3 Reasons We Can’t Afford to Trade in Our God Time

When we trade in our God Time for something else, the temporal gain will not be worth eternal rewards lost. Guest post by Meghan Weyerbacher.

“…The best thing I can offer to this world is not my force or energy, but a well-tended spirit, a wise and brave soul.” – Shauna Niequist

There was a time in my life more recent than not that life began to feel out of control. I was dropping balls daily from trying to be mom and dad at all waking hours of the day and no matter how many parenting courses I took or how many books I lapped up, I always felt like I was on the brink of a mommy-meltdown.

I was chomping at the bit to find solace and some sense of sanity, so I bought planners for everyone in our family and it became a new journey for this scatter-brained mama.

Prior to the planner-days, an early morning routine in the Word on the couch with coffee in hand had been this solace. Now with a new business on the move and planners stacked up beckoning my name, the God-only intentional hour in the morning seemed to be happening less and less.

When I Traded God’s Presence For Planners

Met goals always got me in the feelers. When I felt underappreciated elsewhere, hard work gave me a pat on the head. So it happened, that I began to desire “it” more than anything else.

Confession: Taking refuge in my planner became more important to me than my morning God time.

It was a slow fade turned habit.

I didn’t realize it until one night as I was laying in bed tossing and turning, trying to fall asleep. It was like the valve wouldn’t shut off. My body was in constant go-mode from trying to keep everything running in tip-top shape. This wasn’t typically reality, but I was worn from trying.

I begged for peace. Then I remembered something Bonnie Gray said in her book, Whispers of Rest, “Am I moving by God’s invitation or by my striving?“

He reminded me that though out loud I said I hated perfection, I had actually been striving for it. In all areas of my life. In all planner-squares of my life.

Thus my nerves were wound up in a constant tight ball.

3 Reasons We Can’t Afford To Trade In Our God Time

The gain we will gather will not be worth the wedge that forms.

Over time, as I traded those intimate times with God for another minute of checking the list and getting work done, it was slowly forming a space between God and me. It was rooted in selfishness. But because I was so wrapped up in my next thing, guilt eluded me.

I didn’t even have a feeling of remorse at this point. It took a while and a feeling of overwhelm and emptiness from the striving before I realized what, or Whom I was missing out on.

Gain isn’t worth our relationship with our Father and it isn’t worth our relationship with others.

The gain we will gather will not be worth our wilted hearts.

We may not be able to spend every waking moment with God alone, but trading in our intimate time with him for getting ahead will only leave us feeling empty in the long run.

We can only run so long on fuel from other sources before it catches up with us. He longs to care for us daily. When we strive to find care and satisfaction in things apart from God, they can become idols in our hearts. With each passing day we say yes to them, and “Maybe later,” to spiritual growth, our spirit suffers.

Saying yes to those other things isn’t necessarily bad, but we need to be mindful it isn’t forfeiting the more important matters. God wants to be in the middle of our work, not a back-burner to it.

The gain we will gather will cause loss rather than profit.

If all that we have given up to get what we always “wanted” causes us to wind up being weary and joyless in the long run, it will all seem in vain. We will scratch our heads wondering how we got here and why we started in the first place.

We can stop trading in our intimate time with Him to get ahead and realize how temporal things sometimes glaze our sight. These things aren’t wrong but maybe because we see them more often, they become easy to look forward to: temporal rewards over those of eternity.

When we hold up the fruit of intimate time with God against those of competing factors, we will discover they don’t hold a candle to the marvelous way He fills us.

“For by me your days will be multiplied. The years of your life will be increased.” Proverbs 9:11

What is tempting you to trade in your God Time?

Meghan Weyerbacher is lifestyle blogger and faith writer who is passionate about refreshing other writers through word + humor.

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