better when I am able to connect with Him throughout my day. It just keeps me even keeled.
Great post!
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When I arrive at small group today, I was feeling so overwhelmed.Most days I can juggle quite a bit, but today I was just so darn overwhelmed. I seemed to be focusing on a list of struggles, painful circumstances, sickness, aches, disappointments, and feeling like I had failed at everything. As we started our prayer time, it was as if a light bulb went off. I had left early this morning for a meeting and skipped my time with God. I had not started my day with God’s word, being thankful, or listening to his voice. I knew I had small group in the afternoon so I figured I would connect at that time. Boy did I judge that incorrectly? I need God first thing in the morning especially when I know I have lots to juggle.
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