BrrrHow cold is it at your house? It’s currently 16 degrees outside.  Yesterday morning when I woke up it was six degrees. Six degrees! I almost had to get out a map of the United States to make certain I still lived in the south. 

Last night I couldn’t seem to get warm, so I finally pulled out my North Face coat I got for Christmas and put it on while I watched television. It’s not that we keep our house polar bear cold. The thermostat was set on 68, but there weren’t enough blankets or hot tea to get me warm.

I realized it takes a lot more work to try and make something warm that’s cold than it does to maintain warmth.

This is true with our faith and the enemy knows it. He is very subtle the way he interferes with our quality time with the Lord.

2 Corinthians 11:3 says,

But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”

So how might that play out for us? First, we sleep through our alarm or press the snooze button too many times, so we don’t have time in the morning. We rush through our day, going from one appointment to another only to come sliding into home in time to frantically pull a meal together (if not bring home dinner from a drive through window). After we put a load of laundry in the dryer, toss another in the washer, we upstairs to become the traffic director for the family spouting out things like: Take a shower; Have you finished your homework; or Time for bed. 

Whew! Just thinking about it can be exhausting. Before we know it, we’ve been through four or five days like that in a row and we realize we’ve forgotten something, but we just can’t remember what it was. If we do remember, we pledge we’ll do better starting next week, but next week turns into next month and then next year. Our life is in shambles, we’re miserable all the time, and we wonder how in the world we got here.

George Carey said,

When the fire of prayer goes out, the barrenness of busyness takes over.”

Just like a fire goes out without continually adding wood to burn, our faith fizzles to nothing if we don’t stoke the embers through consistent, quality time with Jesus.

I know your life can get busy; so can mine. We have to be intentional if we’re going to protect our time with Jesus. We need to defend it like our lives depend on it, because they do!

What is one change you can make TODAY in your daily routine to assist you in protecting your time with the Lord?

I’ll start the list.

1. Wake up when my alarm clock goes off instead of hitting the snooze button.

Now it’s your turn…