I mentally wince some mornings when I ask myself that. Although, I guess since I know the answer it’s less of a question and more of an accusation. A reminder that I didn’t spend time with God. A reminder that I failed.
But it’s what I do with the information that’s important. There are some days that I simply don’t get to start with Jesus… and maybe you can relate?
This is especially true during the busy holiday season. When the family is visiting, or we are away from home. Schedules and routines are replaced with holiday baking and late-night talks by the fire.
The holiday season gets so packed full of family and friends that routines sometimes get squeezed away.
3 Ways To Spend Time With God This Holiday Season
All that said, I wanted to share some ways we can spend time with God this holiday season. If you are anything like me and your best intentions get hijacked by holiday fun, hopefully, these three ways I have found to spend time with God can help you, too.
1.) Pause To Pray
I will never forget the first time I had a friend do this. Keep in mind that I have been a Christian my entire adult life. But there was one day, at the swimming pool when I was talking to another mom and right in the middle of our conversation, she stopped to pray. She took a timeout from our conversation because she received a text, it was something she had been praying about, and she wanted to thank God for answering the prayer.
That moment stuck in my memory and changed the way I thought about prayer.
And we can all do that, too.
Right in the middle of our holiday hustle, we can pause to pray.
We can thank God for answering prayers or come to Him with requests (Phi 4:6). Maybe we need to pray for what’s ahead for the day or safe travel for our family. There are so many things we can pray for each day, and we can pause to pray at any point throughout it.
2.) Step Away
Pausing to pray is just one way we can spend time with God this holiday season. It’s something we can do right in the midst of whatever we are doing, but sometimes we need a moment. This is why taking a step away is the second thing on my list of ways to spend time with God this holiday season.
If you can step out of the kitchen or away from the conversation, even for just a minute or two. You can use that time to pray, read your Bible or a devotional. So what if you missed your quiet time that morning, there is nothing saying you can’t do it at three in the afternoon or even eleven at night. Or maybe you had your quiet time, but you want more time with Jesus.
Taking a step away to spend time with God always helps calm my heart, and it’s something that’s usually pretty doable even during the holiday season.
3.) Be Still
The third way to spend time with God this holiday season is to simply be still.
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” ~ Psalm 46:10
I love to stop right where I am, surrounded by everyone, and just breath it all in. I might use the moment to count my blessings; to say a prayer of thanksgiving.
I might let my heart overflow with gratitude. But I really just take a moment to be still and know that God is good. It’s like resting in His grace. Being content.
Invite Jesus In…
Then there are the moments when we simply can’t take a break. Moments when we can’t get away from all the holiday hustle and bustle. Moments when life is demanding everything we have.
It’s moments like those when I’ve found I need to invite Jesus in.
Invite Jesus into the line at the supermarket when we just want to go home. Invite Him into the moments when we have too much to do.
Whether you do that by closing your eyes to soak in His grace, by pausing to pray, or whatever. I love the fact that we can know God is always with us. I mean that’s the whole point of Christmas. Jesus is Immanuel, “God with Us.”
“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” ~ Matthew 28:20
I would love to hear from you though. How do you spend time with Jesus during the busy holiday season?
___________
Heather Hart is an internationally best-selling and award-winning author with an unquenchable passion for Jesus. She knows one thing every girl needs is a little honesty, so she’s not afraid to get candid and share her struggles. Her hope is that she can help others soak up the love of Jesus.
Heather currently resides in a small Texas town with her husband, Paul, and their four quickly growing children. You can connect with her online by visiting her website BooksFaithandCoffee.com.
Christian Meditation is is a form of prayer in which a structured attempt is made to become aware of and reflect upon the revelations of God.
Rhonda at the Christian Meditator says it is to “engage in thought, contemplation, and reflection about our relationship with Christ and/or the Word of God”.
So how can the practice of Christian meditation change our lives?
An Overflowing Cup
Recently, I listened to talk given by Oprah where she explained the need to have our cup full so we could give to others. As women, we often put ourselves last. We give to everyone and often leave little to sustain ourselves with. One of the ways we can attain an overflowing cup is with the practice of Christian meditation.
Eastern vs. Christian
The point of Eastern meditation is to clear your mind. Further, clearing your mind allows you to rid emotions such as stress, anxiety, etc.
In Christian meditation, the point is to draw closer to God by focusing on His divine power, love, and holiness. In Christian meditation, we are relying on God and His power to help us with any struggle we are going through.
Is Christian Meditation Biblical?
The Bible tells us in Joshua 1:8, to meditate on God’s word day and night. As Christians, we are to first sit quietly before the Lord. Then, know that He is God (Psalms 46:10). Lastly, Listen and be obedient to Him. There are many verses in the Bible that lend to sitting before the Lord and acting in accordance with His will.
This is when we find insight and clarity for God’s will not unlike many people of the Bible did.
Benefits of Christian Meditation
According to the Stylecraze.com article 5 Amazing Benefits Of Christian Meditation, the 5 key benefits are an increase in faith, help you stray from sin, learn to love God more, help with stress and worry and understanding of the Bible.
The type of benefits offered by meditating helps us stay refreshed and connected to the Lord. It is God’s way of helping you navigate through all the clutter of this world and stay connected to Him.
Christian meditation has become a part of my daily quiet time with God. It offers me the focus I need to keep my eyes fixed on Him. Personally, I have seen an increase in my faith and a closer walk with Jesus while reducing stress and anxiety. It has literally changed me as a Christian woman.
Sara Chinakwe is a Christian writer who believes every woman has the power to live out God’s plan for their lives. She enjoys helping other women shed the negative lies they think about themselves in order to live out God’s truth. Sara resides in Sacramento California with her husband and two kids. You can read more on her blog sarachinakwe.com
A journal by itself is seemingly insignificant. However, layered with the power of God a journal is life-transforming.
Journals are used in many different to write about struggles or show gratitude.
How will you use one or all three of these journals to transform your life?
Christian Meditation
The Christian Meditation Journal teaches you how to train your mind. also, to focus, increase your self-awareness, think and feel better. The Meditation Journal is a daily devotional. It helps you establish a regular quiet time with God.
Planner Perfect
Jenny at Planner Perfect offers an array of handcrafted journals, devotionals, and planners. Since Devotional Notes Journal is meant to keep your spiritual notes. It is ideal for sermons, podcasts, your favorite YouTube videos, books, and thoughts from your quiet time. The Devotional Notes Journal includes a beautifully created special dashboard.
Inspire has over 400 beautiful line-art illustrations spread throughout its pages. Most importantly, pages can be colored or appreciated just as they are. Another aspect, Inspire Bible journal offers space for thoughtful reflections and personal creative art journaling.
Sara Chinakwe is a Christian writer who believes every woman has the power to live out God’s plan for their lives. She enjoys helping other women shed the negative lies they think about themselves in order to live out God’s truth. Sara resides in Sacramento California with her husband and two kids. You can read more on her blog sarachinakwe.com
Staying refreshed in His spirit isn’t easy to do with the hustle and bustle of the Holiday season. The last thing I want any of us to do is getting swept away in the allure of the season. You know what I’m talking about right?
The ads that suggest that we NEED that item to make our holiday season the best ever. You know what I think God wants from us this holiday season…
Our hearts to be refreshed in His Spirit. This season I am on a mission to be intentional about becoming refreshed in the Spirit. Join me as I uncover
12 ways to stay refreshed in His Spirit this season
Gratitude Journal
A gratitude journal is an amazing tool. Beginning my day with gratitude has helped me stay refreshed in His spirit. Writing down why you are grateful is like turning on a light in a dark room every day.
Prayer Partner
On the way into work every day I talk to one of the best girlfriends. We pray for each other and our families over the phone. We also confess if we are doing well spiritually or not. Our conversations are quick but effective.
We both look forward to chatting in the morning and praying for one another. A prayer partner sets up the day with good intentions.
Christian Meditation
Christian meditation is a practice that was placed in my heart before I knew it existed.
It is the process of letting your mind connect with the Lord in the stillness of life.
A great resource for Christian Mediation is Rhonda Jones. Rhonda’s meditation journal has a wealth of information on Christian Meditation and how you can use it to heal yourself.
Christian Yoga
Christian yoga is another daily way to become refreshed in His Spirit.
This practice goes right along with meditation.
I feel it is the body’s way of physically releasing stress and undesired negativity.
I found a wonderful Christian yoga instructor that I follow for my daily quiet time with God. You can check her out here.
Not too long ago we went to a friend’s cabin to celebrate one of their kid’s birthdays.
When I awoke the next morning I meandered outside and sat on a log. I began to talk to God and write. I felt God in that space more present than ever. The sweet smell of freshwater mixed with pine from the tall pine trees surrounded me.
It was simple, effortless.
I asked God what He wanted me to learn at this moment
He responded with these two sentiments
The river goes on and on just as His love does.
and
The jagged rock covered in moss was beautiful just the way it was.
God loves us endlessly like the river and
in our imperfectness He finds beauty.
Praying as a family
At night we pray as a family.
This is one of the most heartwarming things to do because we each take turns on a night praying.
We have seen growth over the years as the shyness of praying out loud has dissipated.
Starting to emerge are young men who are learning how to pray for their communities, family, and friends.
Reading the Bible
The simple act of reading the Bible get so overlooked in our time. The Bible is necessary to stay refreshed in the Spirit. The Bible guides us. Reading the Bible gives us the understanding to do all the other acts of loving, serving and being with God.
For years the Bible was a book like all the others on the bookshelf collecting dust.
One day I reached for it. I opened it and looked at it as a roadmap for where I wanted my life to go. The words in the Bible guided me to reflect on my past and walk with God on a deeper level.
As a couple, it is so easy to get wrapped up in the business of life. When you don’t take time to connect with each other on a spiritual level your relationship can suffer. It has been immensely fruitful for our spiritual growth to pray and read the Bible together.
Praying together has brought us closer together and closer to God.
Conferences
Conferences help me stay refreshed in His spirit because they are with other people who celebrate God with you. I recently went to Pricilla Shrier’s Going Beyond conference, which left me elevated to walk even deeper with God.
Creating life-changing priorities and sticking to them makes all the difference in the world. There was a time I was all over the place with my priorities, time and energy. Let me explain what I mean.
It always seemed hard to prioritize life until I learned a little secret.
I know you wanna know the secret too so keep reading…
Before I learned how to prioritize the things that were most important, I gave my full attention to things that didn’t matter, as a result, the most important things suffered.
Has this happened to you, when you feel like you’ve got everything under control
and then
you don’t, you thought you had prioritized everything but
Your kid comes in with a project due…
tomorrow (what! how could I have missed that)
Or have you been the type that is so driven you can’t see anything but God’s plan (or what you think is God’s plan)
or maybe it’s that you have no priorities, motivation or direction.
I’ve been all over the place with priorities.
and have had life fall apart because I wasn’t prioritizing correctly.
What could happen if a person is too focused on prioritizing a career…
marriages crumble, family systems die and maybe your partner is picking up the pieces while you are driven in your career.
The other extreme is that you aren’t trying at all. This could be for many reasons time, money, fear of failing. This is no good either because God doesn’t want you not to try anything or be afraid to try. He wants you to live up to your full potential that’s why He created you. Even now He knows your purpose even if you don’t yet.
So how do we create life changing priorities so we can live a God-centered life?
The only tangible answer I can give is God first, family second and career third. Let me go deeper into these three life-changing priorities.
God First
If everything we do is lead by God, we cannot fail. Life changing priority God first requires us to do the work, the heavy, uncomfortable (I don’t want to do it) work.
Yes ladies, get out your Bible daily, spending time with God and wait for what He wants you to do. Not speeding up for more money not slowing down because you think you can’t do something but actually waiting and enduring each trial with joy, as 1 James verse 2 tells us: Consider it all joy, my brethren when you encounter various trials, know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
God is always teaching lessons and usually when the lesson
is over He shows us new insight or how to move forward with something.
So when we wait we
learn
(btw I hate waiting I’m going to say that mantra during my wait you should try it with me)
When I wait I learn
Family Second
When you place God first it’s easier to focus on life-changing priority number two yourself and the family, easier to be a better wife, mother or single person. You realize you need time for yourself with God to be the best person you can be. You understand that your kids are going to grow up just fine because they are surrounded by Gods love (my most recent struggle).
Putting Family after God means creating the best balance you can with the tools you are given and giving yourself grace for the rest.
Yes, ladies I said it’s ok to give yourself grace when you don’t hit the mark.
In the bible, we see the example of the Proverbs 31 woman. She gets up early, does chores, makes things for her family and sells them. She is dressed nice too!
OK, who here thinks that’s a tall order?
Some days I hit that snooze phone alarm…
a lot, I don’t spend time with God, I rush out the door and in the process I don’t feel ready for the day.
My best days are when I wake up early have time with God praying and talking to Him, reading scripture and meditating on his word with a cup of coffee and breakfast. On those days I am kinder, more patient and more loving.
The point of the Proverbs 31 women is not to compare us as women or make us do anything where we feel stressed out but that when we spend time with God we can be at our best.
Career Third
The third life-changing priority is our careers/ministry/volunteering which is all important to us. Working inside or outside the home can be challenging, but being afraid to try or too driven to see is not what God meant when He created you. God doesn’t want you to lose yourself in the process of glorifying Him.
Think about it this way, God is in the business of getting
all the glory so if you are driven and doing all this “stuff” then justifying
it by glorifying God (I did that) you are missing the mark.
or maybe you are on the other extreme where you are waiting for the right time to work, start a career, do something you’ve always wanted to do but feel for different reasons you cant. Here’s the thing with not starting the “thing” chances are the more you doubt yourself, your ability, your situation; the more your mind will play tricks on you (watch here on how to take back your life) and you may never start. I don’t know about you but when I leave this earth I want to know that I did everything that God wanted me to, I want Him to say well done my good and faithful servant.
If there is a dream you have of starting a business
or that thing that you have always wanted to do it may be God trying to tell you it is now time to start. If you have no definite answer yet, keep praying God will lead you to His will.
When you prioritize God first, family second and career third you will start to see a shift in your life things that you thought weren’t important become important and things that are important will start to die off. God shows us our way, what to put our trust in and what not to waste our time on. Our values, friends, relationships may shift and that is all part of Gods plan for you. What shifts can you make today to put God first?
Have you ever heard the term circumcision of the heart?
If you are a parent of a boy you have to make that
uncomfortable and somewhat debatable decision to circumcise or not.
Why am talking about circumcision?
I’m not here to weigh in on the
debate over circumcision, but to help you understand how God can transform your
heart.
The Bible tells us in Deuteronomy 30:6 “And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live”.
Think about the word circumcision as simply cutting away the parts of you that aren’t useful to God. Circumcision can be seen as the most delicate part of a person being chiseled away for God’s glory.
Friends, this is how God uses
us. He very specifically chisels away at our hearts, replacing the parts he
can’t use with His love, mercy, forgiveness and power in order for us to
glorify His kingdom.
How magnificent is that!
God wants to chisel away at our
hearts (you could think of it as His purpose) and in the process help us to
rise to the people He has called us to become. It’s all part of His grand
design from the beginning of time.
Here are 3 examples that help us
know that God uses everyday people and transforms them by chiseling away at
their hearts in order for them to become the people He called them to be.
Biblical Example #1 Saul
How can God can use people on
the wrong side of justice for His glory?
Enter Saul. Who was this biblical man who wrote much of the New Testament? Saul, who later became the Apostle Paul, was an educated man whose main goal was to capture and imprison the followers of Jesus. His magnificent transformation can be seen in Acts verse 9. Saul was his way to a more successful career until he met Jesus in a vision.
This encounter changed Saul’s
trajectory and life thereafter. Saul conversion experience according to
scholars is the most talked about and written about throughout time. It is
through transformation that we learn who we are in Christ.
Want to learn more and deepen
you relationship with God, explore the power of transformation and find your
God given purpose?
One the most powerful stories in
the bible broken down verse by verse so you can apply it to your life.
Biblical Example # 2 Young David
How can God can use the overlooked for His glory?
It doesn’t matter who you are or
what you are doing if God wants to use you, He will. In 1 Samuel 16 we meet Jessie’s
family. One of Jessie’s sons is going to be the new king. Jessie lines all his
sons up, Jessie thought one son in particular would be the new king because of
his looks and build. However this was not the case, the king to be was out
tending to sheep. David was the smallest of Jessie’s sons and up to that point
was often overlooked. God had anointed David, the smallest and least likely
candidate who would go on to become a mighty king.
Biblical Example # 3 Moses
How can God use you even when
you underestimate yourself?
When God dwells in you, you are able to do the unthinkable. Moses had a stuttering problem (Exodus 4: 10-13) yet he was chosen by God to free the people of Israel. God guided Moses in being a great leader. Moses didn’t want the job. He debated with God that no one would listen to him because of his “slow speech”. However, God made a way. Moses went on to deliver his people out of slavery.
What do these three
extraordinary examples have in common?
These were three real people. Through them we see Gods handiwork and we come to know that God will use each one of us for His purpose.
Wherever you are, whatever you are doing. God is in the business of turning your greatest weakness into greatness and using it for His glory.
Don’t underestimate yourself or how God can dwell in you.
You may not have a powerful
conversion story like Saul’s, it might be more subtle and happen over time.
Either way the question remains how can you glorify God?
