Today, God is Waiting!

Daily quiet time with God, is there any value to it?

C.S. Lewis called Solitude "the first job each morning." He saw its purpose as pushing away the day's concerns from his mind and focusing on God's voice. In his view, solitude provided the strength needed for each day's challenges.

Read Isaiah 40:31.

Jesus obviously saw the same value in solitude. Just after His feeding of the 5,000, He purposely sent away both His disciples and the crowd who had sat under His ministry. (Matthew 14:13-22)

Get alone......

Dismissing the crowd who needed and appreciated one's ministry may not seem like a wise thing to do. Jesus wanted time alone with the Father. Time spent in God's presence enhances rather than distracts from what you need for ministering.

Mark 1:35 records Jesus getting up early in the morning when it was still dark, (predawn hours) and departed to a lonely place to pray. During that time, Peter and the other disciples awoke and Jesus was gone, to their surprise. They went hunting for him and found him. Their words appear to indicate that they saw the demands of the crowd as being more urgent than Jesus' personal alone time with His Father.

Jesus’ actions here teach us something important about solitude. We need to daily take time with God in order to handle the withdraws that people and family make on us.

Isaiah 58:11 - "And the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail."

Proverbs 11:25 - "A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed."

Today....STOP = Stop to offer prayer.

Pastor Dave Stallman