Be Still...

A little over a week ago, I was in the Florida Keys soaking up the rays with a girl friend and enjoying a lot of R&R.  Since my return back to the "real world", for some reason the two extremes of vacay and everyday life have been on my mind.  For example, while in the Keys, I was able to rise leisurely when I felt like it, grab a coffee, sit on my balcony or by the pool and do my morning Bible study in the solitude and have lots of reflection time.  Not once did I look at my watch and think, I need to be doing....fill in the blank.  I could decide as the day progressed what I wanted to do, if anything, and there was nothing pressing, nothing I had to do.  I could lay out my day the way I wanted and schedule as much quiet time or me time as I needed.  Heaven!

We all know that in our every day lives, the above is impossible to do unless you are retired or unemployed with no kiddos!  But the more I grow spiritually, the more I realize how important it is to carve out time to have quiet time in a quiet place while I am well rested and able to focus.  For me, that's first thing in the morning.  If you drive by my house between about 6:30 and 7:30 am most every day, you will see me in my PJs (hey I live pretty far off the road in the country so I can do this!), sitting on my front porch in my rocker with my coffee studying His Word and/or praying.  I like this time of the day best because I'm fresh, I'm focused and for me, it starts my day off in a peaceful way.  It also is such a glorious time of the day, and a beautiful time at my place surrounded with nature and the beauty of God's handiwork.  It was a hard thing to discipline myself to be able to follow the command "Be still and know that I am God" because I'm such an active and busy person...but I've seen first hand that when I quiet my mind is when I hear from God very clearly and receive a much needed word from Him in times of distress or trials.  Too often we don't hear from God because we are too busy to slow down and LISTEN. 

True, it's not as great as the vacation quiet time but it is still just as precious.  In my busy life, I've found that if I don't make time for this and treat it as a priority, then it gets lost in the hustle and bustle of the day.  And there are some days that I miss the mark...I'm only human...but I feel the after shocks of not putting on my armor for the day and I don't like that.  Why do we make time and schedule other important things (sports, work outs, meetings, etc), but we overlook this "appointment" or push it back so readily?  These verses helped convict me all the more:

Mark 1:35
³⁵Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

Luke 5:16
¹⁶But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Matthew 14:12-14
 ¹³When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

If Jesus, in all of His perfection, needed to pray and have quiet time...that means a sinner like myself needs it all the more!  Who am I to think I have more important things in my day to do than Jesus did in His time period when He walked the Earth?

I've had friends say to me "I don't know how you can stand the loneliness of an empty house".  But I don't look at it that way most of the time...I cherish my solitude and the time I spend in His presence and learning and I feel He is using this time period of my life to teach me, to mold me and shape me and prepare me for...something.  So, I've learned to embrace it and not be afraid of solitude but use the time for spiritual development and see that for me, quiet equals peace.

Blessings,

JOY