A number of years ago I read a book by Elizabeth George subtitled, “Living Out God’s Plan with Passion and Purpose.” Yes! That’s exactly what I want to do, what I want to be known for in this life. And rather than my usual taking of notes on any old scrap of paper, I wrote down these notes in a small spiral that I keep on a bookshelf. I pulled that spiral off the shelf the other day and immediately had two thoughts–one, “April is my January” and two, “I need to write a series of daily affirmations based on my notes.” So here we go, our new daily affirmation is, I have time for God.
Daily Affirmations for Women: I Have Time for God
The book I read was Life Management for Busy Women: Living Out God’s Plan with Passion and Purpose by Elizabeth George. Part of the appeal of this book for me was that the author broke the chapters down into an almost checklist type format; at least a numbered bullet point list. I appreciated the minimalist approach to summarize the chapters she calls “Ten Disciplines…”
Chapter Two is titled, “Ten Disciplines for Developing a Passion for God’s Word.” Part of my idea in making some of these disciplines in the book a daily affirmations series comes from you all. One of the questions I ask new members of our private Facebook group is, “Tell me your biggest stumbling block when it comes to prayer.” There were a couple of answers that kept coming up over and over. One was finding time to pray and another was knowing what to pray. Hopefully, this post, this daily affirmation, I have time for God, will address both.
Refuse to miss a day. Make your first discipline a decision to be faithful to just one thing–in spending some portion of your day reading your Bible. Make your first discipline an attempt at not missing a single day.
Elizabeth George, Life Management for Busy Women: Living Out God’s Plan with Passion and Purpose
Remember, the two most common problems women who joined the private Facebook group expressed were time and knowing what to say. Deciding to make Bible reading a daily habit will combat both of those problems and in our busy lives, and who doesn’t love a “twofer” attacking two problems at once!
Daily Affirmations for Women: I Have Time for God
The first step in addressing the problems of time and knowing what to say, is making “I have time for God” our daily affirmation. Beginning our day with a positive daily affirmation, setting our heart and mind on God first, will never be a bad idea. We start the day having already made the decision and declared our intention. Get out of our way satan!
Notice what this daily affirmation doesn’t say. It doesn’t specify a time. Each one of our lives looks different. Our own lives can look different day to day and season to season. A single woman with no children may be able to commit her first morning hours to the Lord in prayer and Bible reading. A brand new momma may not be able to do that. A momma with sick children or a deployed husband may not be able to commit her first moments of the day to Bible reading; her time might be after her children are in school, or as she drives to work. The time of day you decide to spend with God doesn’t matter as much as the decision you make to spend time with God every day.
For me personally, first thing in the morning doesn’t work; I’m too sleepy. I need to get up and move around a little first. Sometimes, I even check my email before I pray. Sometimes, I don’t start praying until after I’ve woken my children up in the morning. And because getting up and out the door in the morning is not a part of my usual routine, if I have to go somewhere in the morning, my time with God might not happen until afternoon. The time on the clock isn’t important, keeping company with God at some point in the day is.
Daily Affirmations for Women: I Have Time for God
The next main problem was knowing what to say. This falls under the same heading as not having time for God. You know how when you need to call someone or visit someone, but you hesitate to spend that time with them because you just don’t know what to say? Maybe this is just me or anyone who is more of an introvert or a melancholic temperament. But the fear of not having anything to say or of saying the wrong thing can cause me avoid that time.
Making the decision to spend time with God every single day will solve that problem; I promise you. The more we read our Bible, the more words we have at our disposal for prayer. And not only more “words” but The Word to be used in our prayers. So, when we find ourselves not knowing what to say, we can start by repeating God’s own Word back to Him, not only God’s Word but the words of the Psalmist David or St. Paul’s words in the Epistles.
Number two on the author’s list of Ten Disciplines for Developing a Passion for God’s Word is to pray as you approach God’s Word and we’ll dig into this one in our next post in this series of Daily Affirmations for Women.
Michelle says
I also have a devotional in the bathroom that I open throughout the day’s flurry of activity and noise. Funny, I’m reluctant some days and especially when I go in there stressed to begin with. Silly human, why would I not want such rest and refreshment? Resistance. Call it what you will, but I never regret taking the time to be nourished by the One who loves me no matter what.
Andrea says
“It doesn’t specify a time. Each one of our lives looks different….” So true and such an important point. I’m wondering, does anyone really follow through regularly when it’s not first thing in the morning? I’m not a morning person and only want to sit when sleepy. I shoved my prayer time earlier and earlier with each baby. I’d like to hear how people make it work later in the day.
Jenny says
I think you could make it work later in the day if you pegged it to something like lunch, or afternoon naps for the kids. A semi-set time that you could gather your prayer items and set a timer for a certain length of time.
Susan says
Logging in early to work and I see this Daily Affirmation. Golly! I needed this! For me working and no kids with hubby that works late hours and part-time care giver for elderly mom, first thing isn’t available to me. And as soon as I said this affirmation, I asked myself “what time today”. I’m going with 5:30. After meetings are over. God bless you Jenny and this whole community. I almost want to join Facebook to see y’all! Susan
Jenny says
Oh I love this! I love that you asked the question and heard the answer 🙂