Charles Stanley - Prayer: Our Time-Saver (04/09/2017)
Dr. Stanley teaches that time is a precious, irreversible gift from God—our life itself—and wasting it is a sin. Drawing from Scriptures like Psalm 90:12 and Ephesians 5:15-16, he urges believers to invest time wisely through daily prayer and Scripture, starting each day with God to gain direction, energy, peace, and productivity, avoiding anxiety while making the most of every moment in an evil world.
Time: The Irreversible Gift of Life
How many times have you ever said, "I just don't have time"? Or you've said, "I don't know where this day's all gone. I don't have a thing that I planned on doing. I don't have any of that done. Where has this day gone?" The truth is all of us have a little problem at times with time. And what we don't realize is that we're governed by it. There are many aspects of our life. It all centers around time.
And it's interesting how many times in Scripture we read verses like these. But Job said it like this, "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle." If you've ever seen a weaver's shuttle in a cotton mill, for example, how fast it flies. And then the psalmist said, "Man is like a mere breath; his days are like a passing shadow." And again, he says, "Teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom." And then James adds it this way. He says, "A vapor? My life is like a vapor that appears for a little while and vanishes away."
I remember one of my dearest friends who had a really bad case of cancer. And here's what he said. He said, "The next morning I woke up." And he said, "Every single morning since then, the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning, I thank God for another day." All of a sudden, time changed with him. All of a sudden, a day's value changed with him. All of a sudden, he saw things different. He began to tell me about the things that were no longer of any concern to him whatsoever, just to have another day to live.
Life Is Time—And Time Is Precious
Life and time are very precious, because if you'll think about it, time is what your life's about. Your life is your time. God's given you a segment. You don't know how long it's going to last. We may have all kinds of vitamins and minerals and doctors and hospitals and all the things that transpire in a person's life. But the one who ultimately makes the decision is our Heavenly Father.
And so, if you'll think about it, what you and I do with it is very, very important. We either invest it wisely or we waste it. And if my life—listen—if time is my life and my life is time, for me to waste time is a sin against God. It has an enormous effect upon our life. And so, when I think about the power of time in our life, I think about, for example, what we do with our life, how we spend it or how we invest it.
And somebody says, "Well, how do you even define what time is?" Well, you know, I looked in the dictionary just out of my curiosity to find that. Well, what does the dictionary say about what time is? Well, one of those big dictionaries, I have this whole column was trying to define it and half of this column. And when I finished reading it, I thought, "Well, I don't know a bit more about time than I did before."
Because how do you define it? Listen, you can't touch it. You can't smell it. You can't reach for it. You can't see it. You can't—there's not, in other words, what is this anyway? So, somebody's defined it as a dimension in which things exist. Well, what's the dimension? I don't know. What things exist? Everything exists. Everything exists within time, but how do you measure it? We measure it, we say, by the clock. Measuring it's one thing, but defining it is something else.
The Nature of Time: Irreversible and Fleeting
And if you'll think of it, it's irreversible. You can't bring it back. In fact, you can't bring back one minute of time I spoke or one second. The last breath you took, you can't bring it back. And remember this, that every minute you and I live, what's happening is we're getting closer and closer to death. We're getting closer and closer to eternity.
Life can be very short or it can be very long. Some of that has to do with how we live our life and some of it ultimately has to do with God's choice. So, when you think about time, remember, it is a gift from God. Because without it, you could have all the gold you want, all the silver, all the prominence, prestige, popularity, and everything else in life you want. And all of a sudden, your time's gone, you don't have anything.
Which says your life—now listen—not just years, not just months, not just days, or not just weeks, but listen, hours, minutes are important in the life of every single one of us. Because with every passing minute, you have one less minute to live, one less minute to invest, one less minute to enjoy life on this earth, one less minute to contribute to somebody else's life and help them, one less minute to talk about the most important name there is, and that's Jesus.
Very, very important what you and I think about time. Now, you see we wear it on our wrists most of the time, and we hang it on the wall, and more than likely you've got more than one clock and one calendar in your home. Why are we so hung up about time? Because we see ourselves in a segment of time.
Time Shapes Our Daily Routines
For example, you eat usually at a certain time, and time has such an effect upon us. And how many times have I heard people say, "Oh, my goodness, it's twelve o'clock. I'm hungry. It's time to eat." They hadn't even thought about being hungry. It's just the fact that it's twelve o'clock and therefore they decide that it's time to eat.
I think about people begin to work. They begin their work each day at a certain time. Most of them quit at a certain time. And when I talk to somebody, I say, "What you doing?" "Nothing." I say, "Oh, boy, I got the wrong guy on this line." Because time is very precious. And we should be investing every minute of it.
That doesn't mean I've got to be busy every minute. Because rest is an investment in time. That's why God said, you know, we should go to sleep at night and rest. And what are we doing? Rejuvenating our body and our energy and all the rest. So, that's not a waste of time. But many people are very much alive and awake. And wasting their time. Wasting away their life.
And if I said to you, "Well, why don't you get your paycheck and just burn it every week, just burn it every Friday night?" You'd say, "Well, that'd be a terrible waste." Or what about living your life all week long and instead of investing any part of it, you're just sort of spending it?
You ever thought about, at the end of the day, asking yourself the question, and I'm sure you have, "What have I really accomplished today? What have I really been doing all day long? Have I been wasting time or have I been investing time in some fashion?"
Making the Most of Our Time
For example, our worship. If out of seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, a person can't give at least an hour, hour and a half of their time to think only about God, that person is distorted in their thinking, warped in their thinking, and they're empty of real, genuine spirituality. Because it's time we spend together worshiping, and singing together, and opening the Word together, and talking to God together.
These are the things that equip us to face an angry world out there that is oftentimes very much opposed to what we believe. And when I think about it, a person says, "I don't have time," listen carefully. God has given every single one of us enough time to do His will every day. You have enough time to do the will of God every day. You have enough time to pray every day. You have enough time to read His Word every day. You have enough time to worship every day. You have enough time to serve the Lord every single day.
God is the God of wisdom and omniscience. He knows exactly what you and I need. And therefore, He would not require of us to do something He didn't give us time to do. He does not expect us to do something we cannot do. So He's given us time to do His will. He's given us time to seek Him and to listen to Him and to wait upon Him and to follow Him. And He's given us time to be obedient about every single thing that He brings to our mind.
Jesus' Example of Valuing Time
Now, when I think about that and I think about the life of Jesus and how He lived out His life, you say, "Well, was Jesus interested in time?" Yes, He was. Think about this. In fact, it almost sounds unreasonable. He knew He had a short life. I'm certain of that. And He spent the first thirty years of it in a carpenter shop.
Now, if I had thought that I had only three years to serve the Lord, I'd have been getting out of that carpenter shop by the time I was at least sixteen or less. Thirty years, He served as a carpenter with His father and His mother, His earthly father. I don't know when He passed away, but that is the first. And think about this. Watch this. From the time He was thirty, He only had a thousand days to perform the greatest, most important, miraculous, far-reaching event in all of human history. And that is at Calvary.
Calvary was a very short period of time when it came to the fact they nailed Him there. He hanged there for a while and He died. Most important thing in His thousand days was that event. And then, of course, He was resurrected.
It's interesting when you look at His life in the Scripture. The Bible says in Mark, that first chapter, the Scripture says in the thirty-fifth verse that a great while before day, Jesus is up praying to begin His day. The Scripture says in Luke that oftentimes that He slipped out into the mountains away to spend time praying and talking to the Father. The Bible says also in Mark that He, at night time, He prayed. He prayed in the evening. And then, of course, the Bible says that He prayed all night. The night before He chose His disciples, He prayed all night long.
Jesus was a man of prayer. And here's what I've thought and discovered. And I've read many, many biographies. The great men of God who have made an impact upon this world have been men and women, not just men. Men and women who were men and women of prayer, who knew it to be a priority in their life.
And I wonder how much time you spend. You say, "Well, I'm not a pastor." It has nothing to do with it. It has to do that you're a human being. It has to do that God has a will and a plan and a purpose for your life. And that, listen, that will, that plan, that purpose is going to unfold within a span of time. Some people have lived a short period of time and made an awesome impact. Other people who lived a very, very long time made no impact at all.
It's like what the Scripture we read a few moments ago, like a vapor. They're here and they're gone. Think about living your life and nobody ever regretting that you died. Think about living your life and when you're gone, nobody shows up at your funeral. You say, "Well, somebody must show up." The least people I've ever had to show up with one was an attorney who was selling the will of this woman who passed away did not have a single person to show up at the funeral, not one.
Something's missing in a person's life when you don't have any relationships. When you haven't built any relationships in life when you're gone, who cares? Very important how we live our life.
Awake and Redeem the Time
So, you say, "Well, now, what's all this got to do with this, as far as time is concerned?" And I go back to Ephesians chapter five and listen to this verse. Verse fourteen says, "For this reason," it says, Scripture, "awake, sleeper, arise from the dead; Christ will shine on you. Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise," listen, "but as wise, making the most of your time because the days are evil."
That is, we should, by making the most of our time, what He's talking about is simply this. And that is, we want to use our time very wisely. So, think about a given day in your life. That's just a typical day in your life. Now, this is one of those messages, you need to be honest. In fact, you should be honest about all of them. But think about it for a moment. Just be honest with yourself for just a moment.
How much time in any given day do you spend totally undistracted, quietly, alone, talking to your Heavenly Father? He gave you your life. The only reason you're here is because God gave you life. You say, "Well, then my parents didn't want me." God gave you your life. It doesn't make any difference how you got here. God gave you your life. You owe it to Him.
Where Is God in Your Daily Life?
Now, watch this. This is the way many people live their life, Christians. Here's God in their life. They'll tell you, "I'm saved. I've been baptized, a member of the church. I go to church. I give a little bit once in a while, or maybe every Sunday. I do pray some time, and so God is in my life."
But in reality, here's what's going on. This is the way they think. They know that God's there. They get up in the morning, and they get in the automobile and drive seventy-five miles an hour, a foot on each side with somebody else, listen, and another car on both sides driving seventy-five miles an hour, which in itself is almost suicide.
So, you get in your car, and you rush off to work. You know God's there, but in your mind, you're thinking about other things, what you're going to do when you get to work. You get up in the morning, instead of thinking about God, you're thinking about what you're going to have to eat, how you're going to dress, what's going on in your life.
What I want you to see is this. He—listen—He's really out here. He's not really right here. And a person can say, "Well, I know that I'm a Christian. I know God's with me." Yes, He is. But listen, what about your relationship with Him?
You see, the most important thing in your life is your personal, intimate relationship with Him. And that has to be nurtured. You can marry somebody and have it all just perfect and legal. And then suppose you didn't see Him about once a month. Or suppose you just saw Him once a day and said, "Hi, sweetheart, how you doing?" That wouldn't be a relationship.
And if somebody said, "You married? Yeah, I'm married." And I think that a lot of marriages like this. And that is, they're married, but when it comes to relationship, there's no relationship. They're just officially married, husband and wife. But what about the intimates and the genuine love and caring and concern and all? The rest is not there.
Many believers, that's the way they live their life. God's there, but He's just sort of there. The most important thing in your life is your personal, intimate relationship with Him and how is that developed? You can say, "Go into church and worshiping God." All that is absolutely true. But in order to develop that kind of relationship, there must be time undistracted. Not concerned about anything else, but your personal, intimate relationship with Him through His Word and through time you spend in prayer.
Prayer: Life's Greatest Time-Saver and Most Productive Use
Now, it is life's greatest time saver, listen, and most productive use of a person's time. And I'm going to give you fifteen reasons in a moment to show you why it is. How you and I can make the most of our time and make it most productive because you can't bring it back, you can't really save it, you can't see it, but you can make it the most productive.
So, I want to ask you this question. When is the last time you got up in the morning and the first thing you did was open the Word of God and spend some time with Him, talking to Him about the day, who you going to meet, things you don't know are going to happen, your divine guidance and direction, your protection, your watch, care of you, your family, people that you meet that you want to possibly talk about Jesus, if you get the opportunity.
As a follower of Jesus Christ, how do you start your day? Listen, your day is a gift from Him. He shut it down in a split second. How do you start a day given to you by holy God for the purpose, listen, for the purpose of bringing Him honor and glory by the life that you live and the relationships you build? How do you start your day?
Well, I will say to you this, I've learned a long time ago the most important thing in my life, to make my life the most productive is not what I do. It's being quiet and listening to Him and reading His Word.
For example, I could give you a passage of Scripture that I don't read this every day, but I read it probably almost every other day I would say I read this passage because it says something to me. Here's what it says, "I am Your servant, Father. Give me understanding, that I may know Your testimonies. It's time for the Lord to act. Therefore, I love Your commandments. Above gold, yes, above fine gold. Therefore, I esteem right all Your precepts concerning everything. I hate every false way. Establish my footsteps in Your Word. Do not let any iniquity have dominion over me."
And I could go on with a few of the verses. You say, "Where is that?" It's 119th Psalm and it begins with the 125th verse. You say, "Why do you read the same thing over and over again?" I'll tell you why. Because I want to be reminded every single day that I am His servant, that I need Him, to guide my footsteps because I don't want any iniquity to develop in my heart. I love His Word. I don't ever want to love anything more than I love His Word. That will keep your heart clean and pure and your life productive.
But you have to find the passage that speaks to your heart the most.
Fifteen Powerful Benefits of Daily Prayer
So now, looking at the life of Jesus and how He spent His time in prayer, how does that affect our time? So, I'm going to give you fifteen reasons why prayer is the most productive use of time.
1. Clear Direction in Emergencies
When emergencies arise, in prayer we get clear, timely direction, eliminating confusion. That is, when you and I are in prayer and we're talking to the Lord as a way of life, emergencies arise, listen, we know what to do.
In the twentieth chapter of Second Chronicles, when Jehoshaphat was being invaded by three foreign armies, when he heard the news, here's what he did: Jehoshaphat was afraid, turned his attention to seek the Lord and proclaimed to fast throughout all Judah. First thing he did is he went to his face to cry out to God.
You see, if you and I begin the day with Him and reading His Word, we're ready—that is God knows how to make us ready to face those things in life that we can't plan because we don't know about them ahead of time.
2. Prevents Wrong Decisions and Costly Delays
This kind of praying prevents us from making wrong decisions, causing us costly delays and long-range repercussions. In the sixteenth chapter of Acts, here's what happens: Paul is headed in one direction, in fact, he is planning to start his missionary journeys at this point to go east, which would have been into the countries that we know as Near East, Iran and Arabia and all the rest of those countries.
Instead, in prayer, God spoke to his heart and said, "No, I don't want you to go in that direction." Then he had this vision in prayer, and he saw this one in Macedonia saying, "Come over and help us." Watch this, this is so historically important. It was a turning point in all of human history.
Because instead of going east and evangelizing that part of the world, God said, "I want you to go west." Suppose Paul said, "Nope, that's my plan. This is what I believe is the right thing to do, and I've already planned this. I'm sticking with it." No. Let me tell you why we get in trouble.
Many people say, "Well, I want to do what's right." And they pray, and after they've prayed, they decide, "Well, I do feel this, but I think since I've already planned this, I'll go this way." You must always give God time if He wants to change your plan.
And I can think of many times when I had chosen and made a decision about something, and then get down to praying about it, and I'd have a different feeling. Now, God didn't give me twenty-five reasons for changing my mind. I just all of a sudden got a little uneasy about doing what looked right, I'd already planned, had it all set up, and as long as I was on my feet, thing to do. Get on my knees, not the thing to do.
I can tell you, every single solitary time I've obeyed Him, He blessed me, and the times that I decided I was going to do it myself, I missed it. Because listen, our knowledge is limited. Our wisdom is limited. God's wisdom—listen, He already knows all the details. We don't know all the details.
Because you see, sometimes it takes time to know what the details are, and He who sits above all time already knows what they are. So, if He says, "Don't do that," don't do it, you'll get in trouble. I've told people that in their marriage or in their dating relationship, about finances, about many, many things.
Well, I know that sounds right, and Pastor, thank you very much. Here's what I think. Is that what God said to you? And I've asked people, "Can you tell me that God told you to do this?" Well, no. I can't say that, but I don't know that God speaks to me that way. And they give me all these, listen, excuses for not getting on their knees and finding out what does God—well, you know, God doesn't speak to me that way. He will if you let Him. Give Him time.
God wants to show you the right thing to do and the right time to do it.
3. Eliminates Worry and Anxiety
Then, of course, another good reason for prayer and the way it helps us is it eliminates worry and anxiety about something because that always wastes time.
And you recall, for example, in Philippians the fourth chapter and the sixth and seventh verse, what does He say? He says, "Don't be anxious about anything." But do what? "Spend your time in prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God." And He says, listen, the peace of God will surround you, Garrison you about, protect you in those kind of times.
God will protect us. Listen, fretting anxiety and all the rest does nothing but waste time. Why should I wring my hands over something that God already knows all the answer to and all I have to do is just wait for Him?
Listen, you can start down the wrong path. Watch this carefully. You can start down the wrong path out of ignorance. But if you will begin to ask God, "Now, Lord, I want You to confirm I'm heading the right direction, and if I'm not, I want You to stop me." What will He do? He will stop you.
He may first of all give you a signal in your spirit that you're getting uneasy about it. Then you have to decide, "Is my uneasiness God's voice or is this just something going on inside of me?" Remember this. He's living on the inside of you. He desires to protect you, make the right decisions, head in the right direction.
And when He sends you a signal, don't, listen, don't just try to explain it away, "Well, that's just my feeling." And listen, if God tells you something, you know it's from God, and every one of your friends says to you, "Don't do it." You have to decide who you're going to believe. Because remember those folks who tell you that if they were in your shoes, they're not in your shoes.
When you got up this morning, you put on your shoes. When they got up, they put on theirs. They do not know the will of God for your life. You have to be careful.
4. Produces Calmness, Peace, and Productivity
Then, of course, it produces a sense of calmness and peacefulness. Listen, making us more productive. And the wonderful thing about starting the day with Him is this. You open your heart to Him today, "Lord, I want You to speak to my heart today." What I read, that's not the only passage of Scripture I read, but what I read some passages over and over and over again because I want to remind myself, I am Your servant. I'm available for Your instruction today. I want You to guide my steps, let no iniquity come into my heart. I want to listen carefully to You. I want to be sensitive to Your will today.
When you start the day off, listen, in the Word of God and talking to Him, you say, "Well, is God going to speak to me?" Yes, He will. He says in one of my favorite verses, it's real simple, "The entrance of Your Word, entrance of Your Word into my heart gives me light." What light? Light of understanding of what God is saying to us.
And then, of course, what we are doing is we are inviting God. Listen, we're inviting God into our activity to guide us, to make us productive. When you say, "Father, I want You to guide me today," what you're saying is, "I'm inviting You into my life today, Lord, and I want You to guide me in all the decisions that I make. I want to make wise decisions. I don't want to waste my time. I want to spend my time wisely. So, I'm asking You to guide me and to help me."
Will He do it? Yes, He will. What does He say? He says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean to your own understanding. It's inadequate. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your path straight."
Instead of wasting time trying to figure out, "Well, Lord, what do You want me to do?" And He gives us confidence. Listen, He gives us confidence. And that confidence is going to make our decisions, listen, more productive, make our decisions more enjoyable, because we're doing what He's called us to do.
You see, oftentimes, people will say, "Yes, I love God. I don't have time." How many times have I heard this? "I don't have time to pray. There is no such thing. I don't have time to read the Bible. There's no such thing." That is, I either choose in His gift of time to me to acknowledge Him and to recognize Him and to follow Him, or I decide I'll take this time and use it myself.
Now, let me ask you a question. If we believe, and we do believe, and know that He is omniscient, knows all things, past, present, future, if He knows that, do you not realize that He will guide you to make the most profitable, lasting, effective, fruitful decisions you can possibly make, because He knows what they are?
Not fretting and worrying and being anxious about it, but listening to Him, reading His Word, letting Him speak to your heart, inviting Him into your life, confidence that He'll take care of it. And when I think about that, I think about the fact that if I'm praying, I don't have to fret over things. That is, in other words, if I've asked Him to give me direction, I expect Him to give me direction.
But many people say, "Well, you know, I have prayed about it." And then they add that terrible word, B-U-T. That is, I have prayed about it, but. Well, but what? Is, in other words, has God singled you out not to speak to you?
Now, if you're not a believer, none of this works. In other words, you can't come to God and claim anything from Him if you—listen, when you reject His Son, you shut Him out. You say, "Oh, but I pray," and God does, doesn't say, "No." You may pray. To which God are you praying? Is it the Jehovah of the Word of God?
If you're praying to the God of the Bible, He says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, He'll not hear me." You cannot live in sin and have God speak to you except to convict you of your sin. And to get that straightened out, then other things work. But prayer changes everything in life.
5. Sharpens Discernment to Avoid Wasteful Activities
This is what—and here's what I discovered in life. I watched this growing up. I watched people get to a certain age, say, my present age and even a little bit younger. Here's what I watched them do. They were just active and then—and then here's what I heard. "Well, you know, I can't come to prayer meeting anymore. I can't come to Sunday night church anymore." You know, at this age, it doesn't work. Or, you know, I can't come to church every Sunday morning at this point in my life.
But let me ask you a question: It just may be that you're getting old because you're ignoring God. In other words, why should—listen, why should God keep your energy up? Why should He keep your intelligence up? Why should He keep you sharp? Why should He keep you—that is, why should He keep you fruitful in life if all you're going to just sit around and just sort of waste your time?
Listen, there are a lot of wonderful things in life, but there's nothing in life that God intended for you and me to enjoy or to participate in at the expense of spending time with Him. Nothing.
Well, I think about also that prayer sharpens our discernment to avoid wasteful activities which produce nothing. Now, discernment—listen, discernment is that spiritual intuition about things. Not just natural intuition, but spiritual intuition, we are able to see through the surface of things and see what's on the inside, see what's really happening.
What is God really saying? What's He saying to me? What is He saying about this situation? What's going on in this person's life? And oftentimes, we forget how willing He is to work in our hearts and our minds.
And one of the wonderful things I discovered about prayer, in fact, one of the greatest lessons I ever learned is simply this. And that is, if I have an issue or something that's bothering me or I don't have an answer to something, it's to get on my knees and talk to the Lord, alone, by myself, somewhere that's quiet and silent, and to go to sleep. Just go to sleep.
We say, "Wait a minute, can't you pray and sleep at the same time?" Well, yes and no. But let me put it this way. Here's what happens, I discovered. When you talk to God about something and you're deadly serious about it, and you want a solution or an answer, and you pray yourself to sleep, when you go to sleep, your conscious mind and all that thinking you're doing suddenly is no longer there because you're asleep.
Your subconscious mind, which God has given to every single one of us, which keeps your heart beating all night long while you're not even thinking about what's going on and everything else, your subconscious mind goes to work. And because you're a believer, the Spirit of God is in your subconscious mind.
You ask God to give you a direction. You ask God to settle the issue. You ask God to show you what to say. You ask God to help you through this problem. And what's happening? You took it to Him. You went to sleep. You got out of the way mentally, so your subconscious mind, controlled by the Holy Spirit, could work.
And then what happens? You wake up, and sometime it's just that fast. Or sometimes it may be an hour or so, a week, or whatever it might be. God works while you and I are sleeping, and therefore the thing we should do is to be sure we go to sleep with the right thing on our mind.
And if you see, in other words, you have this not just intuition, as we call it, but we have this spiritual discernment says, "I'm going to get God's viewpoint about this." Now, the reason that you've got to mix your prayer with the Word of God is because it's the Word that guides your thinking. And then you get His thoughts. And when you get His thoughts, you're going to get His will and His plan.
6. Brings Energy and Vitality
Then, of course, it brings energy into our life. That is, prayer brings energy to our life. And listen, the more energetic you are, the more you're going to be able to accomplish. You know how it feels if you wake up in the morning and you just feel like you just don't think you can get out of bed for some reason, whatever you've been doing. Or you may have been sick.
Watch this. I know some of you are not going to believe it, but you're going to lose for not believing it. If you—listen, if you're just dead tired with whatever you are doing, legitimate as it may be, you get on your face before God, your knees, and you spend a little time in the Word of God in prayer, it will be unusual if you don't get a surge of energy.
Because listen, God is an energizer. And when you invite Him into your life and you say, "Lord, I need your energy and your strength," and I can tell you that a few Sundays in my life, maybe more than a few, when I have been busy, busy, busy all week long doing what the Lord's called me to do, there's some times that there's some responsibilities that are very taxing.
But I learned a long time ago, if I will get—and sometimes I have to make myself get out of bed and get on my knees and say, "Okay, God, I did my best, I'm tired, I'm worn, I need You. I need Your energy. I just need pure energy, Lord." You spend a little time reading the Word and talking to Him, I'm here to tell you, He will energize your physical body, your mind to think right, your body works right. That's who He is.
He is a God who answers our petitions, answers our prayers, if I invite Him into my life to do so. He's not a quick fix. He's a fantastic fix. That's who He is. That's who God is.
7. Prevents Distraction and Sidetracking
Then I think about spending time in prayer with Him prevents us from getting distracted and sidetracked about our responsibilities. Because you see, if you begin the day with Him, it's the rudder of the day. You set your mind to do the will of God, "Father, show me what You'd have me accomplish today and I'll be willing to do it."
And so what happens is that spending time with Him, listen, helps us to focus on what we're doing. Another thing it does is this, it reminds us oftentimes of the necessity to act to get something done. Maybe something sort of slipped your mind or maybe you are sort of procrastinating a little bit when you're in prayer. What does He do? He brings it to your mind and He gives you that little push that you need to get you moving to accomplish what He wants you to accomplish.
8. Prevents Discouragement
Then, of course, one of the most encouraging things about spending time with Him is it prevents you from being discouraged. What am I going to be discouraged about no matter what I'm facing if I have the Heavenly Father who loves me unconditionally, who is all-powerful, all-knowing? Why should I be discouraged?
You say, "Well, suppose things don't go your way." Then you know what? I'll wait until He shows me His way. And here's what I've discovered in my own life. If I get anxious about something or I get a little disturbed or I get just sort of, just, you know, doing this, "Well, what am I going to do about this and so?"
You know what I know? I'm on my schedule, not His. When I'm on His schedule, I don't have to worry about that because I know that no matter how the clock's ticking, I'm going to be there or I'm going to get it done on time because I'm on His plan, I'm on His schedule, on His time. When I get off His time to my time, I can get anxious. And all that does is waste time.
9. Opens Doors of Opportunity
Then, of course, prayer will open the doors of opportunity that nothing else will open. That's what Paul was talking about in Colossians, for example. And this fourth chapter, he was asking, he said, "Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it, listen, with an attitude of Thanksgiving, pray at the same time for us as well that God will open for us a door for the Word."
That is, prayer will open doors of opportunity. For example, let's say that you lost your job and you're going to apply for another job. You say, "Well, how do I apply for that?" If you ask the average person, get a resume. Look your best, do your best, be your best, walk in, I mean, have confidence and all those things. Is that the way you get a job?
Suppose they're not impressed by that. Suppose you start the day on your face before God and you say to Him, "Lord, I want Your will for my life today because I know that Your will is best." Now, I'm going for this interview and Lord, I may not impress anybody. I want You to show me. I want You to speak through me. I want You to show me when to be quiet. I want You to show me how to answer the question. Let me not put on any, no faking anything. God, just let me be absolutely truthful and honest.
And if they ask me if I'm religious, tell them, "Yes, I'm a Christian. I'm a follower of Jesus Christ." If they don't want you, God's got a better job. In other words, you don't want to lie and compromise your conviction.
Here's what I want you to see. When you ask, when you invite Him into your interview, He may give you that job and they'll wonder why they gave it to you. Or they may not give it to you. Listen, when you walk out, always thank God that turns you down. You say, "You don't know how desperately I need one." God does. Because listen, if He doesn't want you to have that one, He's got a better one.
Now, if you're living in sin, living like the devil and disobedient to God, that won't work. Do you see how hypocritical it is to ask God to help you do this, that, and the other when you're in trouble, when you have ignored Him totally? Am I saying that everybody outside doesn't have a job as hypocrites? No, indeed. Some of the finest people I know are out of work. Will God give them work? Yes, He will. At an appointed time, He will.
When you and I are living in the will of God, Almighty God, by His own confession of truth in the Word of God is obligated by His own faithfulness to provide your need. God will provide your needs. But you have to be willing to be obedient to Him. You can't put God out here in your life and expect Him to just have everything you need when you need it.
That's why I go back to the original thing. You begin the day with Him. You have invited Him into your life. And what—listen, when He comes into your life comes His wisdom, His power, His ingenuity, His energy, and every single thing you need.
10. Distinguishes Busy from Fruitful
Then, of course, it enables us to discern the difference between just being busy and being fruitful. Now, you have one or two choices. You can either decide that tomorrow, you're going to wake up tomorrow morning, you're going to open the Word of God, and you're going to start praying. You say, "I don't even know where to start. Where do I start?" Just start in the book of Proverbs. It's a good place to start. Very practical about every aspect of life.
And just start reading and tell God. You can just read one chapter at some point and just say, "Lord, I want You to speak to my heart. This is new to me, Lord, and I need for You to show me how to do this, and so would You just speak to me and just give me some sense of direction?"
You may feel it's a little strange to begin with, but it won't take very long that you'll say, "Thank You, thank You, thank You, dear Lord, for helping me to understand that I need to start every day with You." And not just pray once a day, but during the day, in the evening, before you go to bed at night. And does He not say that, "Thank Him for His kindness in the morning, thank Him for His faithfulness all evening"?
Think about this. All of us are headed for an eternity. And we'll either spend eternity with God in heaven, serving Him when there is no more time, or you'll be eternally separated from Him for all eternity when there's no time. I can't even conceive of that.
That's what Jesus said. If you're wise, you will right now take these precious moments that you have and ask Him to forgive you of your sins, forgive you for neglecting Him and ignoring Him in your life and filling it up with stuff that doesn't satisfy you. And tell Him that you're asking Him to forgive you of your sins and that you're accepting His Son, Jesus Christ, as your personal Savior.
You need Him, not only for eternity, but right now. You're accepting His death at the cross and paid your sin debt in full. You're asking Jesus to come into your life. From that moment on, the Holy Spirit seals you as a child of God, indwells you, and will give you guidance and direction for your life if you will invite Him in each day of your life to guide you. That's the way you live life at its very best.
And Father, how grateful we are that though we can't define this element we call time, you fully understand it perfectly. And you'll cause it to work for our good if we will invite you in, not for a season, but for a lifetime and daily. And for that we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.