Time
Kenesha Blair of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.
Nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn. -Isaiah 60:1-3
We all get the same amount of time, 24 hours a day to do whatever we want. Once that time is over, we can never gain it back.
Whenever I pray, I ask God to help me to study the Word so I can get closer to God. Every day, the thought of doing my devotions would silently float into my mind; but I would ignore it. I would spend more time looking at vlogs, catching up on TV shows, or simply just scrolling through social media on my phone. Then, when busy or almost asleep, the thought of my devotions would creep back into my mind. “You didn’t do your devotions today.” I would tell myself, “Tomorrow, I will definitely do it tomorrow,” but tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. God gave me the time today to get it done, but I didn’t do it. Then the same thing would happen again the next day.
Then I wonder to myself, why do we find it so easy to spend time doing the things we love but find it so hard to just spend ten minutes to do our devotions? God gives us 24 hours, but it’s so hard to give back just 10 minutes of our time. I had read something a long time ago that said, “Knowing that we will have to give an account to the One who gives us time should motivate us to use it well.” I can surely say that, whenever I get to do my devotions, I feel a closeness between God and myself. I feel happy that I was able to share my time with God, and the thoughts of doing my devotions usually fade away. It’s a gentle reminder of the time given me and being able to share it with God.
What are you going to do with your time?
Prayer Phrase
“May I open myself to change, to being guided by the Spirit; may I risk the unknown and live into the Mystery!” (Nan C. Merrill, Psalms for Praying, 234)
Spiritual Practice
A New Beginning
Opportunities for new beginnings occur in each moment, day, or year. Even when we feel stuck, the Spirit is always offering an invitation to return to our deeper intention of living life fully with God, others, creation, and our truest selves. Pay attention at the opening of this new year to what feels like a fresh beginning in you. Where is the Spirit inviting you into a new possibility, awareness, or way of being?
Today’s Prayer for Peace
Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.
