Seeking the Lord: Creating a Schedule

. . . [W]hoever would come near to God must believe that God . . . is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him out (Hebrews 11:6).

We must know God for ourselves. In order to minister to our families effectively, we need to have our own relationship with Him. There is no substitute for spending time alone with the Lord. Just as we must have times alone with our husbands to nurture an intimate relationship, so we must have times alone with our Lord. As moms, we must be especially committed to this to see it happen. As we earnestly and diligently seek Him out, He will reward us with our hearts’ desire: more of Himself. When we ignore our hunger for God, it begins to fade. When we feed it, our desire for Him increases.

I know your industry and activity, laborious toil and trouble. . . . I know you are enduring patiently and are bearing up for My name’s sake, and you have not fainted or become exhausted or grown weary. But . . . you have left the love that you had at first. Remember then. . . . Repent (change the inner man to meet God’s will) and do the works you did previously [when you first knew the Lord] (Revelation 2:2-5).

Let us not think that our much toil and labor for the Lord and our families replaces intimacy with Jesus. As we seek Him first, all our other activity will flow out of our love relationship with Him. If we are to seek God wholeheartedly, some things will have to be removed from our schedule. Even some good and allowable things will have to go in order to make more time for seeking Him. Do we want to fill up our lives with many things and get nowhere, or do we want to focus on the one thing our hearts truly desire? Each day we have that choice.

To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God (Revelation 2:7).

Like an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons! Under His shadow I delight to sit, and His fruit is sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me is love. Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love. I can feel His left hand under my head, and His right hand embraces me! (Song of Songs 2:3-6, my paraphrase).

Let us delight to sit in His shadow, the Word in our hand and our hearts open to Him. He will sustain us with His love, pouring it out in our hearts. As we take the time to dwell in His presence, He will awaken us to the reality of His love. He will tenderly hold us up and strengthen us. He will help us to get more done in less time. He will give us more love and patience for our husbands and children.

Homework

Let's create our schedule. First of all, make a list of the everyday things like mealtimes, laundry, finances, and any other responsibilities you have, as well as approximate times spent on each activity.

Now, set that aside for the moment and pull out your spreadsheet. You are going to begin to structure your life. Put in the “big rocks” first, and the little things will fit in around the edges. First, put in the givens, such as meal times. This will help get a structure started. Now put in time for you alone with God each day (perhaps in the morning before the kids wake up or during nap time). Next, put down any family time, date night with husband, Bible study times, etc. Then fit in the other things, like chores, free time, and other activities. You may find that you have more time than you realized. On the other hand, you may find that there are areas you need to downsize in order to make more time for the Lord.

Note: This is a tool to be used daily, so you will need to modify it as often as needs change.

Obedience to the Lord: Devising an Action Plan

Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father . . . that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes” (Matthew 11:25).

“All of God’s revealed truths are sealed until they are opened to us through obedience. You will never open them through philosophy or thinking. But once you obey, a flash of light comes immediately. Let God’s truth work into you by immersing yourself in it, not by worrying into it. . . . If you obey God in the first thing He shows you, then He instantly opens up the next truth to you. You could read volumes on the work of the Holy Spirit when five minutes of total, uncompromising obedience would make things as clear as sunlight. Don’t say, ‘I suppose I will understand these things someday.’ You can understand them now. And it is not study that brings understanding to you, but obedience. Even the smallest bit of obedience opens heaven, and the deepest truths of God immediately become yours. Yet God will never reveal more truth about Himself to you, until you obey what you know already. Beware of becoming one of the ‘wise and prudent” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, entry for October 10).

This week we will create an action plan for each of our short-term goals. Whether you have stayed caught up with us or haven’t yet really started, I encourage you to go ahead and do it. This really can be done in one focused evening.

By doing these exercises, we are actually setting ourselves up to live according to God’s will. Unless we have a plan, we will not regularly read our Bibles, pray, fast, minister to our children spiritually, etc. If your personality balks at schedules, think of this is a matter of obedience. If you live only by how you feel at the moment, your spiritual life will be sporadic at best. And if you are one who thrives on schedules, remember not to be rigid. God will mess up your plan! Without a plan, we simply drift through life, not really getting anywhere in particular. (I can’t believe how much more progress I’ve made this year spiritually by learning to live a focused life than I did in all my previous years of walking with the Lord.) The great thing is that living this way actually makes room for spontaneity. We prayerfully plan, submit all our plans to the Lord, and then follow His leading. He will bring holy spontaneity to our plans by throwing in something we didn’t expect. Then it becomes our joy to obey and flow with Him.

Submit yourselves, then, to God . . . (James 4:7, NIV).

In the past, I have thought of submitting my plans to the Lord sort of like submitting a plan for review or opinion. I get God’s input, but then I have the final say. But that is not the meaning of submitting to God. To submit is “to yield oneself to the authority or will of another” (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary). It is like dancing. One partner leads while the other yields to every slight touch of her partner, consciously submitting her will to his. So let us yield to the Lord in this dance of life. Let’s listen to Him, following His every move, in the way that we live our lives, consciously directing our steps to follow Him.

We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps (Proverbs 16:9, NLT).

Homework

Create an action plan for each short-term goal (i.e., what you are going to do daily, weekly, etc., to put this into practice). This will be used to directly plug into our schedules next week.

Expressing Our Hunger for God: Defining Short-Term Goals

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled (Matt. 5:6).

“Jesus releases His power and presence to us in direct proportion to the measure of our hunger for Him. Spiritual hunger comes as we get a vision to have everything that God will give our spirit on this side of eternity. . . . The utter vastness of what He wants to flood our beings with in terms of experience of divine power and power encounters with the Holy Spirit, has not yet even entered our minds (1 Cor. 2:9-12). Yes this fullness, this abundance of divine reward imparted to the inner man, is what God wants to give us a vision to pursue. Again, He will give according to our hunger; thus, our first priority must be to become hungry.

“Some think they are spiritually hungry when they have a newly awakened interest in the things of God. But awakened interest is not yet hunger. . . . Hunger is when we cannot live without more, when we make radical alterations to our lifestyles in order to pursue God. A good way to measure the reality of our hunger is to measure the extent to which we rearrange our lives, our time, our money, and our comforts to pursue that for which we are hungry.

“. . . What do we believe is the level of intimacy God is willing to draw us into? Do we really believe in the rewards that God has provided to those who align their lives in the way prescribed by His Word? Have we heard His invitation, and what are we buying into as our life vision in God? What is the vision that you have for where your heart can go in God in this life?

“This may surprise us, but we ourselves actually determine some of the measure of spiritual blessing He will give . . . . Believing for too small a measure will lead to just that. . . . What will we contend for in our experience of Him; what will we claim as our inheritance? We need to have a vision for what God will give our hearts, as well as a vision for what He will do through us in our ministry.

“Do not limit your vision to just your ministry though. We must have a vision for how far God will take our hearts in love, meekness and revelation. We must not be too easily satisfied with a small measure, for Jesus will give to us according to the measure we build our lives around. The extent of our expectation, or faith, defines what we tenaciously pursue in God. If we absolutely refuse to settle for anything less than His fullness, we will be rewarded with our desire” (Dana Candler, The Rewards of Fasting: Experiencing the Power and Affections of God, p. 48, 52).

What do you hunger for? Are you hungry for more of God? Do you desire to have more hunger for God? This is what we are here for: to feed our hunger and to let it increase until our lives are radically altered. Until we are no longer living mediocre Christian lives, but lives of love and power in the Holy Spirit. The kind of lives Jesus calls us to live.

Homework

Let’s take our long-term goals and turn them into short-term goals (three months to three years). This is how you envision yourself to be living in the next three months to three years. In a general sense, this is how you are going to get to your long-term goal. (We’ll get more specific next week.) Here’s an example of my own:

Spiritual Long-Term Goal (where I want to be in ten years): To be confident of who I am in the Lord, unafraid and walking in His power, boldness and authority.

Spiritual Short-Term Goals (where I want to be in three months to three years): To develop a habitual prayer life, to be intimately familiar with the Word, to be comfortable worshiping at the piano, and to go deep through regular fasting.

You may find that you begin working back and forth between long-term and short-term goals, developing them more clearly as you go. Don’t worry too much about doing it “right”; just get something written down in each area. This is a tool for you to use as we get to what I consider the fun stuff: the action plan and schedule. That’s when all this dreaming begins to be turned into reality!

Breaking It Down: Short-Term Goals

Now let’s take our overall life vision and apply it to the seven major areas of our life (from “The Power of a Focused Life” by Mike Bickle):

Spiritual (prayer time, fasting days, Bible study, etc.)
Relational (family, friends, etc.)
Vocation (marketplace calling, etc.)
Ministry (in the church, outside the church, etc.)
Financial (spending, giving, saving, investing, etc.)
Physical (exercise, health, diet, etc.)
Rest (recreation, vacation, play, entertainment, sports, etc.)

First we’ll identify our long-term (10-year) goals. Think of how your vision could be applied in each of the above areas. What do you imagine your life to look like in ten years? Be as specific as possible. Think of what age you will be in ten years. What vision has God put in your heart for where you will be spiritually, relationally, etc., when you are that age?

As an example, I have written as my long-term (10-year) goal in the area of rest:
ATo be rested and relaxed. To eliminate hurry from my life. To have days centered around having fun. To be well-read in classics, spiritual, and devotional literature.

Let this be a fun exercise. Dream and imagine the best God has for you! This is an incentive to live our lives with focus. It will give us a context for our schedules so that we focus on areas which may otherwise be missed in the busyness of everyday life. Don’t think of it as a list of resolutions to be made and broken, but a picture of the dreams God has given you.

. . . in Your book all the days of my life were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them (Psalm 139:16).

Homework

Think of how your life vision can be applied to each of the above areas of your life. It may not apply in an obvious way, but think of who you are as a person living according to your life vision. As that person, how do you want to live in each of these areas?