I have never been that good at setting aside regular time to read the Bible and pray. It’s not that I haven’t tried – I have. I have tried when I wake up, when I go to bed, before I eat and so on. Every time the same thing happens, I start off strongly but sooner or later I miss a day. One day becomes two and two becomes three I end up giving up what I have started.
Recently however I have managed half a year of quiet times without ceasing. How have I done this? By realising it is all about Jesus whether I realised it or not. My priority became spending time with Jesus not finding time to spend with Jesus, there is a subtle difference. When I prioritise the relationship rather than the arrangement I find it easier to maintain both. I don’t hold myself to a legalistic schedule, I operate grace and somehow it has worked.
I’m currently reading a book called ‘The God Lab’ by Roger Bretherton and he puts it like this: ‘There was a time in my life when I aimed to carry God through my day. It was an admirable aspiration, I think. I just wanted to remain conscious of him in every moment of the day. But it never quite worked. Within two seconds of arriving at work, I was completely immersed in the demands of the day and barely gave God a thought until lunch, when I realised I’d been spiritually oblivious for hours.
But it started to dawn on me that God’s existence didn’t depend on my concentration. He didn’t disappear in a puff of smoke the moment I thought about something else. Irrespective of my attentiveness to him, God often came running to meet me over the course of the day – an answered prayer, a remarkable conversation, a gesture of kindness, a moment of courage or peace. I began to trust that God was in my day whether I knew it or not.
My premise had been wrong. I didn’t need to carry God through my day. He wasn’t some poor cripple who needed my help to get about. God’s already out there, dancing and weaving and doing his thing. And if I have the eyes to notice him, I can join in.’
Bretherton is right. And similarly it is all about Jesus, whether we recognise it or not.
Colossians 1:15-20 ‘He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.’
