Is God too big to fit into your schedule? You really have to ask yourself that. It’s an important question. It should be asked every morning. It should be asked through the day. It’s not just a Sunday question.
Is God in my schedule? Do I have time for Him? How could we not?
And yet often we’re too rigid for Him and we plan too much and we exert our own self-will too strongly for Him to be in control. We squeeze Him out. Go the 1 Samuel way: listen for His Voice. Get to know it.
Therein resides the reason for many problems, even disasters: When we’re too rigid — when we have things set too firmly, when we have designed the day — God is absent.
Due to free will, He lets us have our way.
The result is that we strain and scurry about and don’t have enough time to do anything. In many cases, the faster we work, the less we get done.
Do you set a schedule and adhere to it no matter what He may want to do? Is God in your schedule, or (as should be the case) is your schedule in Him? Are you willing to be spontaneous or do you refuse to let God slip into your plans?
Remember, God often works through the unexpected. He works through spontaneity. He is always waiting for openings and those openings often occur in ways that we don’t schedule and the key is making sure that we don’t close those openings through self-will and blind determination (which leads us up a blind alley).
The more time we have for Him, the more time we have, period. The more we get done. And the better our work is. When we go with His flow, we live in a way that is “organic.”
That’s to say, when we live in God’s Will we live in a way that moves gradually and powerfully and grows not in the haste of a weed but with the strength of a tree. It may not seem perfect, it may not move at a set pace, it may not expand in expected directions, but when we move with the Spirit of God we move with a potency that can weather the storms and bring old age.
We bear fruit.
Notice the way God works with plants. They grow best when they grow in the way He intends, completely in His Providence. Often, it’s not the way we would have it. There is irregular growth. It may not seem “perfect.” But it lasts because it is healthy. It is well rooted. It gets the job done. There is an enduring forest. What seemed like a long time was time well spent.
On the other hand, when we take over, when we try to force a plant to grow too quickly (for instance, through use of too much fertilizer), or try to make it too perfect (by over-clipping), we cause it to burn out because we have rushed and we have become creator.
The same is true with our lives. Ambition is like fertilizer. Frenzy is phosphate. Perfectionism is acidic. He likes it when we go with His flow and He enjoys it when we allow things to occur in a way that is spontaneous — not forced, and not according to a “perfect” human deadline. Turn disruptions into opportunities.
Now: that doesn’t mean you can’t organize your day — and it certainly doesn’t mean we can blow off the schedules we must follow in a normal workday. We have to live by certain strictures. We must be organized.
But we also have to be open — at every moment — to the Spirit. We have to realize that when God alters our plans, He may be preventing a circumstance that would have caused us harm we never did see.
When we’re in control, things are out of control. When we’re rigid, when we don’t bend, when we don’t go with His flow, we risk breaking.
When something comes along to disrupt your plans, go with it. Go with the flow. You’ll find that God makes the time up to you. Let God be God!
When you give Him control, He will allow you to accomplish what normally might take an hour in just a few minutes. He’ll even send you extra talent. Only God can extend a day.
He is creator and He wants to create your schedule. If something comes up to disrupt your plans — if suddenly you have to go somewhere, or take someone to an unplanned stop — use that time wisely. Use that time to pray. Use that time to sprinkle blessed salt out your car window on the way to the errand and sanctify your area.
When you turn every tedium into an adventure, into a mission (for Him), into closeness, you open a door to the miraculous.
To let God take over is to pray without ceasing and to realize that even when we are doing something we don’t want to — even when we are running out to do a chore when we had planned to be at a desk working — we can be in tune with the Lord if we turn every errand into a holy event.
Just letting go for an hour when you really had it in your plans to work that hour or do whatever it was you were going to do will open you to grace. Offer up the frustration.
Yes, we have to have a certain time-table. Yes, we have to be at certain places at set times.
Just don’t overdo it. Let the Holy Spirit be with you when you plan your day and watch Him turn it into the most productive ever.
— Michael H. Brown
[resources: inspiration big time: Scandalous Mercy; also, uplifting retreats, Florida, Louisiana]
[Return to www.spiritdaily.com]