Welcome to the Be and Become podcast, a resource of the Connected Life Ministries. You are listening to another episode in which we connect our life and time with God’s Call and Cause to be and become the followers, workers, and leaders that we are all meant to be.
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Welcome to the Be and Become Podcast, featuring Francois Carr, a hardcore life and connected life ministry. Francois's international ministry equips and encourages pastors, ministry leaders, and fellow Christians as they discover what it means to truly be and become the followers they were meant to be. Thank you for joining Francois today as he offers a few words of encouragement from God's Word.
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Hello everyone, a very warm welcome to our weekly devotion. I would like to talk to you today about finding and making time for those things which are very important in your life. In the Book of Psalms of Solomon, chapter five, verses two to three we see that Ptolemy wanted to spend some time with his loved one, but his wife the sleeper was reluctant to rise yet, and even for this call to have intimacy and fellowship with him, makes some pure excuses to herself for lying in bed just a little bit longer. She said, I have taken off my rope, how can I put it on again? I have washed my feet, how can I defile them? In the reading of great men and women of God I have become utterly convinced in my life as I look at these biographies, that they were endued with a power from on high beyond all other people, because they spend the first thirty to sixty minutes every day with the Lord. And some of them as you read their stories they will tell you that their number one temptation is always to start the day before meeting with God in quiet, listening, the reading of his word, and to spend some time in prayer. But they have, and all the others that have conquered and have power in their life, have conquered this great temptation. One of these men was a man called G H Lang. Now he was a travelling evangelist all over the world and was greatly used by God. He was a man from Britain. He was unused to the pace set by the American missionaries in his life with whom he at times looked together on the field. And he said at one time he said the following Life was typically American. One steady rush all day with visitors, letters, prayer seasons, and at night the meetings in Cairo five days a week from which we did not return till late at night like eleven PM. City life in England with its late hour have caused me to forgo my boyhood's habit of early rising. I now saw that unless it could be resumed, there would be no leisure for privacy with God and the nurturing of my soul. But how do we resume something like this if we have failed so many times? I sought the help from the Lord, who in the days of his flesh himself had be an early riser, the Bible says in Isaiah chapter fifty verse four and Mark chapter one, and immediately he says, I found myself able to rise earlier in the morning, and I have continued this practice ever since. But then he said the following which is very, very important. He said this used to be easier than it is today. The whole habit of life of the modern world has been changed, and for the worse spiritually especially by two inventions, rapid locomotion and the brilliant artificial light. By the latter that means the lights, night can be turned into day, and the world sits up late and cannot rise early. And the evident rule of the creator for his creatures that's us is disregarded by men. And one result is that while birds and bees go on without nervous disorder, the human race gets more and more neurotic and independable. So many are kept late at night. They make early rising very difficult, others feel sleepy, the minds feel dull and not receptive, and they feel they must sleep as long as possible even in the morning. A man called George Miller said simply the following he said to remain in bed any longer. He said the following reason for that is just it's an injury to the soul and also it's a waste of time and it injures the body as well. And you can read the story of George Miller, how we come to a conclusion like that. But what I've seen is that whoever wanted to fix this personal or new habit of making and finding time by spending the first 30 or 60 minutes every day with the Lord, listening to his voice and spending some time in prayer is sure to meet some obstacles and difficulties and especially the temptation not to get up in the morning or to face the reality of starting the day without meeting with the Lord. And it looks very real for many people, or at least at first it seems that way. So many cannot get the time, we are simply too busy. Let us suppose that they are really sincere in thinking so. It is striking to know that a person always plans to take some time for what he or she feels is very important and must be done. There's always a way to find time and space in your schedule every day, your program, somewhere for those things that you feel is very important. And so the less important is forced out from your schedule. Now in looking at the Bible and the Old Testament and the New Testament and those people used by God, it seems to me that they have readjusted their life around this new habit as the center of their lives, and they have been more than eloquently repaid for the inconvenience involved in finding and making time in their morning schedule or in the daytime before they start the day job. It's clear to me that no difficulty stands in the way of a will that is determined to find and to make time for those things which is important. And so the question this morning for you is what might be the reason why you struggle to find time to meet with the Lord? What difficulties are you facing and obstacles at the moment? A difficulty is simply a chance for a victory. How important is it for you to find and to make some time to meet with the Lord today? May God bless you as you ponder and as you start your day by listening to his voice, reading from his precious word, and just connecting with him in prayer. May God bless you.
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Thank you for listening to this Be and Become episode with Francois Carr. For more information about the ministry, visit the website at ConnectedLifeministries.com. We hope you'll join Francois next time as he continues the conversation on what it means to be and become the follower you are meant to be.
