Time Alone With God ~ God Says,"tag You're It"

Tick, tick, tick, tick, can you hear it? Time ticks with a constant rhythm; while it slows occasionally, most often, it has a foreboding quality with an alarming presence of things left undone. This methodical sound of time passing is hypnotic. Have you ever allowed yourself to be quiet long enough to listen? I hope and pray that you have life moments that will enable you to slow down long enough to hear the ticking of a clock.

In the quiet of a slowdown, you can view the second hand as it pulses in your mind, causing you to contemplate what to do with the precious time given, TICK, TOCK, TICK, TOCK..., until all at once it stops!

Time simulates a game of tag, a game where you're always it; whether chasing after the minutes ahead of you or trying to get them back, time keeps ticking!

Allow yourself a moment to live between the ticking of the clock. Seek a place where time stands still and life finds purpose, and then keep using every minute to its fullest potential. Take time alone with God and then tag someone into your game.

Tag, you're it!

How do we or should we invest our energy? I often think, did I squander a tick of the clock? Did I waste precious time, even for a few seconds? After being called to faith in Jesus Christ, I strongly desire to live my life in service, yet I fail miserably. I'm not too fond of this, as it's not what I want, but my flesh is reactive to a broken world.

Knowing the goal of obedience to God is the desire of my heart. But sometimes I'm not doing what I know I ought to! Even as a thought of anger flashes or impatience grabs, I am robotic in my acts of wrongdoing. I fall within a second to a sinful nature that seeks to overwhelm and pounce on my weakest link. This world makes the flesh vulnerable. The Holy Spirit is more grounded than this world! Still, the power of evil seeks to entrap us in the woes of temptation.

I trust the best way to survive this truth is to stay in the world with others seeking this exact accounting. If I fall short, I would like to take Time in submissive prayer. I prefer a tranquil place where I discover the whisper of His Spirit inside my heart. There He is, sitting tight, waiting for me to seek His wisdom. This Time alone with God tags me into His Spirit and gives the change to exceed in His ways of benevolence toward others. However, how often do I let the world's business to keep me from this tranquility?

His Spirit is every second of thought during the day, as long as we are quiet to hear the whisper. They're in between. He is pouring into our hearts, keeping us attached as a branch to the Vine. At no time do we want to separate from God in any capacity. We feel tormented when slipping from His grip; notwithstanding, we need the concentration and restoration of His lessons in these moments.

These lessons provide an insatiable thirst where we no longer isolate ourselves from the lost, for are all lost and found! And now we share the good news of how He found us broken. Though we will all stand in judgment one day, for those parts of our flesh that remain, still He has brought us to Himself and freed us from the sins of the flesh.

Until that time when we go home, we're in danger of responding to human nature's wickedness through outrage, talk, judgment, or prejudice. We appeal to God for the cooperation that joins imperfect Christians by His Grace, managing the individuals who look for Him cheerfully to restrain their slips in transgression.

Judgment is pending, and our bill will come due; therefore, what we do now is critical! That means we need to look in the mirror and see our part in allowing detachment from God. When we look at the disdain of our flawed selves, we should weep at our reflection, as we could all use a makeover by God's grace.

In these moments of reflection, we know of our blemishes, acknowledging we can't concentrate on the sin of this world, for these cause more noteworthy division.

Instead, we look for surrender in dutiful submission to the change God organizes in each of us. When our concentration occupies with distraction, we miss outstanding notes and disturb His Orchestra.

We can live a life of atonement and service only by compliance and with the Holy Spirit's help. We will walk among the garbage heaps, the prison cells of life, and share Him, when, and where He leads. When doing anything other than glorifying Him, we will feel the pangs of sin. We rebuke pride in becoming righteous because we are flawed and often get it wrong. However, we will do our best to take simple action with a Christ-like love seeking to praise His beautiful example.

I pray we deflect negativity by attempting to shine a light in the dark places as our focus aspires to a more constant state of awareness that God is all-knowing and present.

We can't hide from the eyes of God; therefore, remember the moments when the ticking slows to concentrate on our Lord and Savior? To be with Him and without continual sin is our goal at the finish line. Lord, help us slow down the clock enough to pay attention to the Tick-Tock of our day and allow us to do the work of Your hands and not waste precious seconds.

Time Alone with God and His word is how we can get it right. We have a choice; we can focus on Christ as our center in all relationships and on His plans for our lives to become better than what this world dictates in sin.

How are we investing in our Time? What percentage are we giving to our Time alone with God, TAG? You're it, tick tock!!!

Time is inevitable; even when it slows, it’s ongoing, and when it stops for some, it continues for others. Occasionally, we must wait as time passes. A few years back, I had an experience such as this when I was in a hospital intensive care unit in a medical crisis; a machine was my connection to this natural state.

I could hear the rhythmic sounds of a mechanical ventilator that whisked air into my lungs, allowing them to expand and contract. In these moments, time does not stop, but it slows. Death was no longer the concern as I was already at death’s door. But, to be honest, it was a little surreal even though I knew I was never alone, as there was a feeling that God had my back.

I know you’ve had one of these moments. Perhaps with a near-miss of a car heading toward you as you quickly swerve. Maybe an emotional time in your life or losing a loved one. Could your moment be waiting for your teen to come home at the end of a night out? It could be when they first handed you your child and stated there’s a problem?

Regardless of age, these moments have happened, and they make you feel you’re waiting for a bomb to go off. In times like these, you’re in shock, hit by a proverbial bullet. You think under attack with almost nothing left to give, lacking motivation, or dare, I assume, FEAR. When it came, you screamed, please, MAKE IT STOP! You process a way out, thinking to yourself, let me fast-forward, or can I rewind?

Your heart races as you familiarize yourself with the quiet of these moments. When you feel I’m all by myself. I want you to stop and think just past that moment you may have been screaming, sobbing, or fighting hard to suppress the emotion you fear may take you over. Go further to where you have nothing left but complete and utter surrender. You succumb to the hopelessness and go to a place where time is ticking in slow motion.

And there it is: PEACE, stillness, quiet as if hands gently comfort and take hold of you. If you close your world for just a minute, you feel lifted, even carried like a child. Your heart rate slowly returns to its average pace, and you now know you’re not alone. If I may say, you have come face to face with FAITH. Faith in something unusual. I want to go just a step further and guess this may be the time in your life when you went to that place deep inside and risked believing in an omnipotent God.

Let’s go one more rung on the ladder and say you may have fallen to your knees and talked loudly or from your heart to someone, hoping for the answer. If you have had a moment like this, as I know you have, you, at least, must admit there was some sense of peace. You made it through the tidal wave you were swirling in, and you came surging to the top and took a humongous breath.

Question: how did you get there? What gave you solace? How quickly did you forget the feeling when things slowly returned to some form of normalcy? This feeling ~ PLEASE GOD HELP ME? Perhaps in this world where so many things come to us, we go to an amnesia state, believing or convincing ourselves that we are in control the entire time. We may even honor ourselves when it passes to return to our quote, “normal life.”

There was nothing ordinary there, my friends; it was there at that moment where you came so close to your benevolent God. He is all-loving, protective, and forgiving. He is your Creator and Father in heaven. His gift is accessible by your Faith; you are safe.

We believe in our moments, and then how many of us forget when the money is in the bank, all our loved ones are safe, and our life is calm and non-tumultuous. Your needs are few, and the storm has passed for the time being.

I want to give some references here for a few things before I go on. I want to pique your interest and give you trustworthy words that are not my own.

John 3:16

New International Version (NIV)

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Ephesians 2:8-9

Romans 10:9

Believer's Prayer

Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Make me the person you want me to be.

This prayer is your beginning; They make you new. The old you is dead and gone, and God now lives in your heart. You can try, but you always know when you deny Him. You will never feel the same if you don't listen to the Holy Spirit guiding you. You are now convicted when faced with the reality of sin in your life.

You are not perfect once you have Faith and belief in God. It is now that the purposeful work begins.

Baptism is the cleansing and washing clean ~ some have experienced this in infancy, and it indeed is baptism and cleansing. To have a Believer's Baptism, you then take the steps of commitment and obedience to God. You will now live a new way for Him as His servant. They gift you with the fruits of the Holy Spirit and recognize those gifts. Allow yourself to be His instrument, bringing others to understand a life with Christ at the helm.

You will mess up ~ Romans Chapter 7: 14-25