Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Timeout! Learning When and How to Take a Timeout | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 5.15-16

Episode Date: February 26, 2020

"God became a human. That means that God took on our human limitations." There just aren't enough hours in the day! How many times have you thought that? There's so much to do and never enough time. We try to be the responsible by getting things done and even getting ahead, but, as hard as it is to accept, we can't do everything. We have to prioritize, and sometimes our lived priorities don't actually represent our stated priorities. Sometimes the things we care about the most get the least of our time and attention. We all struggle with prioritization and time management, which is why https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/patrick-miller/ (Patrick) focuses on one of the most convicting but overlooked verses in the Bible. Hear how Jesus's example has made an impact and his life and how you can implement it in yours as we continue our series on https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcast-series/how-to-follow-jesus/ (Learning to Follow Jesus). To learn more, visit our https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ (website) and follow us on https://www.facebook.com/TheCrossingCOMO (Facebook), https://www.facebook.com/TheCrossingCOMO (Instagram), and https://twitter.com/thecrossingcomo (Twitter) @TheCrossingCOMO.  Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. Right now, we're learning what it looks like to follow Jesus by working our way through the Gospel of Luke. Do you know the one resource? All people have the exact same amount of. It doesn't matter how poor or rich you are. It doesn't matter how educated you are.

Your nationality or ethnicity, they don't change it. Do you know what it is? Time. There's no exceptions. We all only get 24 hours in a day, seven days in a week, 365 days in a year. We all get the exact same amount of time. And again, I don't care who you are. You probably feel like you don't got enough of it. Speaking for myself, I can't count the amount of times that I have found myself saying, I just wish I had another hour or two. I just wish I had another hour or two. I just wish I had an day and on and on it goes. Why do I feel like I need these things? Well, it's because I'm always in a hurry, because life always feels stretched out to the limits. Because if I don't get this thing done,

then who will? That last question cuts to the heart of it, doesn't it? Why I'm so anxious and why I'm always in a hurry, why I always need more time? It's because I think that I'm in control over my life. It's because I believe that I'm responsible for everything around me, because I fear that letting go of my control over this or that thing might mean that I lose it entirely, or I end up losing something I want like wealth or opportunity, status, relational capital. I need more time because deep down, I think that I ought to be more like the one who has an infinite amount of time, God. You see, after all, God, he exists outside of time. time is no limitation for him. But for some crazy reason, he decided to make people, his image

bearers bound by time, bound by limits, bound by a need to trust, bound by a need to rest, bound by the reality that we don't control everything and not even everything in our own lives. But if you're anything like me, you're not very good at accepting those limits. You're always looking for life hacks to maximize your time. You're trying to squeeze more in than you really can. And of course, the question becomes, what gets squeezed out? For me, the sad but true answer is prayer. That really isn't too surprising. The more I trick myself into believing that I control my reality, the less I really feel much of a need for the one who actually controls reality, which leads me to one of the most convicting passages in all of Luke. It's a passage that I'm not even sure Luke wrote to

convict people. But again, I know that it convicts me. This is Luke 515. The news about Jesus spread all the more so that crowds of people came to hear him and be healed of their sicknesses. Catch this, verse 16, but Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. He prayed. Do you find those verses mind-blowing? I know I do for a few reasons. First, God became a human. That means that God took on our human limitations. Jesus only had 24 hours in a day, seven days in a week, 365 days in a year. But the second reason I find this so mind-blowing is that Jesus had serious demands on his time. He was the world's greatest teacher and healer. Everybody wanted a slice of Jesus' time. I mean, if I feel like I need an extra hour in a day, or if I feel like I'm always in a hurry, if I feel like

my task list and my responsibilities over-extend the amount of hours that I actually have in my day? How much more so did Jesus feel like that? According to these verses, the crowds didn't really care that Jesus had limitations. They just kept coming. And given that Jesus was God himself, it had to be tempting to think that since he really is in control of reality, that he didn't really need to spend much time and prayer. He could just do task after task after task without any real sense of limitation. But that leads to the most shocking part of this passage. I'll read it again just for good measure. Verse 16, but Jesus often, often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Jesus, God incarnate needed to pray. Jesus, the one who had the power to heal with a touch with a thought,

needed to pray often. Just let it settle in. Jesus, the one who had the crowds constantly clamoring for his time, often withdrew from them, from their needs, from the responsibilities that they demanded of him. He often withdrew to lonely places, and he prayed. If Jesus needed to pray often, how much more so do I need prayer in my life? If Jesus needed to come before the Father, who's sovereign and in control over reality, to hear from his father, to lay his concerns before his father, to worship his father, to be conformed to his father. How much more do I need that? If Jesus, who had crowds of people constantly clamoring for his attention, knew that he needed to make time for prayer, how much more so do I need to make time for prayer? Do you have time for prayer

in your life? Or if you bought into the lie that you're just too busy, that there's just too much that you're responsible for, that there's too many people who need your attention instead of God. Co-workers, bosses, spouses, children, the list goes on. But just remember this, even Jesus, who certainly had way more responsibilities than any of us could even imagine. Even Jesus needed prayer. Even Jesus, who was God incarnate, needed prayer. So here's the question I've been asking myself. What forms of hurry, busyness, and distraction? Do I need to eliminate from my life? Do I need to try and minimize?

The answer to that question is probably different for everyone, but let me share some of the things that I've been doing and imperfectly implementing in my own life. Again, not as a set of rules for you to have to go out and do, but maybe they'll give you a few ideas of how you could limit hurry and busyness in your own life. Here's the first thing. I've started limiting email. I tried to set two times a day that I check my email. I took email off my phone,

and I try my best to never check it after 5 o'clock. And despite my fears that the world was going to fall apart, and I was going to lose my job and that things were going to go terribly. Quite the opposite happened. I've actually become more productive at work, and I've found short moments throughout my day, moments that I would have spent just looking at my email that I've been able to pray during. I have a friend who took email off his phone and he put his Bible app where that email app used to be. And so by Messle memory, he keeps going into Bible reading and prayer instead of email checking. Another thing I've done is I've limited how much national news media I read and take in. It doesn't matter if it's politics, sports, or entertainment.

You would be shocked how much time we waste learning about stuff that changes nothing in our day-to-day lives. Again, by saying no to those things, it says yes, it creates space for prayer. Another thing I've done is I've started to let my kids play alone. I know this is crazy, but if you let your children, even my nine-month-old, play alone enough, they will actually learn how to entertain themselves. I'm kind of being a little tongue-in-cheek when I say that, but here's the deal. Most of my Bible reading and prayer happens with a nine-month-old rolling around on the carpet and a three-year-old playing with her Barbie quietly.

Another thing I've done, I've limited media. I've taken social media entirely off my phone. I've taken Internet off my phone. I've turned my phone to grayscale, which sounds super weird and crazy, but believe me, it works. You'll look at your phone less. I've started watching less TV.

And while all these things are hard at first, you will be shocked at how much time you can reclaim in your life, not just for prayer, but for lots of good things. Time for people, time for family, time for good old-fashioned boredom. How is God calling you to find time for prayer in your life? For you to find time to admit that you aren't in control of it all. For you to be able to admit that the world is going to function, it will continue to go on without your constant contact and input. For you to lay down your life

and fears and needs before him. For you to enter into God's presence and be shaped by him, be conformed to his image. If you're feeling the challenge of this passage like I do, I'd encourage you to think through those questions. I'd also recommend picking up a great new book on this topic by John Mark Comer called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. How is God calling you to find time for prayer? Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with? Texting an episode to a friend or a family member is a great, way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.