This has been a rough week for quiet times…but I must admit that it was all me. Was I busy? Yes, more than most weeks. Did I have downtime where I could have done some alone time with the Lord? Yep, sat on my duff and even thought about the fact that I had not done a quiet time in days. There were great excuses for me to miss quiet times as well but none of them was an acceptable excuse. However, there was one common denominator…I got to each evening (not having started my day in God’s Word) and there was always something that got in the way of spending that precious time.
It all came to a head on Friday mid-day when I had a phone call with a peer of mine who I don’t see eye to eye with professionally…let me cut to the chase -> on the phone I yelled at this person and then hung up on them. The moment my simmering ceded I felt immediately guilty and convicted of my sin. Within 15 minutes I had texted this person and apologized profusely for my behavior; stating that it was out of character for me to behave this way and even though I had been angry over being protective of one of my employees, the way I acted was unacceptable. This elicited an apology back from the person (who never apologizes directly but I knew it was an apology) which I had not expected.
All it took was for me to be out of God’s Word for 4 days to be utterly destroyed by my flesh…but God, in His loving way guided me back to the safety of HIS Character and reminded me that my freedom resides in Him alone. With the exception of Sunday morning (was busy all 4 church services), I spent every waking moment with my family and serving friends in need. I am back in God’s Word and will pick back up my posting of Quiet Times tomorrow.
Remember that common denominator above? Well, I am getting up early to do my Quiet Times first thing so there is never an opportunity for the day to waste away before I get my time with HIM.