Your secret place with God
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This is a busy time of year for our family. In addition to the holidays, we have several birthdays to celebrate. I began speaking at our church last Wednesday night about this year’s Advent book, Waiting for Christmas, and realized that the holiday season is already in full swing. Now is a good time to focus on God’s plans for this year’s holidays.
My husband and I have enjoyed a season of “simplification” these past two years. We actually like the fact that we are a bit older now, and things don’t need to run at the frenzied pace of past years. God created us to need quiet in our lives. What better time for us to consider carving out some moments with our Father as the calendar begins to fill up, and the holiday “to-do list” grows longer.
How can we gear up for the upcoming holidays and maintain our quiet, peaceful moments with God?
Where is your secret place?
Jesus taught his disciples, “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:6).
Do you have a spot where you can go each day for the sole purpose of spending time with God? Pick a chair, a time, and make an appointment daily to sit with the Creator of the universe, your Father.
What chair can you move to when the season gets busy that helps you turn off the world and listen to God? If you don’t have that spot, make that your early Christmas gift to yourself today.
Allow creation to speak to your soul
I try to carve out quiet moments every day to spend time with God. I love the early morning hours. I have a spot where I can sit and watch the sunrise outside my back window. Almost every morning, I am blessed to witness the majesty of God spread across the sky. That quiet, peaceful time is often when I gain thoughts about something I will be teaching or writing that week. It is also a time when God brings people to my heart and mind whom I need to be praying for. When we witness and consider the greatness of God in his creation, we position ourselves to listen to his silent, all-powerful voice.
King David learned to hear God speak through creation. In Psalm 19:1–4, he wrote, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words, no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out to all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
I picture David, as a young teenage boy, out in the fields with his sheep. David’s life was likely the result of those moments in the field, when he watched a sunrise or sunset and learned to trust the quiet, silent voice of God in his thoughts. David said those moments, “pour forth speech and reveal knowledge.”
Every morning and every night, we can witness the consistent, all-powerful character of God through a sunrise, sunset, or a miraculous display of the moon and the stars. The challenge is to turn off the world’s noise and distractions and experience God’s holy and powerful presence. And, according to King David, to open our thoughts up to his.
If we want to spend the holiday season with God, we will need to take time to sit in awe of his creation and turn our thoughts to his voice.
God “rewards” the time you spend with him
Jesus said, “And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:6).
The God of the universe wants to spend time with us. He gave his Son that first Christmas day so that we could spend all of eternity with him in heaven. He watched Jesus suffer and die so that his salvation could perfect those who believed. Everything God has done in this world has been for the sake of our eternal relationship with him.
God molds our hearts and souls when we set aside moments to sit with him and listen. The wisdom, direction, and peace that result from those times are heavenly rewards for our day. When the schedule gets full, we need those times with God even more.
Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me” (John 10:27). The most important reward we gain from our quiet times with God is that voice. You can know the voice of Jesus and walk through this holiday season with his peaceful direction.
That’s the reward of spending time with God and listening.
A busy week that just got blessed
I woke up really early this morning. Too early, or so I thought. I was staring out my back window, knowing the sun wouldn’t be rising for a couple of hours. I have a busy week and a lot on my mind. I began to consider my schedule, and then I began to consider my blessings.
As I sat in my “quiet place,” God came and sat with me. Now, after enjoying that time with him, I am done writing this week’s article. Even as I type, I know that these words were not just for my sake. As we gear up for the holiday season, we need to remember how much we need God’s voice, our great reward now and one day, eternally.
I hope you find, decorate, and make comfortable a new “sweet spot” in your home and schedule regular times to sit with your Father. And I hope that your time spent in that spot will become your favorite time each day.
This article is the result of my very early, extended time with God this morning. I know I have been “rewarded” with his thoughts, and I hope they will become a blessing for all of you as well.
Have a wonderful week, as you sit in your “secret place” with your Creator.
