Schedules

For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2....."If God wants to send revival, He must do it in the week allotted for it. Any other time would upset the schedule." Vance Havner

We preach, talk, and sing a great deal about freedom in Christ, but have we ever considered how as individuals and church fellowships, we are bound by our schedules? Have we considered how much more power our Day Planner has over us than His written Word does? Are we aware of how often we relegate His activity in our lives to what we consider to be an appropriate time? Do we realize how often we seek to "schedule" our encounters with God?

There is much talk about our having freedom in our worship, while at the same time we make have no place for the free movement of His Holy Spirit. We can become so bound to our order of worship that we effectively block any chance of His breaking into and disrupting it. We know how many songs we're going to sing and how long we'll sing them. We know what we want to preach on, what points we want to make, and the kind of response we hope to see and experience. We may not intend it, may even be shocked to know it, but in so many ways, what we call "worship" is more centered on us and our desires than it is upon He and His. We don't mean for it to be so, but the Order of Service, the worship, can come, in many cases has come, to have the upper hand over the Sovereign desires of the Spirit. 

It is no less so in our personal lives, especially as pertains to our times with Him. We can fall into a habit, a routine, of scheduling our times with Him in much the same way we do with our professional appointments. Reading Scripture, prayer, these can become so regimented and rigid that we almost carry them on with ourselves. We give Him no real place in them. We have a certain amount of Scripture we're committed to read and an exact amount of time we'll give over to prayer. And our prayers will most likely be in some sort of order/agenda as well. We pray about the answers we want or the information from Him that we seek. We come after His thoughts, but not His heart. We give Him little place to speak into our hearts what is on His. 

I would challenge each of us to truly and clearly examine how true what I'm saying may be true in us? Are we more correctly following a schedule in our corporate worship than we are following the leading of His Spirit. If God completely interrupted what was planned in your fellowship's worship this week, how would the pastor, the worship leader, your fellow congregants,    and you, respond?

God can't be scheduled. Won't be scheduled. If we try, we will miss Him completely, and I think in many ways, we have been missing Him, and its showing. God's time is now, and His now rarely looks like ours. May we be so yielded to Him that He may break into our lives, our churches, and our relationship with Him at any time and in any way. May our schedules and all that pertains to them be surrendered to Him........When Jesus stood over Jerusalem and wept, it was because they had missed Him. They had missed the time of their visitation. Does He weep over all the times we have missed Him? All the times we've come before Him alone and together in His name, but missed His presence. This day is the day of His salvation. May we not miss it. May we never miss it again.

Blessings,

Pastor O