BBD 03.25.15 Time-Out (Classic)
Posted by: theburningbushdevotional <theburningbushdevotional@...>
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The Burning
Bush Devotional
Classic
from 2007
03.25.15
Time-Out
Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out
and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. - Mark 1:35 NKJV.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV.
But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” -
Matthew 4:4 NKJV.
In the Philippines, a man and an accomplice broke into a
house in Manila and robbed the residents of the home of two cell phones. A
police patrol in the area heard screams coming from the house and were able to
begin chasing one of the robbers. After a short chase, the man they were
chasing began to use hand signals to ask for a time-out. Erwin Buenceso, who was one of the
officers chasing the robber said, “He was
panting and gasping for air when we caught up with him after a 500 meter
sprint.”
I think I know exactly how that robber felt, because life
can sometimes be a sprint through each day and into the night. Challenges at
work, challenges at home, challenges with your family, obstacles to the left
and to the right; and you may very well feel as though you need a time-out. You
need a vacation, but you don’t have the time or the money to take one. You need
a break, you need a live in nanny to take care of the kids, but it’s the real
world where you live and that is not going to happen. So what do you do? Where
do you turn? Do you just try to maintain your dignity and go down with the
ship? Do you just keep that stiff upper lip and keep on keeping on? You keep
signaling for a time-out, but no one sees.
When you are past due for a time-out what would God have
you to do? Martin Luther once said during a very busy time of his life, “I am so busy now that if I did not spend three hours each day in prayer,
I could not get through the day.” Tommy Barnett, pastor of Phoenix First Assembly says, “I’ve discovered it is not sufficient simply to try to take time for
quietness but that I must, with all diligence, make time. Whatever keeps me
from prayer, solitude, and the Bible, however good it appears, is my enemy if I
am to be God’s devoted friend and follower.” It does not calculate in our human brains when we have
no extra time, that if we spend time in prayer that it will mean that we have
more time. When everything is coming apart at the seams, we think we must
become busier, doing more and more and more. However, that is the way of
defeat, anxiety, depression, and loss.
Jesus had a quiet time, a time-out, alone early in the
morning during which He spent time with the Father. It is an example that we
need to follow, bathing everything in our lives in prayer along with reading
the Word of God to gain the spiritual sustenance that we need to face the
challenges of each day. So, what are you waiting for? Why not have a time-out
with the Lord right now? Because the busier you are, the more you need His
help, empowerment, and provision for the day.
Copyright © 2007-2015. Ed
Wrather. The Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On
June 8, 1998 the email version of the Burning Bush Devotional was first sent.
Ed Wrather began writing devotionals in the early 1990s. The distribution of
these first devotionals was primarily through the Burning Bush Newsletter sent
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