Devotional Thought of the Day:

⁴⁰  He came back and found his disciples sleeping. So he said to Peter, “Can’t any of you stay awake with me for just one hour? ⁴¹  Stay awake and pray that you won’t be tested. You want to do what is right, but you are weak.” Matthew 26:40-41 (CEV)

530    Many Christians take their time and have leisure enough in their social life (no hurry here). They are leisurely, too, in their professional activities, at table and recreation (no hurry here either). But isn’t it strange how those same Christians find themselves in such a rush and want to hurry the priest, in their anxiety to shorten the time devoted to the most holy sacrifice of the altar?

I’ve probably spent twenty-five hundred hours of my life “in church”.

That might sound like a lot, until you realize I’ve been alive for some 475, 449 hours.

Sure, you could add in the time in Bible studies, both formal and informal. Chapel services, funeral and weddings might a few hundred more hours. and times of prayer and meditation may double the total.

But even then, I as a pastor, probably spend less than 2 percent of my life, “in church: and in prayer.

Not much of an investment.

Not given the eternal consequences, nor give the peace and comfort those eternal consequences bring, nor given the joy that walking with God brings in this life. Joy found even in the midst of chaos, in the midst of pain, in the midst of grief.

Yet some complain when church goes over 65 minutes (or in my case 90) We are willing to be free with our time, but sometimes we get all hot and bothered by spending more time with God.

We’ve got important things to do, people in great need to see, things that MUST get taken care of, and don’t you know, we are advised to take care of ourselves?

and so our flexible time becomes that we spend with God……

I am not writing this out of a sense of piety, the idea that what all good Christians do is spend 2-3 hours on Sunday, plus one on Wednesday night in church and 30-45 minutes a day in prayer. If we are doing it to prove how good and holy we are, that time would be better spent.

I am urging us to do this because we need, even desperately need that time with God. Life is too challenging, it is too broken, it is to wild. We need God in our lives, and we need to remember His promises to be there.

Savor your time with God! Enjoy the moments without stress! Turn over to him all the things that cause anxiety and pain, the things that could cause guilt and shame…. and then just enjoy His presence and the Love He shares with you.

Amen!

Escriva, Josemaria. The Way (Kindle Locations 1282-1285). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.