Quiet Time Thoughts: WHY Spend Time with Jesus? (Part 1)

Recently I was asked to be on a panel of other women to share about my quiet times to a group of other (mostly younger) moms.

I shared, and it all went by so fast.  I came away feeling a bit unsettled about it, just because it felt so incomplete.  I answered the questions, and I was able to share about what I do- how I journal and pray, how I will often write out Scripture in the pages of my journal, etc.... and how there is grace for seasons where times with Jesus are less frequent than others, and that often with little children it can be hard.

But there is so much more to it than just that.  I wished later that I had taken the time to share the heart behind it; the WHY of why I try to spend time with Jesus each day.

There are two passages in the Bible that express my heart on this topic.  First, in Psalm 1:

1  Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2  But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3  He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields it's fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.

I love that.  I'm such a visual girl, that the image there of the tree planted by streams of water, yielding fruit- is such a powerful image to me.  A tree.  A beautiful, thriving, flourishing tree.  With leaves that do not wither.  That is what I want, friends.  I want to be a TREE, planted by streams of water, yielding fruit. 

In the margin of my Bible, next to Psalm 1, is this note, from July 2004: "I'm feeling such a desire to be in the word- to know it, to soak it up."  When I wrote that, Ella was 4 and Isaac was 2, and we were in the process of adopting internationally.  I didn't have a lot of time then, and I most definitely have less time now.

John Piper has said, "Any truly spiritual action; any desire for Jesus is an amazing work of the Spirit.  You can't even say 'Jesus is LORD' apart from the Spirit." 

The desire to study or read the Bible is not always there, and yet I pray for it, I continue to ask God for a hunger to be in His word, to love Him more, to know Him more, and He has been so faithful over the years to provide that, and to continue to bring me to a place of seeking Him.  And when I can see the fruit of those prayers; when I do have the want-to?  THAT is an amazing work of God's Spirit within me, and I recognize it as such.