Five Ways to Fan the Flames of Faith: Part Four
In my previous posts about the Five Ways to Fan the Flames of Faith, I shared the first three letters in the acronym: F.A.I.T.H.
Today, I’d like to introduce “T” for time. Something wonderful happened when I began to take my quiet time with God seriously. I’ll let you in on it after I explain what I mean by “T for time.”
Another fabulous way to fan the flames of your faith is to spend regular time alone with God. I’m blessed to love journal writing. When my children were little, I often wrote in the evenings after they were tucked into bed for the night. As they got older, I began to get up before everyone else because I find peace and quiet—delicious.
Just as we need privacy to have an intimate conversation with a friend or spouse, we need uninterrupted time with the Creator of the universe too.
Knowing I needed to get up early, helped me avoid staying up late the night before. If we make our quiet times a priority, we’ll reap the benefits of fullness of joy and fervent faith. Whatever time works for us—we need to—just do it.
Making dates and keeping them will revitalize our relationship with God.
He wants us to enjoy Him—to delight in Him.
Several years ago, my quiet times came to an abrupt stop when my husband’s work schedule changed. His work day started later in the morning, and he stayed up later at night too. I was used to him making our morning coffee before he left for work.
By the way—please don’t hate me when I tell you this—he used to bring a hot cup of coffee to my bedside each and every morning for years. And for years, I had my quiet time just after he left for work.
When his routine changed, so did mine.
And I don’t consider myself a morning person.
After a few days of sleeping in, the Holy Spirit seemed to say to me, “Why don’t you make your own morning coffee and go sit in your writing room for a quiet time?”
Me? Me get out from under my warm blankets before I’ve had a cup of coffee?
I don’t know about that. Hmm. I guess I could give it a try.
So I placed a hot water bottle in my writing chair that night. I covered it up with my homemade lap quilt and set our bedside alarm to wake me up two hours before my husband has to get ready for work. I wasn’t sure if I’d succeed.
But I had a plan in place. There was no way my osteoarthritis aches and pains were going to make me afraid to leave the warmth of my bed.
The first few days, I probably looked like a zombie as I trundled down to my kitchen to prepare coffee. My husband likes his jitter-juice cold, so I made one for him too and placed it on his desk as I passed by with my own steaming mug of morning-magic.
I settled into my writing chair and glanced at the journal, pen, and Bible I’d arranged on the side table. The warmth of the chair and lap quilt rewarded me for making and keeping a date with my Maker.
This simple act of obedience resulted in me establishing a longer and more fruitful quiet time.
For not only did I begin to read, pray, and journal longer, I discovered I was now perfectly primed to write blog posts, devotionals, and manuscripts.
Each day, after my quiet time, I picked a verse, wrote a poem for it, and scheduled it to appear on my Facebook page the next morning.
In each post, I included a nature photograph I’d taken. People began to notice my Facebook posts, and sometimes they shared them or commented about how the Scripture verse had inspired them. (By the way, today’s pictures are all borrowed from my Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook pages; I’d love it if you followed any or all of them. Just click each link.)
Anyways, my writing life grew in proportion to the time I spent with God.
The inconvenience of a change of routine became the convenient way God drew me closer to Himself through an even better routine. It also helped my desire to be an inspirational writer gain some social media ground.
Doors began to open because I opened the door of my writing room each morning and spent time alone with the Author of life.
Do you have a gift God wants you to develop and share with others?
I’d like to close with a poem I wrote especially for you, and me.
When time alone with God
Is made a priority
We reaps eternal benefits
Because we have believed
And Spiritual blessings abound
When His love fills our hearts
Because we’ve submitted to Christ
At each day’s start.
Have you tuned into any of my podcasts on HopeStreamRadio?
Here’s the link to my Walking with Hope page (click for link). All of their programs are downloadable. It’s an uplifting streaming radio station with a variety of speakers and music.
Or follow my SoundCloud page at this link: Walking with Wendy
Quiet Time Blessings ~ Wendy
What tip would you like to share about improving our quiet times with God?
P.S. I’m looking forward to reading your ideas when I get back from a trip to the seaside. I’ve recharged both my camera batteries–just in case it’s a nice weather day.
I’ll share the final step of Five Ways to Fan the Flames of Faith next time.
