One Minute God

We are a busy people living in a busy world. We have developed ways to get better abs in less than 5 minutes, we can nuke an entire meal in seconds. We have made great strides in modern technology so that we can do things the fastest way humanly possible. We have even come up with One Minute Bibles and devotions. We’ve re-translated the Bible into modern English so we can breeze through it and read verses in seconds without having to give them much thought. No need to look up unknown words! The translation is right there. Yet, still we find ourselves with ever decreasing time for all the things we have to do. We still moan "Oh, if only I had a few more hours in the day!" There just isn’t time to juggle kids, spouses, houses, jobs, pets, social lives, church...the list goes on and on.
Now, suppose, you set aside some time...and write a great love letter to your children. You have so much you want to tell them...the letter grows and grows and soon, you have a book! You know the time will come when they will leave the nest and face the world alone. But oh the love you put into that book! All your pearls of wisdom, all your advice, all the answers to all the questions your child could ever possibly have about life. Your children excitedly take the book promise to read every word. But, they too have busy lives. But here is what they will do....every day, they will set aside One Minute...to skim through a few lines or so of what you wrote. How disappointed would you be? What if, now that your kids are teens or young adults, they are always too busy to come for a visit...even though you wait and wait? You set a table and have everything prepared for their visit...you have such special gifts ready to give them...but each time you help them clear some time...something more important than yourself comes up? How hurt, how frustrated and grieved would you be? Would you keep trying? Would you never cease in hoping that one day, that child of yours will come by to spend some time with you? Would you still everyday make sure things were ready in the event your child just stopped by?

We are the children and the parent is God. We’ve become so obsessed with time saving methods, we try to pigeon hole God into a time slot we feel is convenient for ourselves. Was it really a convenient time for God to send His only Son to Earth, knowing what would happen? What if Jesus decided He really didn’t have time to take a trip to Earth and deal with saving the world. What if He asked God for more time? Let him finish whatever it is He might have been doing? Our God is not a One Minute God. Each minute of the day and night, God is waiting...for his children to drop by and spend some time with Him. He wants to tell you how much He loves you...and what wonderful blessings (gifts) He has set aside for you. He wants to embrace you...and to wipe the worries of the world away and just let you take off your shoes and rest a while. How can we do that in only a few brief minutes?

The Bible, God’s love letter to His children...tells us to "...seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all else will be added unto you" (Mat 6:33. God tells us to "Pray without ceasing," (1st thesalonians 5:17) and to "meditate on His word DAY AND NIGHT" (Joseia 1:8)...not meditate on His word One Minute a day. The Bible tells us not to worry of this things of tomorrow...because we are not promised we will even see tomorrow. We should live each day as if it is the last. We spend out time and hours eking out a living. Trying to chase that dollar to pay the rent, buy the groceries. But in God’s love letter to us...he promises if we will put Him first...HE will take care of everything else we need. HE knows we need food, HE knows we need shelter and clothes. But, like a loving and devoted parent, He says that OK! Just come and spend time with me...spend the day loving me...talking to me, telling me the things on your mind and heart...and I’ll supply food for you! I’ll give you some clothes, I’ll make sure you have a roof over your head....just come and fellowship with me.

How can we do this? First, throw your One Minute Bible away. Go back to your KJV. You know...the one that actually makes you sit and think about what your reading? The one where you have to look up a few words? The one, where when you DO read...it sinks in and you think, "Oh, I didn’t think of it that way"....no? Well, that is because you are sitting still and giving God time to talk to you and you are taking time to listen! When your cleaning house, or driving to and from work...when your in line at the market or waiting in the waiting rooms...sitting at your kid’s bus stop....don’t be thinking of how much time your "wasting" ....those are times you can talk to God...you can pray...and take a few minutes to tell God how much you love Him...thank Him for the blessings He is giving you...let a song of praise fill your mind and heart...and suddenly, when you let God come with you on your errands for the day, or when you let God come to work with you...or let him just be with you...where ever you are...suddenly, time will stand still. Suddenly, you will find yourself not so strapped for time and everything will just seem to fall into place.