Do you long to make time for Jesus, but find it totally impossible given your full schedule? Maybe you’ve sat down a time or two with your coffee in hand, Bible on the table, ready to dive right on in, but then your job, family, or to-dos pull you away.
Plus, if you’re anything like me, then you have the attention span of a fish, which doesn’t help your cause.
Man, do I get it. You want to make space for Jesus but you have no space on the calendar. #strugglebus.
I’ve been in your shoes. From work to school to trying to run a successful business (and everything in between), spending time with Jesus can sometimes feel out of reach. However, I learned very early on in my faith that I’m at my worst when Jesus isn’t first. My faith weakens, my mind narrows, my soul shrivels, and I begin thinking, acting, and reacting like someone that I know I’m not. When I fail to make room for Jesus, I easily forget not only who I am but Whose I am. Every area of my life becomes a mess when I choose to be busy over being still.
You wanna know why the best, most important thing for us feels so incredibly hard to fit into our days? Because all hell is opposed to us opening up our hearts and calendars to Jesus. The enemy will do whatever he can to make us feel like we have no time to meet with the Maker of Time.
But there’s hope! If you want to make time for Jesus but you feel like you don’t have any extra time to give, then I’ve got three tips that are going to bless your life.
1. THERE WON’T BE TIME IF YOU DON’T INTENTIONALLY MAKE THE TIME
This is a simple reality. You may not be able to sit down every day and have 3 hours of uninterrupted time with Jesus, and that’s okay! In fact, I think a lot of times we avoid spending time with Jesus because we become overwhelmed by the time we think it’s going to take.
One step at a time, friend, but more on that later. My point is that it’s up to you to make things you say are priorities actual priorities. The most important investment you can make in your spiritual life (and literally every other area of your life) is dedicated time with Jesus. Take a good look at your schedule and ask yourself What do I need to prune so that I can flourish?
Prune, by definition, means to cut away overgrown or unwanted parts in order to increase fruitfulness and growth. Can you wake up 30 minutes earlier and use that time to meet with Jesus? Cut out your tv time before bed, and instead, open your Bible? Read that devotional while the baby takes a nap? Whatever the case, decide what you can shorten, move around, or completely cut out of your schedule in order to make intentional, dedicated time for the very thing your soul needs most.
2. TAKE GRADUAL, PRACTICAL, CONSISTENT STEPS
Maybe you’re the type of gal that can quit cold turkey or change everything in an instant. If that’s you, then we all wanna know like…how?! But if that’s not you and you’re over here like the rest of us just trying to figure out how you’re gonna find time to even cook dinner, or, better yet, what on earth to even have for dinner, then changing everything all at once is literally not an option.
What we need are the gradual, practical steps we can start doing today that are going to get us closer to the women we want to be tomorrow. It doesn’t have to be these big life changes in order to make time for him. It’s little, consistent shifts that you can make to get you where you want to be. Whether that looks like using your morning commute to pray and worship or doing a quick devotional while the water warms up for the shower, what’s one thing you can start consistently doing in order to meet with Jesus?
3. SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS USING STRATEGY
Strategy has to be one of my favorite words. Boy, do I loveee me some strategy! It’s one of the best ways, in literally any area of life, to start practically, consistently, and clearly showing up for what matters most. It takes the overwhelm out of everything on your plate by breaking it down into bite-sized pieces. Here’s how:
After you’ve decided what your gradual, practical, consistent step will be, go to your calendar, to-do list, or whatever you have going on over the next week and write down what MUST get done each day. Go through each day, and starting with today, what are your top 3 priorities? At the end of the day, if you completed those 3 things, would you feel accomplished? Now, out of those 3 things, where is a window of time you could meet with Jesus?
This will not only help you get a clearer picture of your calendar and where your priorities actually lie, but it will also help you curate your calendar to make room for what truly matters to you and ultimately move you closer to the woman you want to be.
In a world of busyness, we’ve been conditioned to believe that being still and making room for Jesus is nearly impossible. Especially when we have so many other things going on. But utilizing these three tips will ensure that Jesus has (and keeps!) a spot on that ever-growing, ever-busy schedule of yours. My prayer is that, by choosing to be still over being busy, we make Jesus more common in the world by moving closer to the women He’s called us to be. Because when that happens, the world changes!
LOOKING TO START A QUIET TIME ROUTINE?
Come grab my Ultimate Quiet Time Routine for Christian Women in Business! Your step-by-step guide to creating a quiet time routine that fits into your schedule and moves you closer to the heart of God.
