Time On My Hands

Earlier in the year, I picked a word for the year and it was, "relationships." The meaning behind the word, for me, is to work on my relationships with my family, friends and God. I had no idea that I would have a lot of time to invest in all those relationships, even if it is while social distancing. I didn’t think that life would ever be like this. I knew life was changing daily and it was hard to keep up. Yet, here I am in isolation with all of this time on my hands.

The question is, what am I going to do with it?

Well, I have decided to take this time of isolation to proclaim the goodness of God. I want to reach out to those that I would not normally get to spend time with and have a chat on the phone, maybe a little facetime, or put a card in the mail to tell them how I am praying for them. I also want to remind them that God has not forgotten us. On the contrary, we are always on His mind. We were on His mind while being beaten, while hanging on the cross and we were on His mind when He came out of the grave! Wow, what an AMAZING God we serve.

I want to use the time the Lord has given me not only to build relationships with friends and family but mainly to work on my relationship with God! I must admit all this isolation has made me realize how often I put other things before God. I have realized that I am not always present in the moment with God. I get so distracted. I want to change that. I want to wake up worshipping God, still be worshipping at mid-morning, and keep on worshipping through lunch. Even when the three o’clock low hits, I want to be high on Jesus all the way until bedtime. Then I want to let the soothing love of His peace put me to rest for the night and wake up worshipping again!

So, how can we strive to obtain this kind of relationship with God? I think there are four key factors.

First: Going to God in prayer. Praise Him and then lay out all that’s in your heart before him. The good, the bad and the ugly. He knows it anyway, why try to pretend that it’s not there?

Second: Choosing to be in the word, by reading it or listening to it. Also, through listening to songs and singing along. I am so thankful that my praise is beautiful to God.

Third: Sitting still and listening for God’s reply, simply sitting in Awe of God!

Fourth: Taking action by putting to use what God has taught you and sharing it with others. You can do this in any creative way you can think of. Everyone needs something different. It could be a cup of water in the name of Jesus or maybe it could simply be finding joy in God and sharing it with others. Whatever you choose to do to express the love and goodness of Christ, make sure He gets the glory for it! After all it should all be about Him!

Relationships; I am not there yet but I am striving to be. I hope you will join me on the charge to look at how we spend our time in isolation and use it to honor God!

“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:17 ESV