The Barrier of Time



The Barrier of Time

Time and prayer: We’d like to think they are not related, but they are. Jesus scolded his disciples, “Could you not watch (stay with me) one hour?” We would like to dismiss time’s function in the arena of prayer as an unnecessary element. We say, “It doesn’t count. It’s not important.” Like the parent that has no time for his children and excuses himself with the quip, “It is not quantity of time but quality that matters,” have we forgotten that quality and quantity go together? God wants and deserves both. Prayer and time go together like Lego blocks. They fit perfectly together.

Great men of prayer were great spenders of the precious pearls we call time. They dared to assault the clock, bending, stretching, even amputating the hands where necessary, so that they might stay in His presence. They squandered the rare stuff. They dared to throw their pearls where few men have – they wasted them on God! They used them up like water and cried for more. They were thirsty for His presence. They dared to be loners in the desert of silence to find the pearl of great price. They hunted God. They tracked him down. They laid in wait for his passing. They lost sleep to see him but for a moment. They were in love with God. They rendezvoused with him whenever they could steal away. They gave God the greatest and most expensive gift. They gave God the gift of time in liberal flows of the sands of the hourglass.

Yet we are in love with our time. We hoard it. We cheat it. We are time bandits. We are stingy and selfish with it. It’s ours! We cannot possibly impress a timeless God with our hurried impatience in his presence. We blast in and out of our prayer times, weaving in and out of God’s presence like a bad driver on the freeway. We cry like the Mad Hatter, “Too busy, I’m late. I’m late, for a very important date.” ‘Surely God will understand,’ we say. ‘After all, we are about his business.’ God is not flattered with our Martha mentality and our sanctified hyperactivity. He is not at all impressed with our spiritual busyness. God is never pleased with a “drive-by tooting,” and our “catcha later!” as we hail him on our way to somewhere more important.

Don’t ever be tempted to think that time is not important to God. It is! He is timeless, but we are time-bound. He packaged us in this time-space continuum for reasons of his own. We are here for a short time. “Seventy years, and if by reason of strength they be eighty… then we fly away.” He measures us in seconds, minutes, hours, and days. God longs to linger with us as He did with Adam in the Garden. He never asked to see Adam’s time-card, or to inspect his to-do lists to see if everything was done. He came to spend time with His friend.

Robert Munger captured this idea in his wonderful little booklet, My Heart Christ’s Home. He describes the Christian life as inviting Jesus into one’s house. Each room represents an area of our life which is either open or closed to the Savior.

| |The Living Room | |

| |…we walked into the living room. This room was intimate and comfortable. I liked it. It had a fireplace, overstuffed chairs, a | |

| |sofa, and a quiet atmosphere. | |

| |He said, "This is indeed a delightful room. Let us come here often. It is secluded and quiet, and we can fellowship together." | |

| |He promised, "I will be here early every morning. Meet me here, and we will start the day together." | |

| |Well, as a young Christian I was thrilled. I couldn't think of anything I would rather do than have a few minutes with Christ in| |

| |close companionship. So morning after morning, I would come downstairs to the living room. He would take a book of the Bible | |

| |from the case. We would open it and read together. He would unfold to me the wonder of God's saving truths. My heart sang as He | |

| |shared the love and the grace He had toward me. These were wonderful times. | |

| |However, little by little, under the pressure of many responsibilities, this time began to be shortened. Why, I'm not sure. I | |

| |thought I was too busy to spend regular time with Christ. This was not intentional, you understand. It just happened that way. | |

| |Finally, not only was the time shortened, but I began to miss days now and then. Urgent matters would crowd out the quiet times | |

| |of conversation with Jesus. | |

| |I remember one morning rushing downstairs, eager to be on my way. I passed the living room and noticed that the door was open. | |

| |Looking in, I saw a fire in the fireplace and Jesus was sitting there. Suddenly in dismay I thought to myself, "He is my guest. | |

| |I invited Him into my heart! He has come as my Savior and Friend, and yet I am neglecting Him." | |

| |I stopped, turned and hesitantly went in. With downcast glance, I said, "Master, forgive me. Have You been here all these | |

| |mornings?" | |

| |"Yes," He said, "I told you I would be here every morning to meet with you. Remember, I love you. I have redeemed you at great | |

| |cost. I value your fellowship. Even if you cannot keep the quiet time for your own sake, do it for mine." | |

| | | |

| |The truth that Christ desires my companionship, that He wants me to be with Him and waits for me, has done more to transform my | |

| |quiet time with God than any other single fact. Don't let Christ wait alone in the living room of your heart, but every day find| |

| |time when, with your Bible and in prayer, you may be together with Him | |

“There is a time for every purpose under heaven.” says Solomon. There is enough time. The problem is with our time management. If God would give us earthlings two more hours each day, we would soon squander them on selfish ambitions and foolish pleasures, just as we did the original twenty-four. What we do with the precious stuff of time says a lot about us. Time is the talent of silver the Master gives to each to see how they will invest it, or squander it. Just as we do with money, we often say it belongs to God, but struggle to give him a tithe of it. It is alleged that a reporter asked John D. Rockefeller, “How much money is enough?” He responded, “Just a bit more.” We say, if we just had more time we would give it to God. Not so. There is enough time already for every purpose. It is our time management that counts.

God is never honored by stingy time-spenders. Selfish hoarders of time are not found in God’s Hall of Fame. Prayer is the willful act of wasting time on God. It is heavy investing in the eternal Nasdaq of God. If you treasure God you will invest time in Him. Your alabaster box of time will be broken and spilled out and deliberately wasted on Jesus.

Are we really too busy to pray? No, just too preoccupied to pray, too enamored with our own finite lives to pray, and not in love enough with Jesus to pray.

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