Better Than Turning Back Time…

Tonight we turn our clocks back an hour.  What if you could turn your clock back any amount of time you wanted to.  What would you want to go back to in your personal life?  In your spiritual life? 

Hopefully in few minutes you won’t wish you could turn back time and choose not to read this.

If you were to turn back time, is there a time in your life when you felt closer to God than you do now?  If so, fight the urge to think about the specifics of what, when and how you were doing what you were doing to be close to God at that time.  Life changes.  Situations change.  It may not be realistic to think you can recreate the exact conditions in place when you were closer to God.

Instead, think about what it felt like to have that closeness to God if you don’t feel as close to Him today. 

If there was a time you felt closer to God, how did that impact you?  Do you feel like you were more patient or kind?  Do you feel like you were less angry or less stressed if there is a time in your past you felt closer to God?  Were you more content and fulfilled?  Were you more aware of God’s presence? 

If you can see a difference in your life today that you want to change, you may be able to identify and replicate the conditions in your life at the time you felt closer to God.  It’s more likely, however, that if your spiritual disciplines have diminished over time, the reasons for some of those changes then (job change, family changes, changes in other responsibilities, etc) would prevent you from reproducing those exact spiritual disciplines now.

Be realistic with yourself.  Don’t let what you can’t do (e.g. I can’t physically wake up an hour earlier every day to read and meditate on the Bible and pray) stop you from what you can do (can you wake up a few minutes earlier to read a Proverb of the Date and pray the Lord’s Prayer?).

Don’t let wishing you could do what someone else has time to do (I wish I could study Ephesians the way our Pastor does) keep you from doing what you have time to do (I can listen to Ephesians on YouVersion as I’m in the car).

If you feel like you’ve been closer to God in the past, maybe today is a good day to change more than just your clock.

Come near to God and he will come near to you.  James 4:8a