Liz.W7 years ago
Have Your Thirst Quenched…Today!
As a busy mum you may find it hard to carve time to be alone to be with God. You may have very young children that need your constant attention or you may find yourself dividing the little spare time you have left in cooking and cleaning up after them…
It is important to remember that as mums we give out a lot, and because of that we need to stay replenished in God. Think of spending time with God as a treat to your soul, not a duty you must perform or an obligation you must comply. God desires our intimacy and it is in our busiest moments that He wants to infuse into us His presence, His love and His power.
Yet from time to time I still find it really hard to concentrate and focus on God. Having a 1001 thing to do and wearing many different hats throughout the day, I find that I am sometimes too lost or too exhausted to have a meaningful quiet time. Having a workable system is paramount to me so that I focus my attention to the most important relationship of all, that with my Heavenly Father. Growing in God ensures my personal growth and time with Him removes the stale and stagnant thing in my life.
I find that when I take the time to seek God I am filled. I am not lost in the flurry of things I am doing. I have a sense of purpose. I have great joy. I have the ability to serve in love. I know my identity. I am fulfilled and empowered.
- Take your first 15 minutes to be with God.
When the baby is young and in need of morning feeds, I would turn my thoughts to God while lying in bed. When I get up, I would grab a quick coffee and spend that 15 minutes alone with God, before the little pitter patter appears. Here I am not trying to do too much. I just sit quietly in God’s presence, allow Him to gather my thoughts, have a quick devotional read, read my short Bible passage for the day and pray for His hand upon our family.
Giving God that first 15 minutes allow me to do things more effectively. My confused heart about my yesterdays is brought to Him and my plans for my wonderful tomorrows are committed to Him.
2) Develop your arsenal
I find that it is so helpful to collect my personal scripture memory that are currently speaking to me to renew my mind. During the day my thoughts fly about and it is hard to keep focussed on His Word, but bringing my mind’s attention the things that I am facing with in the light of His word allows me to be I equipped to understand what God’s thoughts are for me on that particular subject.
This is also my way of systematically memorising the Scripture. I find that they renew my mind when i take the time to allow the Word to speak to me. The more I digest each word and linger upon them, the more I am changed in my inner man. An example of my arsenal would be like this:
3) Establish Little Triggers
What I mean by “triggers” are small, daily things that you create to come your way to remind you of God. For example, I may have scriptures stuck on walls in bathrooms and on mirrors to remind me and the children of the Word when we are taking our showers. Scripture written on wall plaques, wall stickers, wall murals are also effective when combined with a meek spirit that realises His Word is our daily bread!
At home we have a prayer card for the whole family that I stuck onto the mirror of our games room, which is situated right at the centre of our home – so every time I pass by I would remember to take a second to pray and thank God.
On our dining table we also have a miracle jar – a small bottle filled with strips of paper for answered prayers. My goal is to record all the small and big ways God is answering our prayers so that we keep that heart of gratitude and openness to the fact that our God is One who answers prayers. This is a faith building exercise as there will come a time when the jar will be full but our hearts may be empty…and then we can sit together as a family recounting all the goodness of God in our lives.
4) Prayer Breathers
I want to grow to be a prayer woman, but it is so easy to not pray at all, especially when life becomes so comfortable! In my younger days with not much responsibilities, I used to spend hours praying, but as a busy mum, I find that I can easily skip real prayers – prayers that are soul searching, heart wrenching, honest and surrendered. I long to have mountain moving and life giving prayers. My solution would be to use the afternoon hour where I have sent all the kids for a nap or room time and to use that first moment to pray. I try to get all my chores done before that afternoon hour and I would lay out my prayer book with all my requests and answers written on the pages.
It is when I have too much to do (and that is all the time!) that i turn to songs like “Clear the Stage” by Jimmy Needham. It is such a beautiful song that reminds me that I need to take a break from all my plans and just have that moment at home where God can speak to me. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6smGew7dGto)
5) Sing Strength into Your Soul
I love listening and worshipping along with a youtube clip or with my worship radios as I am feeding the kids or cooking. It would be great to have all solitary moments to always be still, but I am learning that even when I am in motion, my heart can be heaven-elevated.
6) Pray for your inner man to be strengthened
Through studying the prayer of Jabez (refer to post “The Jabez Miracle”) I learn that I can pray prayers that will strengthen my inner man. One prayer book that I have been using is:
I love the book as it helps me to put into words the need for God in my life that I often feels in my heart.
7) Study the Word
I love reading the Word! How I wish i have more time and more concentration to delve deeper into His Word. However I do also realise that for the Word to speak to me, I need to pray for God to clear my mind and prepare my heart to receive. So I try to clear off my to do list to then have that moment just to study the Word. Once a week is a good aim for any busy mums to start with.
It is important that busy mums get away and be alone to have that thinking zone in the Word. When I know I have quiet moments in the home I would deliberately put away my phone and keep appointments with people to a different time so I can have that special time with God.
Periodically my husband may also take my older kids away leaving me with the baby so I can spend some solitary moment in the Word. Every time he comes home, he would find a much happier wife because I have had my thirst quenched by God!
To study the Word for myself, I used different sermon outlines or find topics that I want to get a good grip on. I typed up all my study as I go as I find that this is by far my most systematic way of organising my learning.
I love this series of Bible studies by Elizabeth George. I managed to do 6 books last year in the span of a few months – and it took anywhere between 15 minutes to 1 hour, as I can just continue where I have left off. It’s a great resource, give it a try, and do the whole series!
8) Journallised Sermons
When my spirit is really thirsty for the Word, I would turn to credible teachers and preachers of the Word and listen to them on the podcast or the Web. Watch out for a link on some of the great spiritual resources that I hope to update, but here is an example:
How to stay replenished by Bill Hybels -http://youtu.be/cRX4sMzjBPc
9) Fellowship
It is so refreshing to form communities with like minded parents whom you can exchange prayer requests and meet for mutual encouragement for. Motherhood may be isolating at times and true friends are God’s wonderful ways to keep us connected! Being plugged into a local church that loves God and loves you for who you are is a big way to grow in God, because we are not meant to grow alone!