“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22)
A long time ago, even before I had kids, I felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit lead me to get up early to spend time with Him. Everyone knows that life only gets busier as you get older, especially after having children. I completely ignored Him out of utter selfishness, I love sleep and why on earth would I wake up early, I could spend time with Him any other part of the day. Now, having children, I realize, wow, I don’t really have much quiet time during the day.
I came to Australia to allow God to completely renew, rewire and transform me. God gently whispered to me again, Jonali, get up early and spend time with me. About the 3rd week I was here, I finally complied. It is not easy to go to bed early (when you could be doing so many other things when your kids are down) or to get up early (when you really need sleep as a tired mother). No one ever said following God was easy, in fact, I believe when you truly follow God, you become a bigger target for the enemy. If you read about anyone in scriptures, no one had it easy. I’ve been realizing that I haven’t been seeing the transformation that I’ve wanted to for long, the freedom in my life that Christ died for and the depth of intimately knowing my Creator. I realized I knew more about Him, than knowing Him. I also let fear stand in the way of my relationship with Him.
No more excuses, I set my alarm to 5:30 and the scripture, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8) started to become a reality in my life. I realized there is nothing more important than having a relationship with Jesus Christ. I started to feel alive again, have more love, strength, joy, peace, and so many other things. Not only does God take the fatigue away, but He also adds extra strength throughout the day. The spirit realm and flesh realm are complete opposites. The more you feed your spirit man (God) the more you become alive, however the more you feed your flesh man, the more dead you become. The more that I die to my desires in the flesh, the more the spirit has room to move. In the natural, you would think one would be more tired in the day by getting up early, but in fact, its been quite the opposite. It’s amazing how much God can bless you by a small, simple act of obedience. I look forward to every morning when the alarm goes off, that I get to have an hour with Him alone. Was I completely overwhelmed with His presence the first day I made that sacrifice? No, it took some time of pressing in. Do you need to get up early? Absolutely not. For me personally its when I have the most energy and my only quiet time. Do you need to make time for your relationship with God, absolutely!
Here is a picture of me singing, “You make me brave”. We have recently picked a location for outreach (will be another blog!) and fear has tried to sneak in in hindering what He has for us there. I felt the Lord say to sing this song over and over and over again until it becomes reality. There were people walking by me, but I didn’t care, I aim to serve God and not man, and how freeing is that in itself! Here are some of the lyrics and photo:
You make me brave
You make me brave
You call me out beyond the shore into the waves
You make me brave
You make me brave
No fear can hinder now the promises you made
Making some lifestyle changes that cause you to grow in your walk are necessary for change. Whether that is making more time for Him, fasting (even foods like sugar, caffiene), praying, taking a break from friends or social media, it can look like many things, but you know in your heart what can be a distraction. It can even look like some thing I’ve needed to do for a while, take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. All negative thoughts that come in, pray the opposite scripture outloud. The freedom and transformation can come and can come quickly!
I hope you enjoyed the beautiful pictures of my quiet time with God, you might not have an ocean to go to every morning, but God’s presence surpasses the location of your quiet time with Him. It can be a closet, a kitchen, a patio or even in a car. He will honor your time with Him, and you won’t regret it as it will be life changing for you!