Devotion: Availability

Mark 1:35 ³⁵ In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.

When I was a youth, I remember going to some church event where they emphasized the importance of morning quiet times. They would quote the above scripture to prove that even Christ woke up before sunrise to read his Bible and pray. Not being a morning person, this always left a twinge of guilt that I could not devote that time to Him.

Recently, I was encouraged by a comment that what God's desires is not a mindless routine, but our constant availability. In our busy and hectic lives, it is often easy and convenient to limit God to a few hours on Sunday—and maybe if He's lucky a few mornings.

In structuring our spiritual life in such a manner we are limiting our availability to hear God speaking to us. He may not want to wait until Sunday to speak. He may be ready to speak words of reassurance before we get called into the boss's office, or words of warning before we step off into a risky venture, or he may wake us up early in the morning to spend time with him in prayer.

How can we make ourselves available to God? If we are willing to stop anything to help a close friend or spouse, what is preventing us from giving God full access to our lives (morning, day and night)? What areas of our lives might we be keeping from him?