During worship last Sunday, Jerry was MC’ing and shared a word he was hearing from God (see it here – https://youtu.be/bYWujpu54gw?t=1811). The word that Jerry got was that for many of us, we feel like our life is on “pause” because of the pandemic. We’ve had to pause important things whether it’s because of lockdown, our family situation, sickness, work life, job loss, etc.
That word really spoke to me! I definitely feel like things in my life have been put on pause because of the pandemic. One big area for me is with finishing my PhD. Before the pandemic, I feel like I was making good progress in my work, and things were moving at a steady pace. Definitely not as quickly as I (and many others) would have liked, but moving forward still. The pandemic changed all of that pretty quickly! Libraries closed, classes went online, and my time has been squeezed pretty tight.
When chaos like this hits in our lives, one of the first things that often goes out the window is time with God. With all the pressures of life, we feel like we don’t have time to spend with God. Time with God is important, we all know that. But how can we make that time when there’s so much that needs to be done? How can we fit time with God into our already chaotic schedule?
For me, I think this is where Andrew’s message really hits home (see that part here – https://youtu.be/bYWujpu54gw?t=4791). Andrew shared how God was asking him for more time, but Andrew felt like he didn’t have the time. God responded by asking him, “who told you you can’t give me time?” Who told you that you don’t have the time to spend with God? (see Andrew’s devo on this here – https://www.life-spring.org/who-told-you/)
When we’re pressed in life, our first instinct is often to take control. When chaos hits, we can try so hard to get things back on track–our relationships, jobs, families, time, etc. We all know that God is Lord of all, but when it comes to time, we so often act as if we’re in control. We so easily forget that God is the God of time too.
If this is an area you feel challenged, take time to do some listening prayer about spending time with God. And let’s learn to hold our time with an open hand toward God, being willing to allow God to be Lord of that too.