Tag: schedule

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Right on time

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Andrik Langfield on Unsplash

A “through the bible” devotion from Psalm 70.

Make haste, O God, to deliver me!
    O Lord, make haste to help me! (Psalm 70:1)

It’s interesting to meditate on David’s words. His prayer (or song) begins, “Hurry up, God!” As if God were dawdling. Or late. Or behind schedule. Or got distracted and lost track of time.

From our point of view, a situation may seem urgent. From God’s point of view? Maybe not so much. He knows what’s going on. He knows what you’re anxious about. He knows how things will turn out. He knows how other people will be affected. He knows what you need to experience and what you need to learn.

Most importantly, he’s never late. He’s always right on time. Now from out point of view, with our eye on the clock and a day full of deadlines, it might feel lke he didn’t get the memo.

But in hindsight, I often discover that God was already present and active in situations when, like David, I implored the Lord to hurry it up. Sometimes, it becomes clear that God had already taken care of something even before I asked him about it. I guess that means he showed up early.

There are people in this world who are habitually late. Others always arrive early. Still others are on time to the second. God isn’t bound by time though. He’s there, never in a rush, never trying to catch up, and never too busy to pay attention to your urgent requests.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Add this to your schedule

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Dan Loran on Unsplash

A “through the bible” devotion from Leviticus 23.

As you might imagine, God was on my mind a lot in full-time ministry. If I wasn’t at church teaching or preaching or preparing to preach or teach, I was visiting a member of the congregation in the hospital or their home. Many of my daily tasks orbited around the Lord. My daily habits of scripture reading, prayer, devotional writing, and listening to Christian music followed me into retirement.

It was and still is hard to remember that even in church circles, not everyone’s life is infused with spirituality. Thoughts of God are a weekly occurrence, typically on a Sunday morning. Faith is there, but so is work, household chores, schoolwork, family commitments, hobbies, sports, self care, friends, sleep, and screen time. God is just one of the many priorities that vie for our attention, energy, and affection.

So God puts himself on the calendar. Pretty clever. The cycles of planting and harvesting were punctuated with feasts and celebrations that acknowledged God as provider and gave him thanks (Leviticus 23). He made himself a scheduled part of their work and rest each day, week, season, and year. It was virtually impossible to forget that he gives us life and breath and all things.

I guess we could do that. Put God on your daily schedule. In fact, put him on first, so that nothing else interferes with your time with him.