You are loved. You are a child of God. You are chosen. When you begin to doubt these things, remember who you are and Whose you are. The enemy would love nothing more than to hinder us from pursuit of our calling. What are we called to do? Be witnesses, make disciples, preach the Gospel. Yet, if he can convince us that we are unworthy, or that our past disqualifies us from ministry, we can become paralyzed. I encourage you to put away the noise and distractions. Spend some time alone with the Father. Listen to what He says about you.

Many of us track our spending. Whether it is through an app or a spreadsheet or our checkbook ledger, knowing how we spend is important to us. It will also indicate what we value - food, church, hot water... the list goes on.

The same is the case for how we spend our time. The ways in which we budget our time will reflect what is important to us. Remember the challenge that was issued to you on Sunday. If you were not able to hear the challenge, it is now issued to you. Choose at least one day this week to track your "time spending". Use a notebook or your phone to keep track. Do you have a lot of wasted time? How does your use of time reflect your relationships with your family, friends, and most importantly - God? When you have tracked your day, reflect on the places you can stand to make adjustments. Ask God to help you make good use of your time through devotions, family time, rest, and service to others.

Rest, pray, and hear from God. This is the purpose of solitude. Throughout the gospels we see moments when Jesus got away alone, or with his disciples. Sometimes it was directly after a great movement of healings and other miracles. Other times it was in preparation for the crowds He was about to minister to. It’s worth noting that Jesus went up on a mountain and prayed all night before naming the twelve apostles. And don’t let this get past you, Jesus had to be very disciplined about his solitude! People were constantly pursuing Him, so He did things like get up before dark and climb a mountain, or He would find some other desolate place.

But this is Jesus, God the Son. He is the one who created all things. How is it that He needed to rest, or set aside time to pray and hear? This may be hard to understand, but one thing is clear, if Jesus needed times of solitude, then so do we. What if we pursued hearing from the Father like Jesus did? What if we wanted to be sure that every word that came from our mouths was a result of meeting with God? What do you think would happen if we also did whatever it took to find solitude before we moved into action?

Ask Yourself:

- What practices in your life demonstrate that you value hearing from God?

- Where will you go for solitude?

- When will you go?

*Remember, solitude does not have to be complicated. Solitude could mean a whole day on an actual mountain, but more often it will be finding a half-hour of quiet space in your own home or nearby park.

Pause to Pray:

Holy God, please increase my desire for times to be filled by you…

Take the Next Step:

-Make a plan for solitude: Where will you go? When will you go? Try to go for at least two hours of rest, reading, prayer, and worship.

Last week, you devoted 10 minutes of alone time to listening and meditating. Just as with any discipline, we must build up strength in the area of solitude. This week, exercise your spiritual muscles by taking 15 minutes to be in God's Presence with this song.