Last week we went on a staff retreat to Redding California. Our school leader’s home church is located there and we were very involved at this church while in Redding. We had the opportunity to hear from 4 of The Stirrings (The Church) main Pastors. It was an incredible time of gaining wisdom and insight of being in leadership. Yes I just went through 6 weeks of leadership training in Kona, though I never stop learning!
Each of the 4 pastors had awesome insight to share, though there was a common recurring theme God placed on my heart during each lecture. Many of the lectures were on self-care and how to take care of ourselves in spiritual, physical, and mental health as we serve God in a leadership role. We were taught how to communicate well to our students to create a place of belonging for them, and how to be transparent and vulnerable. Though the thing on my heart the most was spending time with Jesus.
I often have struggled spending time with the Lord. Always striving to be with him daily, to wake up and read the bible and pray. I make a schedule for myself each morning to get up on time, only to sleep in an extra hour, convincing myself God wants me to get some extra sleep. IT’S HARD! Every morning I feel a sense of defeat knowing I didn’t get up to spend time with the one who just loves me and wants to pull me away from all the chaos to tell me He loves me and to remind me that He is good, and faithful, and in control of my every day.
Coming back on staff I had a goal of spending time with the Lord daily because I desire so much to be an example to the students who are coming here. I know they will be observing me closely. A lot of what people learn from our lives is not taught it is caught. We have so much influence on people around us and often how we influence them isn’t always by what we say or teach but from what they have observed and caught us doing, whether good or bad. How I influence others is a huge deal to me, this is why I value time with the Lord so much because I know how I model my life will influence others.
In the midst of this week, in the midst of the teaching on a variety of things, one thing rang true, and that is spending time with the Lord is so vital. It changes everything!
One of the pastors said; “We must stay current with Jesus.”
With all that is going on in our lives it’s so easy to bottle up our emotions so we don’t have to deal with them. We can do that no problem. When we do set a time aside, we get busy spending time with Jesus, reading more of the bible, or making sure we get all our prayer requests in, which is by no means a bad thing. But when it comes to dealing with our emotions we avoid sharing that with the Lord because after all he already knows everything and it can get messy. We choose to avoid venting, and we allow it to all pile up until we have no control over it and it comes pouring out on accident. This is unhealthy.
It’s so important to stay current with Jesus. We can completely unload our hearts to Him, lay it all out on the table and just like a sponge Jesus will just absorb it all. We have the gift of communicating with the creator, the lover of our souls. We just need to make it happen, we need to stop running from our emotions and be vulnerable with Jesus.
I've avoided these moments with the Lord. I have been trying to get the routine in place so that I know I can say I've spent time with Jesus, but even if I did get the time of day to spend with Him, I was just busying myself with Him. I haven’t been completely real and transparent with Him, even though He can see my deepest need and my deepest desires, it’s in that act and moment of being real with the Lord that we get strength to face the day. When we invite the Lord to the deepest aching parts of our heart, we can look at this journey we are on, with all the hard times and hurts included and say that God is still good.
When we have communicated with Jesus, when we constantly keep Him updated even throughout the day, we keep ourselves from reaching the point of survival mode. We are being intentional with Jesus and recognizing that He is so incredibly good, in all the chaos He is there and He always will be. Being aware of God’s presence prevents us from getting to the point where we are just struggling to hold on, because we are constantly reminded that He is control.
It’s vital to create space for the Lord, with no interruptions and unhurried time to know God has the best of us. Time with the Lord is intimate. We must position ourselves to hear from the Lord and allow Him to go deep. If it seems absolutely impossible to find a spot to be alone where there will be no interruptions or distractions, ask God to provide a place. He is the provider of all things, it doesn’t always need to involve finances, but space as well, He will provide. Whether it’s a quiet room with music, outside on the porch, going for a run, going for a hike, going for a drive, or journaling in a park, we can be creative with Jesus. If our time with the Lord starts to get boring we need to get creative and do something else with Him. It does not have to be the same thing every day! Which I am so thankful for because I love to try new things, I love to sit outside and look at creation, God speaks to me the most through His creation, it completely blows me away!
After this week long retreat, not creating the time or space to spend with Jesus, I saw the result. I spent a good hour and a half with Him today and all my worries seemed to fade, they become so small and the mountains began to move as I poured out my deepest aching to the Lord.
He Knows me. He loves me. He is faithful till the end.
Each of the 4 pastors had awesome insight to share, though there was a common recurring theme God placed on my heart during each lecture. Many of the lectures were on self-care and how to take care of ourselves in spiritual, physical, and mental health as we serve God in a leadership role. We were taught how to communicate well to our students to create a place of belonging for them, and how to be transparent and vulnerable. Though the thing on my heart the most was spending time with Jesus.
I often have struggled spending time with the Lord. Always striving to be with him daily, to wake up and read the bible and pray. I make a schedule for myself each morning to get up on time, only to sleep in an extra hour, convincing myself God wants me to get some extra sleep. IT’S HARD! Every morning I feel a sense of defeat knowing I didn’t get up to spend time with the one who just loves me and wants to pull me away from all the chaos to tell me He loves me and to remind me that He is good, and faithful, and in control of my every day.
Coming back on staff I had a goal of spending time with the Lord daily because I desire so much to be an example to the students who are coming here. I know they will be observing me closely. A lot of what people learn from our lives is not taught it is caught. We have so much influence on people around us and often how we influence them isn’t always by what we say or teach but from what they have observed and caught us doing, whether good or bad. How I influence others is a huge deal to me, this is why I value time with the Lord so much because I know how I model my life will influence others.
In the midst of this week, in the midst of the teaching on a variety of things, one thing rang true, and that is spending time with the Lord is so vital. It changes everything!
One of the pastors said; “We must stay current with Jesus.”
With all that is going on in our lives it’s so easy to bottle up our emotions so we don’t have to deal with them. We can do that no problem. When we do set a time aside, we get busy spending time with Jesus, reading more of the bible, or making sure we get all our prayer requests in, which is by no means a bad thing. But when it comes to dealing with our emotions we avoid sharing that with the Lord because after all he already knows everything and it can get messy. We choose to avoid venting, and we allow it to all pile up until we have no control over it and it comes pouring out on accident. This is unhealthy.
It’s so important to stay current with Jesus. We can completely unload our hearts to Him, lay it all out on the table and just like a sponge Jesus will just absorb it all. We have the gift of communicating with the creator, the lover of our souls. We just need to make it happen, we need to stop running from our emotions and be vulnerable with Jesus.
I've avoided these moments with the Lord. I have been trying to get the routine in place so that I know I can say I've spent time with Jesus, but even if I did get the time of day to spend with Him, I was just busying myself with Him. I haven’t been completely real and transparent with Him, even though He can see my deepest need and my deepest desires, it’s in that act and moment of being real with the Lord that we get strength to face the day. When we invite the Lord to the deepest aching parts of our heart, we can look at this journey we are on, with all the hard times and hurts included and say that God is still good.
When we have communicated with Jesus, when we constantly keep Him updated even throughout the day, we keep ourselves from reaching the point of survival mode. We are being intentional with Jesus and recognizing that He is so incredibly good, in all the chaos He is there and He always will be. Being aware of God’s presence prevents us from getting to the point where we are just struggling to hold on, because we are constantly reminded that He is control.
It’s vital to create space for the Lord, with no interruptions and unhurried time to know God has the best of us. Time with the Lord is intimate. We must position ourselves to hear from the Lord and allow Him to go deep. If it seems absolutely impossible to find a spot to be alone where there will be no interruptions or distractions, ask God to provide a place. He is the provider of all things, it doesn’t always need to involve finances, but space as well, He will provide. Whether it’s a quiet room with music, outside on the porch, going for a run, going for a hike, going for a drive, or journaling in a park, we can be creative with Jesus. If our time with the Lord starts to get boring we need to get creative and do something else with Him. It does not have to be the same thing every day! Which I am so thankful for because I love to try new things, I love to sit outside and look at creation, God speaks to me the most through His creation, it completely blows me away!
After this week long retreat, not creating the time or space to spend with Jesus, I saw the result. I spent a good hour and a half with Him today and all my worries seemed to fade, they become so small and the mountains began to move as I poured out my deepest aching to the Lord.
He Knows me. He loves me. He is faithful till the end.