A calendar is one of the most important items in most people’s lives today. Most people use it to book important appointments, keep track of important dates and even to track certain accomplishments. Many people complain about how busy they are, and a look at their calendar can show us why. Many of us find that busyness starts to interfere with our relationship with our Creator, God. Despite the apparent busyness, we never seem to miss an appointment and always have more time to allot to new activities. These same people than wonder why they never find time to pray and read their Bible and talk with God.
What if we used a calendar to “book” time with God? Many people would say, well I won’t forget to pray like I might forget to go to a doctor’s appointment but that’s not entirely true. We use our calendar to book time for appointments and to make sure we aren’t late. But when it comes to prayer time we seem to be able to be late or not even show up at all without much concern. We are usually bothered when we miss an appointment or when we are late, but does the same happen when we miss time for prayer? We can use our calendar to allot certain blocks of time for prayer. By doing so we are keeping ourselves accountable for the time we spend with God. It’s really easy just pick a time of the day, and book it off every single day.
Now that you have booked this time, you must treat like a regualr appointment. It is not acceptable to be late, or to miss it you must come on time for every single appointment. When we have a doctor’s appointment we make sure that we finish our previous task on time, so that we won’t be late. So if I have booked prayer time from 6:00-6:30, I need to make sure that whatever I’m doing before 6:00 gets done on time, so that I can take time for prayer at 6:00. Even if that means I must quit something and leave it unfinished you need to make sure you don’t “miss the appointment”.
Another great way to treat this “appointment” is to think of it as food. Even though we run around and are always busy, we never forget to nourish our physical bodies. Prayer does the same thing for our spiritual being as food does for our physical being, yet no one forgets to eat, but many people forget to pray in all the busyness. We need to remember that without the spiritual food received through prayer we can’t expect to grow in our spiritual lives.
In closing, one of the best things about “making an appointment” with God is that there is never a line up or a wait to talk; he’s always there and ready to take our questions and to talk with us. No need to sit around and wait for a half an hour because he is running late he’s always there and ready to listen. More importantly, if you need to talk with him quickly he doesn’t require you to make an appointment as he is always open. I hope this column has been as much a blessing to you and was to me writing it. God Bless!
