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When it comes down to it, we want to please our God, right? We just want to love Him, for He first loved us and continues to pour–lavish grace and love over us. When the Spirit of God was given to us He gave us a love for God, a love that desires to please Him.  If you consider yourself a Christian and yet have no desire to please your Savior and God, then you should examine your heart and faith.

As stated above, a desire to please your heavenly Father comes from the Spirit of Adoption who has come to abide in us. That means that a desire to please the Father is a witness that you belong to Him. In  other words, it is proof that you are His beloved child.

The Scripture says that when we become children of God we receive the Spirit of Adoption–His Spirit, within us crying Abba Father. Do you find yourself calling on Him with an affectionate love? “Abba Father” kind of affection desires to please Him. I know, I know we all fail miserably in living in a manner that pleases Him, but remember:  It is not about perfection but direction. Some days my desire is all about pleasing me. How pathetic is that? Please keep your comments to yourself. But when I focus on pleasing Him, I find myself growing in the light–His light.

Since I’m the one who opened the ugly door, I’ll say it. When we are living to please ourselves, we are nurturing selfishness, and selfishness feeds pride. Rather than walking in the light, we are walking outside of the light and the darkness. Besides, I am too boring to have it all about me. And honestly, so are you. God, on the other hand, is not boring. BAM! He is God!

Now back to the subject of this post.

I WANT TO desire to please Him. As the Apostle wrote, “I aim to please Him.”  I miss the mark but I am aiming in that direction. My Savior is my 24/7 propitiation for my sins, so I am not worried that I miss the mark. Of course I always miss the mark. That is why we live in the Gospel 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is still my goal each day to please Him, that doesn’t change.

I absolutely LOVE and ENJOY time with my grandchildren. I LOVE IT when they ask me things and want to spend time with me. Is our heavenly Father less than we are towards His children?  His love exceeds our human love. Therefore, let’s seek time with Him because it pleases Him.  He enjoys spending time in fellowship with us.

Thomas Brooks writes,

Because the servant’s redeeming of time for private prayer from his sleep, his meals, his recreations, &c., cannot but be infinitely pleasing to God; and that which will afford him most comfort when he comes to die. The more any poor heart acts contrary to flesh and blood, the more he pleases God; the more any poor heart denies himself, the more he pleases God; the more any poor heart acts against the stream of sinful examples, the more he pleases God; the more difficulties and discouragements a poor heart meets with in the discharge of his duty, the more love he shews to God; and the more love a poor heart shews to God, the more he pleases God: Jeremiah. 2:2, 3, ‘Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the first-fruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the Lord.’

God was very highly pleased and greatly delighted with the singular love and choice affections of his people towards him, when they followed after him, and kept close to him, in that tedious and uncouth passage through the waste, howling wilderness. How all these things do comport with that poor pious servant that redeems time for private prayer upon the hardest terms imaginable, I shall leave the ingenuous reader to judge. And certainly, upon a dying bed, no tongue can express, nor heart conceive but he that feels it, the unspeakable comfort that closet-duties will afford to him that hath been exercised in them, upon those hard terms that are under present consideration.

Yes, I also love spending time with my own children. It’s just that the grandchildren are just so dog-gone fun and adorable.
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Brooks, T. (1866). The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks. (A. B. Grosart, Ed.) (Vol. 2, pp. 218–219). Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert.

We love sleep, and it is important. We need it. The way God created us requires it for our health and strength. Don’t neglect it. We must also not let it be a ruler in our lives that takes away from the necessity of prayer. I know the time that I need to crash at night to get a good night’s rest and get up early enough for devotional time. Of course there are days when I’m up later or over sleep in the morning that throw my schedule off track. If needed, I’ll just catch up on sleep–ignoring the need of adequate rest is the action of fool.

More important to me than sleep is my private time of prayer and Scripture. As necessary as rest is, private time in the presence of the Lord trumps sleep. I can make up for sleep missed, but I cannot make up time lost in communion with my God. Let me put it another way. One hour in communion with God gives me more strength–physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, than one hour of sleep. Time spent with the Lord goes far beyond the day that you were in devotions. That time reaches others and feeds you beyond a 24-hour period. That raises its value, wouldn’t you say?

If I lose one hour of rest because I have to get up earlier to meet an obligation, or because I didn’t get to bed as early as I planned, should this steal time from what I know that I need most for my day? I need my daily bread; my daily manna that feeds into every aspect of my life. That manna from the hand of God, I find it waiting for me in that secret place. I ask for it and He graciously gives. Do I get all that I need from one hour of sleep? Not everything, but what I get from one hour in the presence of my God goes deeper and further.

Trust me, I enjoy rest, as I am sure that you do. We know its importance, but we know that we can make it up later when we don’t have a pressing schedule later in the week. The bottom line is, we all need to get sufficient rest for ourselves, but we must even more so guard that secret time with the Holy Trinity, whether it be morning, middle of the day, or evening. Nothing, nothing is more needed for your day and future than one-on-one time with the Savior and God.

Let Thomas Brooks help you with this issue:

That servants should rather redeem time from their sleep, their recreations, their daily meals, than neglect closet-duty a day. And certainly those servants that, out of conscience towards God, and out of a due regard to the internal and eternal welfare of their own souls, shall every day redeem an hour’s time from their sleep, or sports, or feedings, to spend with God in secret, they shall find by experience that the Lord will make a few hours’ sleep sweeter and better than many hours’ sleep to them; and their outward sports shall be made up with inward delights; and for their common bread, God will feed them with that bread that came down from heaven.

Sirs, was not Christ his Father’s servant?1 Isa. 42:1. ‘Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect’ (or choice one), ‘in whom my soul delighteth’ (or is well pleased)! ‘I have put my Spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.’ And did not he redeem time from his natural rest, rather than he would omit private prayer? Mark 1:35, ‘And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.’ Christ spent the day in preaching, in healing the sick, in working of miracles; and rather than these noble works should shut out private prayer, he rises a great while before day, that he might have some time to wrestle with his Father in secret. So Luke 6:12, ‘And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.’

O sirs! did Christ spend whole nights in private prayer for the salvation of your souls; and will you think it much to redeem an hour’s time from your natural rest to seek and to serve him in a corner, and to make sure the things of your everlasting peace? The redeeming of time for private prayer is the redeeming of a precious treasure, which, if once lost, can never fully be recovered again. If riches should make themselves wings, and fly away, they may return again, as they did to Job; or if credit, and honour, and worldly greatness and renown, should fly away, they may return again, as they did to Nebuchadnezzar; if success, and famous victories and conquests, should make themselves wings, and fly away, they may return again, as they did to many of the Roman conquerors and others; but if time, whom the poets paint with wings, to shew the volubility and swiftness of it, fly from us, it will never more return unto us.

A great lady [Queen Elizabeth] of this land, on her dying bed cried out, ‘Call time again, call time again; a world of wealth for an inch of time!’ but time past was never, nor could never be recalled.

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Brooks, T. (1866). The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks. (A. B. Grosart, Ed.) (Vol. 2, pp. 215–216). Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert.

Psalm 31:15 says, “My times are in Your hand;”  Note the plural: “times” and not singular, “time.” Puritan Thomas Brooks writes,

Times do belong to providence as well as issues; and as God is the God of our mercies, so he is the Lord of our times: ‘My times are in thy hands,’ saith David, Ps. 31:15. Not only the times of his sorrows, but also the times of his comforts; not only the times of his miseries, but also the times of his mercies; not only the times of his dangers, but also the times of his duties, were in the hands of God.

This shows that every point and period of time depends upon the hand of God. Think about that for awhile. The depth of that truth is exceedingly deep and its water is refreshing. Since time is of the Lord, every minute and hour of each day is a gift of His sovereign grace. Each minute, each hour, of each day a gift crafted with sufficient time for what we need–for what matters.

The relevance to prayer? Since God appoints the times of our day, which includes what our days SHOULD include, naturally He would include a portion of our day to be spent in communion with Him. He knows that we need to meet one-on-one with Him, whether we do or not. (Jesus knew this) Therefore He appoints enough time in each day to be refreshed in fellowship with Him; to be built up by His Spirit; to learn truth to guide us and protect us; and peace to enjoy life. Are you with me on this? He has included within the 24-hours of each day time to be spent with Him. Let us be careful not take that portion of time and spend it on ourselves or on something else, as if “that” something else is more valuable than time with our God and Savior.

Oh, that we would not sell the time that God has appointed for us to grow and receive extra grace. Oh, that we would not put more value on hobbies or entertainment or laziness. Oh that we would not spend the appointed time on appeasing our fleshly lusts or pride of life, when there is living water to drink from within the proverbial closet of prayer, alone with Adonai.

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Brooks, T. (1866). The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks. (A. B. Grosart, Ed.) (Vol. 2, p. 215). Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert.

I do not have any special gifts or abilities. I consider myself to be more of the average guy, at best. This is not a humble assessment to sound pious, it’s just me.There may be an exception–in my younger days I was pretty good at basketball, depending on my opponent. If you are more or less average, join my club. Some people have special talents and skills that make them unique in their hobby or career. There are those who can grasp mathematics on a level that leaves me dumbfounded and feeling like a squirrel. How did they figure that out so easily? Or, how did they figure that out at all?  There are others who have mechanical minds or creative minds or physical abilities that enable them to do more than most other people, including the above average squirrel.

“Jeff, is there a spiritual point to all of this?”

As children of God who have been redeemed and delivered out of the domain of darkness into His marvelous light; who have been set free from the enslavement of sin and Satan’s power, we should want more out of this life, more IN THIS LIFE, than those whom we work with, live around, and socialize with who are not walking with the living God.  Do I … DO YOU … live a life that is more … than others? After all, because of Jesus you have spiritual privileges and abilities that others–who do not know God, don’t have. You have the Spirit of the living God WITH you, IN you, UPON you. Wow! That separates you into a holy community of saints.

1 Peter 2:9 (NKJV) — But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

Do you take advantage of the privilege that Jesus Christ has given you? The privilege of sweet communion with the God who made you, bought you, calls you to Himself, and glorifies you in The Son? Something to think about,right? Do you pray more than those who do not know God? Do you worship Him more than those who do not know Him? Do you serve Him, even think of ways to serve Him, unlike those who do not know Him? Do you seek to know His will through His word, unlike those who do not have the Spirit of Truth? You get the message. So, what do you do more than others?

Here is Thomas Brooks:

What do you more than others? Do you hear? So do others. Do you read? So do others.  Oh! but now gracious servants (servants of Christ who are covered in His grace) should go beyond all other servants in the world, they should do singular things for God: Matthew 5:47, ‘What do you more than others?’

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Brooks, T. (1866). The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks. (A. B. Grosart, Ed.) (Vol. 2, p. 212). Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert.

The last few blog posts have been quotes from the puritan pastor, Thomas Brooks, addressing the excuse that some Christians use to avoid spending private time in prayer.  “I have too much to do to stop and spend quiet time in prayer.” Or there is, “There is much to do at my job, then there is the family, and there is also …”

These are made to condemn you but to make you aware of excuses that work their way in to your mindset and need to be kicked out. It is too easy to let the old flesh nature talk you out of the most important thing you can do in your waking hours.

I have two responses from Brooks that are pretty point-blank, black and white.

Closet prayer is either a duty or it is no duty. Now that it is a duty, I have so strongly proved, I suppose, that no man nor devil can fairly or honestly deny it to be a duty. And therefore, why do men cry out of their great business?

In his writings Brooks gives some scripture and historical illustrations for both of these responses. If you want to plunge into the subject of private prayer, I recommend purchasing this book.

That God did never appoint or design any man’s ordinary, particular calling to thrust private prayer out of door.

I believe that our occupations and daily business are given from God. If He gave you the job you have, and skills to do the job, surely He didn’t give these to you to use as an excuse to neglect time with Him. That is saying it straight.

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Brooks, T. (1866). The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks. (A. B. Grosart, Ed.) (Vol. 2, p. 207). Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert.