Spending Time Alone With God

I would add we are convinced - and sometimes it is so, we are trapped - in speed in performance for mere survival.

Bill Hybles continues:

Getting caught up in that intense pace can be rewarding! It’s exciting when the adrenaline starts to flow and you get on a roll, when you start racing faster and faster. But it leaves precious little time for quiet moments with God.

I see people operating at this relentless pace. Never a dull moment; never a reflective moment either. Frightened, I ask myself, “Where doe the still, small voice of God fit into our hectic lives? When do we allow God to lead and guide, correct and affirm? And if this seldom or never happens, how can we lead truly authentic Christian lives?

Rev. Luther Gibbs is a pastor in Kingston, Jamacia. He talks about the importance of time alone with God in prayer and living the life of a Christian by telling a story.

Once there were two streams standing at the foot of a mountain. On top of the mountain was a great lake and in front of it, a great desert.

Both streams wanted to water the desert, and one day they began to deliberate about how to go about it. “I think that to be successful, we must find a way to climb the mountain and get attached to the lake,” said one stream.”

“What a waste of time!” the other stream retorted. “You’ll never make it. And besides, look at all this parched land just crying out for water. I’m going on.”

So the second stream flowed out into the desert. As the sun got hotter and hotter and the land dryer and dryer, the stream got smaller and smaller. Eventually it faded because it had no resources.

In the meantime, the first stream was struggling up the mountain. It was a long, arduous climb, but finally the stream joined the lake and asked, “Will you help me to go out water the desert?” “I will,” was the answer. So together lake and stream flowed down the mountain and into the desert, making the dry land rich and fertile.

“Prayer helps me to do what the stream did,” explains Rev. Gibbs, “to make myself one with the resource of the lake. With prayer, my life and ministry are constantly watered. Without it I’m all dried up.”

In school I can remember learning in science the simple concepts of completing an electrical circuit. With wires and batteries, receptacles and light bulbs we experimented trying to complete series of circuits. It was obvious when we had demonstrated understanding of the way electrical circuits worked.

The light bulbs lit up.

Spending time alone with God is like completing the circuit. Our light can’t shine, there is no transfer of power until we complete the circuit. Its making ourselves one with the resource, as Rev. Gibbs noted.

Lets look at prayer from a relationship perspective.

Pierre Wolff tells the story of one couple. His story is in response when someone remarked they were too busy to pray.

This couple had 4 children who were busy in the usual extracurricular activities - dance and baseball, music lessons and scouting. She was a housemaker and volunteered at the school and the hospital. He was a civil engineer and the head of the department at work. He also belonged to the Jaycees and they both entertained frequently at home.