“Oh how love I Thy law! It is my meditation all the day.” Psalm 119:97

I was out on my porch at about 11:45 last night and it was very quiet. I wasn’t even hearing traffic on the highway and that was unusual. It was really easy to think (well, as easy as it is for me to ever think).  It reminded me of a time quite  a while back when Chris, Noah, and I met at Dorena Lake.  We stopped at two campgrounds and a few other places on our trip around the lake, and at a couple of our stops it was just so quiet that Chris made a comment about it. I guess we get so used to noise that when we can’t hear anything, it almost strikes us as odd.

That is why it is important to get away from it all and spend some time with Lord on a consistent basis, eliminating all distractions and just giving Him and Him alone some of our alone time. Christianity is not a legal relationship, it is a love relationship. We should not have to be forced to spend time with Him by threat, but by our own desire. We are called to more like Christ, but we cannot do that on our own, we need to spend time with Him.

Of course, the key to all of this is determining a need, and thus a desire, to spend time with the Lord, so we need to start there. So let’s just say we see the value of spending at least a few minutes with God each day and we want to take some steps to make it happen. The very first step is to pray about it. We are not naturally inclined to do the right things. I sometimes console myself after a bad golf game by reminding myself that I am trying to get a little ball into a little hole that has the whole world around it. Well, when we want to put ourselves in a special spot with the lord, we are surrounded by the whole world that opposes us. So we must enlist the only one who can help us, the maker of the whole world. Once we decide to create a quiet time and pray for God’s guidance, it is time to begin the process.

One of my favorite Pastors, Adrian Rodgers, lists five things to keep in mind when trying to develop a good quiet time with the Lord. The proper period, preparation, place, provision, and preparation are all essential to creating a special time with God.  Of course, like I said, this all follows prayer, so what we have here are the six p’s of creating a peaceful time with God. Wait a minute, peaceful, that’s now seven p’s!

First we must find a proper period of time. We should strive for at least half an hour, but some time is better than no time, so if we can’t start at thirty minutes, we should begin with ten. It should be a time when we are alert. We all know when our alert times are. Morning is good if it is possible. Psalm 5:3 says, “… in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up.” But whenever is the best time, it is best if it is the same time, all the time. It’s funny because many spend countless hours in endeavors that will help their physical bodies, but struggle to give ten minutes to their spiritual ones.

It is important that we properly prepare for this time by clearing our heads of distractions. If we have something in our hearts that needs to be taken care of, we need to take care of it. We need think upon the Lord, not on our shortcomings. Like readying ourselves for any other endeavor, we must separate ourselves from anything that will steal our focus.

Once we have decided on a time and have prepared ourselves mentally, we must find a proper place where we can focus. Jesus said enter into your closet and pray (see Matthew 6:6) but that simply means to find a place of isolation where we can shut the door on the world and open the windows to heaven. Jesus sought out places where He could be alone, and so should we.

When getting ready for the camping trip, I make a list of provisions. If I don’t make a list, I will be without what is necessary, when it is necessary. There is nothing worse than trying to clean a fish with a spoon. There are several proper provisions that can be helpful to us in our quiet time. A good Bible (readable, accurate, and familiar) is essential and a prayer journal and/or notepad for writing is advisable. There are all kinds of other things that can be added later, but for starters, this is really all we need.

So what would be the proper procedures for an effective quiet time? First of all, we need to quiet our spirits. The Bible says in Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God.” After we quiet ourselves, it is good to read the Word. We like to jump right in and talk to God, but He already knows us pretty well. It might be best to get to know Him better. We tend to focus on self, but we want to focus on God, instead. When reading, how much we read is not nearly as important as how we read. Reading goals (reading through the Bible in a year) and devotionals should probably remain separate from our quiet time. A quiet time should just be us and God.  We can read other authors at other times.

After we have read and maybe looked at how the passages apply to us and maybe even jotted down a few notes, we are ready to pray. Our prayer time should be honest and open. I like praying aloud (when I am not in a public place!) for two reasons. One, I think it focuses us better. It is harder for our minds to wander when we are hearing what we are saying. Secondly, the dark principalities and powers of this world can’t read our thoughts, but they can hear our words and nothing clears them out of an area faster than prayer!

Each day we should take what we learn during our quiet time and apply it to our day. I have heard it said that our spiritual train runs on two rails, knowledge and obedience. If either rail stops, so does the train. Remember, pray that God will help us to begin. When it comes to good things we should do, it’s always best to start at the beginning. Any time is better than no time and more time is better than little time. Developing a good quiet time can be a little like my golf game.  It might take a while to get there, lagging our way up to the green, and we may get off in the woods at times, but we need to just keep shooting for the goal and eventually we will get there!  We just can’t stop trying!

”The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10

“For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:17-19

When we are truly a believers in the Christ, we receive His gift of righteousness! Righteousness is not something we earn, but rather it’s a gift we receive when we accept Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf! We have received the gift of righteousness through Him, not because we have kept the “law” or lived a holy life. The righteousness of Christ can’t be bought with money, or earned through self-effort, or by doing “religious” works. It’s a gift! When we receive righteousness, we should live as though we possess righteousness, but unfortunately, we often get caught up in the same unrighteous behavior that traps those who do not know Christ.

Though salvation cannot be earned, we certainly can earn our falling away from the Lord by slowly accepting more and more compromising behavior into our lives. As we slowly accept more sin in our lives, it holds us back in our Christian walk. It doesn’t happen all at once, but slowly, until we find our lives very much like our lives before we met Christ.

I have often said that the Christian life is a bit like rowing upstream. If we don’t keep paddling, we will start to drift back and eventually see the same scenery we saw before our conversion. The more we see it, the more we accept it, and the more we accept it, the less apt we are to paddle at all. We remain on the waters of salvation, but we are no longer experience the newness of the Christian walk, but aimlessly drift through the same things unbelievers experience.

And all this happens slowly at first. Satan doesn’t like to see us jump into sin because that is too obvious. He likes to see us work into it, subtly. I heard a story once about how eskimos kill wolves. The eskimo covers his knife with blood, freezing it in new layers one on top of the other until it is thick with frozen blood. Then he puts fresh blood on top of the frozen layers and leaves the knife. When a wolf finds the knife, he starts licking. Eventually the sharp blade of the knife is exposed. By the time the wolf reaches the blade he does not stop licking because he is caught up in satisfying his lust for blood and does not notice that his ravenous craving is now being satisfied by his very own blood! The Eskimo will return to find the wolf lying dead in the snow.

Sin entices and seduces us in precisely the same way. We get caught up in some sort of destructive fleshly pleasure — gossip, rage, laziness, etc. Once we give in to its pleasure, our craving for it increases. As we continue to allow ourselves to indulge, it grips us all the more. And before we know it — it completely consumes us. Friendships are damaged. Marriages hurt. Testimonies spoiled. It all happens right under our noses with our own participation. Like cows that wander from the field nibbling a tuft of grass and then nibbling the next tuft of grass and then the next until they are hopelessly lost, we nibble ourselves into sin and away from the protection of God.

When we took the grandkids to the museum years ago, they watched a rattlesnake eat a mouse. First, he bit it and the mouse slowly died and then the snake swallowed it up. It was quite a lesson in the workings of nature! I heard the story of mouse which was put into the cage of a sleeping snake and it actually started covering up the snake with the wood shavings in the bottom of the cage. When the snake was all covered, the mouse probably felt relieved. The danger was gone! Guess what. It did not work. The danger was still there, it was just not noticeable. We can try to hide our actions from ourselves, but the danger is still there and will eventually get us!

We cannot blindly sin and not have it affect us. It will eventually catch up with us. There is a fable about a pig which ate all the acorns under a tree and then tried to root around for more.

A crow remarked, “You should not do this. If you lay bare the roots, the tree will wither and die.” “Let it die,” said the pig. “Who cares as long as there are acorns?” We cannot expose the roots of our righteousness to the sin of this world and expect to receive the rewards of righteousness in our life. We need to keep paddling and if we start seeing familiar scenery, we better stop and check to see if we are really paddling as we should.

“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13

Peter and John are examples of what should happen when we meet the risen Christ. They had walked with Jesus for three years and had seen His many miracles. They had seen His compassion and wisdom. They had seen His strength and His resolve. Yet, they still did not understand Him.

When Jesus was arrested, they ran. When He was being tried they hid. When Peter was confronted, he denied. After Jesus was crucified, they were discouraged. They talked about the good run they had had, but it was time to go back to fishing.

Then something amazing happened. Christ rose from the dead and presented Himself to them. Suddenly, these men who were hidden in an upper room discussing their return to normal life began to be strengthened. They saw the risen savior and touched Him. They received the Holy Spirit and was filled by Him. They suddenly had more wisdom and courage. They went from hiding to preaching boldly, and possibly all but John would go on to be martyred for their message.

So what happened? The same thing that should happen to us. We have seen the risen Christ through His Word and many other evidences. We have received the Holy Spirit. We know who Jesus was (and is) and what He means to this world. We should boldly step from hiding to the open proclamation of Him. We have had the same experiences as the men who walked with Him; we should have the same boldness. People should marvel that we have been changed and in us, they should now see Him.

Adrian Rogers tells about the man who bragged that he had cut off the tail of a man-eating lion with his pocket knife. Asked why he hadn’t cut off the lion’s head, the man replied: “Someone had already done that.” Christ’s boldness has paved the way for our boldness. He has done the hardest work, so we can do the hard work. He has declawed fear, so that we need not fear.

Let’s not talk about how great it was that the disciples were changed; Let’s change who we are and talk about how great Christ is. Let the world marvel that we of lowly positions (most positions are lowly), seem to speak like we have some special knowledge and boldness- because we do.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  Matthew 11:28-30

“Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.”  John 15:20-21

The two verses above seem to be in conflict with each other, but how can that be?  How can we have restful persecution? Christ told his followers that they would be persecuted because of Him,  but also told them to take His yoke upon them because it was light.  Christ told His followers that they would find rest in Him, but that they would be harassed, beaten, and even killed.  That doesn’t seem like a very light yoke to carry!

It is sometimes very difficult to come to terms with these seemingly conflicting ideas. Paul expressed the same conflicts in all of the epistles. He talked about the safety and peace and freedom in Christ as he wrote from prison after experiencing beatings, shipwrecks, and stonings. His burdens seem far from easy and light. The amount he had to suffer was astonishing.  The amount the apostles had to suffer was equally difficult.  Yet they were still able to rejoice because they “knew Christ, the power of his resurrection and participated in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Philippians 3:10)

When we are serving God there are times when we feel like the burden he has placed on us is more than we can bear. Like a runner we ‘hit the wall’ and feel we can’t carry on. But when we take a fresh look at what we are aiming for, and remember the finish line and the rewards that wait there, we somehow manage to push through. We may ‘feel the burn’ but we know we are gaining ground and the burden no longer seems as impossible as it first did.

Paul tells us, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.” Philippians 3:12-15

The key is that in everything we do we need to focus on Jesus. Even the mundane daily tasks need to be seen as serving him. That is how His yoke becomes light.  If we are working for him instead of ourselves – if it is His burden we are bearing – then he will share it with us, and help us understand that the burden is actually “easy and light .“ It may not be easy and light as the world sees easy and light, but with God sharing the burden, nothing is too heavy.

If we have a heart for the Lord, and we put the Lord into all we do, then our hearts will be strengthened in our difficulties as well.  Like it says in Luke, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”   If our hearts are in Jesus the loads we carry will not seem such a burden. This is especially true when we realize the reward that awaits us in the end.

Robert Louis Stevenson tells of a storm that caught a vessel off a rocky coast and threatened to drive it and its passengers to destruction. In the midst of the terror, one daring man, contrary to orders, went to the deck, made a dangerous passage to the pilot house and saw the steer man, at his post holding the wheel unwaveringly, and inch by inch, turning the ship out, once more, to sea. The pilot saw the watcher and smiled. Then, the daring passenger went below and gave out a note of cheer: “I have seen the face of the pilot, and he smiled. All is well.”  If we find ourselves in a life storm but see the face of Jesus and His hand upon the wheel of our lives, we can say to ourselves and others “All is Well.”

So our burden is light, not because it is light, but because it is being borne by the same shoulders which took the sins of the world upon them, and nothing is heavy after that.  His smile on our lives tells us that “All is well.”