10 Transformative Minutes with God

This episode explores the transformative power of dedicating just 10 minutes each day to quiet reflection and intentional connection with God. Christy Dragotta shares practical tips on how to incorporate this practice into your morning routine to foster peace, gratitude, and spiritual growth.

Transcript

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Hey friends, welcome to Get Honest. I'm so glad you're here with me today. I'm gonna talk about something that is really transformative, and I know this life is so busy, and sometimes we wear that like a badge of honor. You know, how was your week? Oh, it was busy, you know, just just busy. How are you doing? I'm busy, and we use that like it is something to be proud of. Like, okay, we're doing good because we're busy, but the truth is our busyness is probably keeping us from abundance in many ways. And so today I just wanted to talk a little bit about how taking 10 minutes at the start of each day, or even if you are kind of a night person and you end up being up late and everybody else has gone to bed, wherever the quietest 10 minutes of your day is, I want to teach you something that has been transformative in my life. And it's to set aside that time. You'll have to be intentional because time, as you know, it goes by so quickly, and we give it away to all sorts of things, even things that we don't mean to, Instagram or uh Pinterest, or I don't even have Pinterest on my phone because I just know that I will have so much time spent going through random stuff that doesn't benefit my life in any way. And so we all have things that we give our time to, and we all have things that we give more of our time to than we mean to. But I'm talking about setting aside an intentional 10 minutes every single day that make it the quietest part. I love the mornings because in the mornings the birds are singing, and it's when it just feels so peaceful, everything is quiet, and I'm coming out of sleep, so hopefully it's been restful, and I'm starting in a place with a fresh mind and a new day with the new mercies that God gives us. And if you just sit for 10 minutes and you think truthful things about God, and this might look like putting on worship music, I love to just sit before the Lord and I love to sing, and so sometimes I will just sing to God in the morning very quietly, a song just to Him, and it might look like I love you, Lord, or sometimes it's just you are so good, you are so worthy, and I I'll even just make up a tune, but you can put on music that is worship music, and I want to make a distinction here because you know there are so many types of music, and I love all different kinds. There is great Christian music that is encouraging, it is useful in the body for building us up, it reminds us what Christ did for us on the cross, it reminds us who we are. We speak things that are truthful about ourselves in light of what Christ has done for us, but that isn't really worship. So, worship music is always focused entirely on Jesus. It's you are beautiful. Thank you. You are lovely, it's thinking true thoughts about God that we talk to God about, and it looks like maybe just sitting quietly and starting out, there's a song that I just love, and it says, I don't want to talk about you like you're not in the room. I want to look right at you, I want to sing right to you, and I love it because it's like, yes, I don't want to be distracted by any other thing, I don't want to be looking at anything else when I'm singing about you, God. I want to be fully present in telling you how worthy you are and telling you how thankful I am for what you've done. And so just worshiping him, that is a really neat posture, and it's something that I don't think people spend a lot of time doing. So maybe for the first five minutes, you come quietly into that time and you start thinking. Maybe you're not a singer, maybe worship music is not your deal. If you start thinking truthful thoughts about God, God, you are the compassionate one, full of mercy, full of grace, full of love. Those are true thoughts about God. God, you are love. You have given us everything we need for life and godliness. You are so good to us, and everything you do is good. When you start telling Him you are an excellent leader, you make decisions out of the overflow of love in your heart for us. Those things are truthful about God, and it gets your mind in a space to remember the good things. And there's scripture that says whatever is true, whatever is right, whatever is lovely, whatever is noble, whatever is praiseworthy. Think on these things. These are the things that we are supposed to be thinking on all day. But we get caught up in the bills that are due and the thing we have to do next on our list, and this kid that forgot their lunch, or this thing that happens over here, or this meeting we had this afternoon, and we just our minds just go all over the place. But in this 10 minutes, I'm asking you to take it's your you're practicing taking every thought captive and making it obedient to Christ. So you're just not letting anything from the outside come in. It's a fully focused time to sit before the Lord and think true things about him. And what you're gonna find is this puts your heart in a peaceful, restful place. And it's that's really another reason why I love to do it at the beginning of my day because I am starting my day anchored in peace, coming from a place that God is enough, he has enough, his grace is sufficient, and he always has love for me in his heart. So coming from that type of a place into the rest of my day, it really changes everything. But I want to challenge you to take it a little bit further. In that 10 minutes, if you want it to be truly transformative, sit with God, think the right things about God. And if a scripture comes to mind as you're sitting there in that quiet space, find it and read it and say it back to God. There are a lot of times when I will read scripture, and like Psalm 119 is just full of beautiful, beautiful words to God, about God, and about his law. And one um one scripture, I can't remember if this is in Psalm 119, but it says that God is good and everything he does is good. And I just love that scripture because it is true, he is good and he knows no other way to be. That all of your thoughts towards me are holy. I want to thank you that you gave your son for me. I want to sit here and remind myself who God is, he is who he says he is, he is the compassionate one, he is love, he is loving, but he is love, and you just think about that. What does love look like? Love knows you and sees you, and he hears every cry of your heart, and he longs to be in relationship with you. And so just telling God he is an excellent leader, he is beautiful beyond compare, he is creative. You think about the creativity of God just in nature, in our bodies, right? When He wove it, when He wove us together in our mother's wombs, just the creativity, like looking at our DNA and the way our bodies function and how everything has to happen at just the right moment, at just the right time for a baby to be formed. It's just really unfathomable how vast he is in his creativity and his expertise. And so just sitting and allowing yourself to think on those things for just, like I said, just 10 minutes, and then take it one step further. Have a journal right nearby. And then I challenge you to do this. And this is something that a lot of people they just don't do, but sit with God after that sweet time of telling him how much you love him and ask him, God, is there anything that you want to say to me? Is there anything that right now you want to tell me? And in that quiet space, the very first thing that comes to your mind, write it down. Just write it down. And we know God does bring conviction, he will bring conviction to our minds, but usually in that space, he's going to share thoughts about you, and you're gonna have a tendency to want to dismiss it because it might be something like you are my beloved, or I love you, or you are beautiful, or you're courageous, and we have a tendency to take those things and be like, I'm talking to myself, I'm coming up with things in my own mind, you know, but just in that time, out of the overflow of your heart and thanksgiving and gratitude and looking at God in the right way, when you ask him to speak to you, of course he will speak to you. And I like to pray before I even enter that time that the Lord would protect my mind from any outside voices. I know if I hear the condemnation, you know, and I'm thinking about the people right now, like, oh my gosh, you hear voices, you must be crazy. Everybody hears voices. I don't think there's anyone that would say that they don't. They just think of it as their own voice, right? Oh, that was stupid, you're stupid, you always do this thing, you're never gonna be, blah, blah, blah. Those are things that typically we don't hear said out loud to us, although sometimes we do, but it's that voice in our mind that might tell us, you're never enough, you're not gonna be enough. No matter how hard you try, you're just not good enough. You're falling behind. You just aren't gonna be able to be on time ever. Like it's all those negative thoughts that we we hear in our mind all day long, those are not God's voice. I can tell you for sure, there is nothing in God that's going to come to you and speak to you in an accusatory, condemning way. That is the voice of the accuser, that is the voice of the enemy who is trying to make you feel less than the imago dei, the image of God. It's trying to minimize the fact that you were created in the image of God. And so that's not the voice we listen to. So, in this quiet space, I ask God, protect my mind from that outside voice that wants to confuse me and bring in condemnation and accusation. And let me just hear your voice, God. It's just beautiful, the things that He will speak to you, and write it down. And if it's confusing to you, talk to somebody that you trust that loves the Lord, that loves you, about what you think you heard. And seek the scripture and find out is there something he's trying to tell you. God is such an intentional God, he's not looking for some fakeety fake relationship. He wants a personal relationship, one-on-one, the two of you together, talking, communing, just like you would a friend, but knowing that this is the perfect friend. This is the one that knows everything about you and loves you right where you are. He doesn't want you to have to change everything to love you. That's not the offer that he makes. While you were still his enemy, Christ died for you because of his great love. You can only love him because he loved you first. And so this isn't a time to come and look for an approval seeking kind of well, I've done my Bible study and I've done this and I've done that, so aren't you happy with me, God? It's not that at all. He wants a relationship with you, a real relationship with you, so that you would know that you are known fully. And you know, I'm not saying he loves you just as you are, and he doesn't want you to do anything different in your life. No, we are all being sanctified, we are all becoming better, right? You know, you hear it all the time. We want to become the best version of ourselves, and I know like you hear that all the time, and you're like, okay, this is like self-help talk, you know, self-improvement, but it's really not. I know I can't help myself. There is no self-self-help here. I cannot help myself become anything. But God, as I lean into him, as I hear what he thinks about, what he thinks about me, he's constantly inviting me into this creative process to create with him. He wants me to think of creative things and then go do those things. He's not a boring God that you just get all, you know, well, we're just gonna sit here and we're gonna sing kumbaya together and we're gonna, you know, no, he's a God that is forever creating and inviting us to create with him. And he's creating good and safe places for people, and so that can look a million ways. Do you like to sing? Do you like to write poetry? Do you like art? Do you like music? Do you like to build things, to create things with your hands? Do you like looking at things spatially and figuring out where they go? There are so many ways that he's created us differently, but given us things that bring others joy and also bring ourselves joy. And I just love that he invites us into these things. And so often it will be sitting in that quiet 10-minute time that God will speak something into my heart, into my mind, and I just know it's him, not because I hear a thunderous voice from heaven, but because it's so creative and it is so interesting to me, and yet I might not know that much about it. And so he's inviting me to learn more, to pursue it, and sometimes it turns into something that's fabulous, and then sometimes it doesn't go anywhere, it's just something fun to do. And I I think you know, a lot of my life I have been so serious about church, right? Serious about God, and it's because I wanted to be reverent, and I do think it's important to be reverent because he is a holy God, there is no one like him, and I do still have that place inside that wants to honor the Lord, but I had taken all the fun out of my faith. And so, this little 10-minute time frame, not only is it always a good idea to remember who God is and his intentions towards you are good, but it's always good to remember what he says about you because the world is gonna say so many things about you, and the devil's surely gonna say so many things about you, and even your own mind is gonna say so many things about you that aren't true. And so to just sit with him to hear those things he wants to say to you, to think of those ideas, and and even just asking him, God, is there anything you want to invite me into that I'm not thinking about right now? And just having that time to sit with him and come up with ideas with him, and what does that look like? And is it something that might actually benefit the world, right? The world around you. And so I was just struck today by how simple it is, really simple, to quiet yourself for 10 minutes. And I know it can be difficult in this very rush-rush world, but that's why I'm saying it's so important to carve out that space. Don't have your cell phone in the same room with you while you are doing that. Have something to write with in a journal so that you can write down anything that comes to mind, but just be still and quiet and ask the Lord to help you quiet your mind in that space so that you can really just reflect on his goodness. And sometimes it will look like, like for me, I know it helps me to write down, God, you are an excellent leader, you know, or to even just kind of as I'm reading scripture at other times, this is not that focused 10-minute time, but this is another time that I might be just reading the word, and something kind of jumps out at me about God or about the character of God, writing that down, just starting a note in your in your notes on your phone that says characteristics of God, and you read something, you're like, gosh, he is loving, he is generous, he is kind. Anything that you see that jumps out as a characteristic of God, and just write it down so that when you're in that 10-minute time period, you can even review the things that you've read in scripture that you know are true about him, that you've already had impact your heart, and you just want to remind yourself of. And often I'll just sing a little song to him. I might sing, I love you, Lord. And it just reminds me that I love him because he first loved me. And it's so good to remember who he is, that he's a good God, he is love, and so I just really want to challenge you. Take time, and and I have put this challenge out there to people for like just once this week, you know, do it just once this week. And so if you feel like, oh my gosh, 10 minutes every day, there's no way. Okay, pick one day this week that you're gonna do that, or pick three days, right? Every other day, surely, every other day, you can take 10 minutes and just sit quietly before the Lord and think about his goodness and then ask him what he thinks about you, and just be ready to be surprised at what he says and that you hear him, because I think a lot of people don't really believe they can hear him. And I'm reading a couple of books right now that are really challenging me. Um, I hear him more than I think I do, and so this episode, I just really wanted it to be a short episode on taking 10 minutes to make the most of your day. And I'm telling you, it is it's transformative. If you really can quiet your mind, you won't be the same when you leave that space 10 minutes later, and you don't have to have three hours just dedicated, you know, just take 10 minutes and sit before the Lord and see what it does. And so if you have an experience where, like, oh my gosh, I did this, right? So this will be after obviously you've listened to this, or maybe you've already done something like this, I would love to hear about it. I would love for you to write into the show and say, I did this and this is what God said to me. And I really want to hear the stories of people who take this seriously and do it. And then if you can add this one little 10-minute thing to your day every day, I'm telling you, you will be a different person in six months. Not because I'm saying you're not a good person now or something like that, but because when you sit in the presence of God and you hear what he has to say to you, it changes everything about everything. When you realize how much he loves you, how much he wants to spend time with you, it really can't help but change you. And so it just gets you out of all the negative thinking that the world puts on you every single day, and that you put on yourself. I can tell you, I am my own worst critic, and I put a lot of things on myself every day. I say a lot of things to myself every single week that I'm just like, gosh, I have got to stop speaking to myself that way. It's just not good, and um yeah, it runs really deep. It is hard to quit saying those things to yourself, but as you notice it, you take those thoughts captive, and even if you just in that one moment he said to you, I love you. If he's telling you that, it's not something so that you can go, yeah, yeah, yeah, he loves me. It's because you don't yet believe it. If he's saying that. Specific thing to you when you sit still in those quiet moments, it's because you don't fully believe it yet. So ask him another question. What does that mean that you love me? What does it mean? Let him speak to your heart. It's transformative. I'm telling you, it's transformative. So I just wanted to encourage you today, and I will definitely be back and share other things about communing with God and hearing his voice. It's not an audible voice, but it's those thoughts that come into your mind or those pictures or those images. Like a lot of times, it's just something we perceive. And the more we understand our creative mind was given to us by God, the more we will be able to appreciate when he comes in ways and says things to us that we really didn't expect. But like I said, it's it's beautiful. I mean, do we believe what we say we believe, right? We say, we know scripture says, My sheep hear my voice and they won't follow the voice of another. But if somebody came up to you and said, Do you hear God talking to you? What would your answer be? Well, yeah, some sometimes or no, he says, My sheep hear my voice and they won't follow another. And so I think it's important to really look at scripture and all the ways it talks about him talking to us. And do we really think that it's only the super religious people that get to hear God speak? He only talks to his prophets, he only talks to pastors. No, he's speaking all the time, now one way and now another. And his word is obviously his word to us, and so saying the true things back to God that are in his word is an encouragement and uplifting in our faith. So that's it. I just wanted to encourage you today, spend that 10-minute time quiet. And of course, yes, spend other time in the word. Of course, if you want to really grow in your faith, you're gonna spend time in the word of God and write down the things that he highlights to you because he's highlighting it for a reason. He is wanting to take you somewhere, and writing it down is a good way to see the path he is taking you down, and then look around your life for people to confirm the things that he is already showing you in scripture. And that's where I would really encourage you. If you don't have a small group of believers that are around you to encourage you in your faith, it's time to build one or to find one. So a lot of people say, Well, I can't find a place. If you can't find a place of community where people speak the truth to you from the word of God, and it's okay to just be the real you, to be who you are in process with God, then create a space like that and invite other people into it because there's no shortage of people that need a place like that. So if you can't find community, build community, but be in community because it's dangerous to start only taking what you think and all of your thoughts about scripture and not having anything else around you to confirm it. God shows us we are going to have confirmations through something people say to us or in conversations. You know, I know you know what I'm talking about, and and one example I can give you is this podcast. Years ago, somebody I didn't know reached out to me online, and I was like, what does this person want from me? Because they didn't know me, they didn't know who I was, but they reached out to me, and so I started talking and to them, and we had these conversations back and forth, back and forth. And one of the things that came up was, hey, you should do a podcast, and I had never thought about that. I really had never had that thought before, and this was way back. I just thought that's such an interesting thing, and so then I heard something else about a podcast later on, so I was like, Well, that's interesting that this has come up twice in the same very short amount of time, and so I started like making notes and and writing different things down. I did not start this podcast until 2025, and um so many times between 2018 and 2025, the podcast came up, and every time it did, I would take note, right? Okay, I'm gonna, and so I ended up buying the equipment for this podcast years ago, and I guess when I really got serious about it, it was in 2024, and that's when I started taking notes about what types of things I wanted to talk about in the podcast, and I just created again in my notes section, I just created a whole list of things that were on my mind that I wanted to talk about with you guys, and as I would come across more information about one of those topics, I would continue to add notes in that list in my notes app. And so there were steps that happened and different things that happened all along the way, but it was not a coincidence that way back in 2018, that seed was planted in my mind to do the podcast, and then the Lord continued to bring people, including a waitress at a restaurant, that I didn't even really know that well. But one time I went went in with some friends of mine and she asked what I did, and I told her I was starting a podcast, and this was a this was a year or more before I ever recorded one episode, and then we went back, and a few times later, she asked me again, so how's your podcast going? And the Lord just used that as confirmation, it's time, and that was back probably I went there in like September or something, and in October I ended up starting the podcast, and so it just over time God will use things to confirm his will for you, and I may be slower than others because I'm not always perceiving, I am trying to be better about always looking for the ways that he's inviting me into things, but I don't always perceive it right away, and so sometimes it takes hearing the same sermon three weeks in a row for me to go, I think God may be trying to talk to me about this. And so if any of you can relate to that, and you're like, oh yeah, I've had to hear sermons more than one time before I understood he was trying to speak something to me and inviting me into something in my life to help my life become more abundant. And that's the thing, he's always inviting us into more abundance. And so I know a lot of people feel like, oh, if I come to God and I start going to church and I start doing these things, I'm gonna have to give up all this stuff that I love that I know I'm not supposed to be doing. And we think of it like he's inviting you because he wants to make you change and get rid of a bunch of stuff. But the truth is he's inviting you because he wants to lead you into abundance and he wants to lead you into life-giving things. So, anyway, I have gone on and I didn't mean to, but I wanted to just leave you today 10 minutes that will change your life. Do it, start it today if you can. If not, tomorrow morning, carve out a space. And that may mean you get up 20 minutes earlier, right? Because I understand if you carve out only 10 minutes, you'll only spend three minutes doing the actual thing because the rest of it you're just kind of waking up, splashing water on your face, brushing your teeth, whatever. But get up 20 minutes earlier and set aside 10 minutes and just spend that 10 minutes reflecting on the beauty of God, telling him how wonderful he is, and then go from there. So I'm so excited you're with me today. I hope you have a great week.