Waiting Time Is Not Wasted Time — Shane Idleman

The title of the message tonight is actually that waiting time is not wasted time. Waiting time. When you wait on God it's not wasted time. Easy said, hard to do. Right? Easy to say, hard to do. Because it's not waiting time is when we is when we have the challenges.

I'm gonna recommend four books. I've got a post-it note here and I can show you this afterwards if you'd like. And you can even rewind this message when it goes out on video and write them down. One is The Path of Prayer.

The Path of Prayer. And Samuel Chadwick wrote that. The other is With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray. Don't worry I'll go through them again real quick. Revival Praying by Leonard Ravenhill.

And Purpose in Prayer by E .M. Bounds. So again The Path of Prayer. With Christ in the School of Prayer. Revival Praying. And Purpose in Prayer. I actually have all four of those next to my bed right now and just getting through those and trying to get my mind saturated in in prayer.

And it really matters what we read, what we fill our mind with. I noticed this week that 58 times, 58 times in the Bible the question is asked, how long O Lord? How long O Lord? And my goal tonight isn't isn't really a long sermon.

It's just to give you some motivation and some perseverance to keep praying. 58 times. How long O Lord? Have you ever said that? Are you saying that tonight? Lord how long? What's going on? And Daniel, even in the book of Daniel, he warned of a time when Satan will wear down the saints.

And the nations raging against God's kingdom brings conflict into our world. I'm going to read a few paragraphs from an article that Francis, I'm going to try to pronounce his last name, Fragapane. Hope I got that right.

Francis Fragapane. He said, I know many who seem trapped in situations that should have been remedied months and even years ago, but the battle continues against them. Situations and people often empowered by demonic resistance stand in opposition to the forward progress of God's people.

As a result of constant demonic opposition, many Christians gradually accept a quiet but weighty oppression on their souls. This battle is to wear out the saints and it might be rooted in conflicts with children or spouses.

Perhaps it's some unresolved issue. It could be a health battle. On and on it goes. Like a skilled and masterful thief, the enemy steals the joy, strength, and passion of Christians. And many do not even realize what they have lost.

Perseverance Through Delays and Spiritual Battle

Is it starting to resonate a little bit? There's a reason the book of Revelation mentions the word perseverance seven times. Over and over again we see that those who persevered and overcame are the ones who outlasted the enemy.

It's one thing to have vision. It's another to have godly motives, but neither will carry us to our objective by itself. We must have perseverance. God looks at our character, forged in the fire of delays and battle, and says this is what I was waiting for.

Whatever your battle, remember it's not enough to sow the right seed, even have the right soil. We will only reap if we do not lose heart. And we forget that much of the battle has to do with perseverance.

Much of seeing things through has to do with perseverance. Much of staying encouraged and not being defeated has to do with perseverance. And as believers we believe before we see. But you know the world has the opposite verbiage on that.

Let me see it, then I'll believe it. But as a believer we are actually called to believe in something before we see it. We believe God answers promises. We believe God's gonna do a certain thing. We believe he's put that on our heart.

So we believe it, but we haven't seen it yet. So that's where it's hard. It's in that waiting time. Like I talked about on Sunday, it's in that waiting time that Samson began to get that anointing back from God.

And prayer is God's mechanism to move his hammer. He asked us to pray. Here's what it does. Boldness to confront. When you spend time praying and waiting on God, there's boldness to confront. There's peace to endure.

There's perseverance to continue. There's faith to sustain. Repentance to clean. Hope to strengthen and love to sustain you. It'll give you direction down the right path, his presence to get you through, and assurance that he will not fail you.

So here's the key. Waiting on God involves expectation, much prayer, and obedience. It's about positioning our heart. And remember, no man is greater than his prayer life. No man is greater than his prayer life.

That's why waiting time is not wasted time, because as we're waiting, we're building that relationship with God. We're drawing closer to God. And there's really not a lot of wasted time if you use it to your advantage.

For example, somebody told me recently, I waste so much time commuting to work. An hour there and an hour back. I waste two hours a day. Not if you listen to the Bible on tape. Not if you listen to sermons.

Not if you worship. Not if you pray. Use that downtime, not wasted time. We wasted so much time today at home. There wasn't much to do. People would say, well, don't let it become wasted time. It's all what you do with that time.

Waiting for the Lord With Courage

Proverbs 27 14. I just pulled out four verses on waiting for the Lord. And believe it or not, there's a list this long. Wait on the Lord. Renew your strength. Waiting and waiting and wait. Oh God, how long?

And all these scriptures on waiting. But unless you want to be here till nine o 'clock, I just brought out four. Psalm 27 14. Wait for the Lord. Wait for the Lord. So what does that tell us right there?

That I'm not going to want to wait for the Lord. It's a reminder. Wait for him. Wait for the Lord. Don't push forward. Don't get too rushed into things. Don't take things into your own hands. Just wait for the Lord.

And just maybe as a personal testimony, that God has never failed me in this area. And I've had a lot of situations where, okay, well, Lord, you have to open a door in order for this to happen. And guess what he does?

He opens the door. Or the email comes, or a phone call. I'm going to talk about on the 16th, after the second service, how we purchased a few radio stations. We're going to be reaching a lot of listeners in this coming year.

And it was absolutely impossible. Absolutely impossible. A year ago, I asked the radio company, and they said, no, it's already in escrow. And I said, okay, I'm just waiting on God. And waiting. And months went by.

Months went by. Almost a year. And then I got the email. Hey, this is probably falling apart. Are you still interested? Yes, but now on our terms. That's what waiting does. It helps position the believer.

God's not going to ever say, oh, I wish they would have steamrolled ahead. I wish they would have pushed forward. Now what am I going to do? God, he can bring the right person at the right time, with the right situation, to the right circumstance, to the right.

He can open the doors as you wait on him. Now, of course, it's hard to direct what's not moving. Have you ever tried to drive a car in park? So you have to be moving, waiting on God. Remember that song from Fireproof?

Here I am waiting, waiting for God to move. But in that waiting time, he was building his relationship with the Lord. He was serving the Lord. He was waiting. So it's not just waiting with your feet kicked up on the couch watching Netflix.

That's not waiting on God. It's waiting for him to move and you're positioning yourself to receive. So wait for the Lord. Be strong. So it tells me I'm probably going to be weak. Be strong and let your heart take what?

Courage. So the implication is we're going to be weak and our heart is going to fail us. Oh, God is failing us. God's not going to answer. God's letting us down. And God doesn't need money. He doesn't need time.

He doesn't need anything. Everything is in the palm of his hands, in his sovereignty. That's why we wait on an all-sufficient Savior, on a sovereign God, and we take courage in that. And then it repeats again, yes, wait on the Lord.

And sometimes I might read into this a little bit too much, but it's like whoever wrote this psalm is reminding us, yes, I said wait. You ever say that to somebody? Yes, that's what I said. Yes. So he goes and repeats, wait for the Lord.

Be strong. Let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord. So what we get here is you have to encourage yourself in this waiting time. It's not wasted time. Encourage yourself. Look at this as a blessing, not a burden.

Waiting time is a huge blessing. I just spoke to a man Sunday who is going into rehab for a year. And I encouraged him. I said, if I could have a year alone with God, that's priceless. That is absolutely priceless.

This is not wasted time. You're going to spend a year with God. Church in the morning, church in the evening, afternoon Bible study, afternoon reading. I would pay to do that. Not a year, right? My wife would not like that, and the kids wouldn't either.

But see, it's not wasted time. Because he can get negative. Here's how the enemy is going to work. You're wasting your life for a year. You're going to waste your life. Everybody else is having fun. And oh, this stinks.

And the enemy comes in, and there's anxiety. And especially when you're withdrawing from certain things. You have post-acute withdrawal syndrome, when you're coming off of things. And it's going to be hard that first month because your anxiety, and your body is trying to adjust itself.

The chemical imbalances in the brain starting to, people get heart palpitations, anxiety, as the body's trying to adjust and readjust itself. And those are the times where the enemy will work. Say, this is worthless.

This is wasted time. You don't need to be here. That's why I wanted to encourage him that, no, that's a really good spot to be. It's not wasted time. And even sometimes we see this often with couples.

They separate. And that doesn't have to necessarily be wasted time if you both seek God. Or if one seeks God, the other's not. You can't control the choices of another. But if you seek God, and that pushes you closer to God, that draws you to the cross, God will honor that.

It's not wasted time. Weighting is spiritual weight training. That's one of the points I want to get to. Most of you are familiar with weight training in the gym, right? Whether you do it or not, I don't know.

But we know what the point is. We work the body out. Actually, they're finding out, there's a lot of studies, longevity is tied to moving more. When people get out and they walk miles a day, and they move, and they're busy in their garden, or they're moving, they're designed to do that.

Same thing with us, or same thing with the spiritual aspects. Weighting on God is spiritual weight training. As I'm weighting, as you're weighting, you're developing what? Faith. I'm developing perseverance.

I'm developing fortitude. I'm developing a belief and trust in God. Because it's real easy to say, I trust in God. It's easy to say, but wait till you go through circumstances that challenge that statement.

When you don't see the end result, when the bills aren't going to be paid like you thought, when the person doesn't come back like you thought, and what do you do with that? It's in that waiting time that you build that relationship with God.

And I would say, in my own life, that it was the waiting time that prepared me for what God was calling me to do. Same with you. You don't just come to know the Lord often, and then fulfill what he's called you to do that next day, or that next week.

I just came to the...do you ever know of any pastors that were saved a week prior? Can you imagine that? I was just saved last week, now I'm pastoring a church. Why? Because it's crucial for that waiting time.

Same thing in our lives. God, that waiting time, God begins to season us, and prepare us, and chip away those bad habits, and those prideful things, and all the things that are hurting us. So yes, wait for the Lord.

Expectation, Faith, and the Prayer Closet

Expectation builds faith. Do you ever have expectation in things, and it builds faith, and you just get so excited, and then the days go by, and you get run down again, you're out of gas, and you got to have...maybe go to hear sermons again, or to put on worship, and that expectation gets that faith leaping again.

About a year ago, or maybe it was eight months ago, I told all of you, I'm praying for something, and I hope I can share it at some point. It was, it was the radio stations. Now I'm praying for something else, and I'll share it when that comes to pass.

I shouldn't say if, I should say when. God's put something in my heart, I believe, and what he wants to do, and there's expectation. It builds faith. I even drive by what I'm praying about, and walk around it, and pray, and pray, Lord, is this your will?

And there's tremendous faith, and expectation. Then a week goes by, I'm like, forget it. This is crazy. This is...and you start to really, you're your worst enemy when it comes to prayer. So there's no waiting time.

I'm sorry, there's no wasted time when you wait. And then Psalm 25 .5, it says, lead me, oh God, lead me in your truth, and what? And teach me, for you are the God of my salvation. For you, I wait all the day.

So prevailing prayer is where a dishonest heart meets an honest God. You know what I've noticed about prayer? There's no hypocrisy in a true prayer closet, because you can't pray. Prayer, praying, taking time alone with God, praying is where your real true colors come out.

Can you do business with God knowing, knowing that there's a blockage there, and hypocrisy? And we can do it in public. That's why Jesus said, don't pray, the heathens do in public. They think they'll be heard for their many words.

Oh God, and we just, oh, so eloquent. But you get into the prayer closet where it's just you and God, and you'll find out who you really are. Prevailing prayer is where a dishonest heart meets an honest God.

The heart is led to repentance, and truth, and cleansing. That's why he said, lead me in your truth, Lord, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation. You saved me, and because of that, I'm going to wait all the day.

Something that's been helpful in my life, and I think it might maybe bring some perspective for you as well, is there is no obstacle in God's way. Have you ever thought about that? There's no obstacle in God's way.

And the thing I'm praying about, financially, it's impossible. But is God going, yeah, he's right? Or is there no obstacle in God's way? So there's no obstacle in God's way. Often, he's waiting for us.

So we think, come on, God, come on. He's like, no, you come on. You come on. There's lots of scriptures that talk about obedience. And we see in Elisha that God withheld the rain from the people when there was idolatry.

And then he brought rain when there was repentance. And there's no obstacle for God. He's often waiting on us, waiting to get our hearts in a position of blessing. And it's in that waiting time that we should be asking God for direction and purpose.

So there's no obstacle in his way. I like what Leonard Ravenhill said, a sinning man stops praying and a praying man stops sinning. A sinning man stops praying and a praying man stops sinning. And that is so true.

A holy life prays well. The better a man or a woman lives, the better they pray. They go together. I'm just telling you the truth. When we strive for holiness, when we strive for repentance, when we want to be cleansed with the blood of Christ and just broken before God, and we're trying to live that life and open and not letting besetting sin take us down, you pray well.

You might be busy sometimes. It might be difficult, but there's power in that prayer because you're in right relationship with God. But when besetting sin comes in and we're not where we know we need to be, we know we're not where God wants us to be.

Do you think you can spend time in prayer? So it's good to get the heart right first. Isaiah 40, 31. Most of you have heard this before, but those who wait on the Lord, what? Shall renew their strength.

So if you're feeling weak spiritually, wait on the Lord. And the difference between someone waiting on the Lord and somebody worrying on the Lord is the heart. Because if you're truly, Lord, I'm just waiting on you.

I'm trusting you. You'll build strength. But if you're worrying, oh, what's going to happen? I don't know what's going to happen. I have 60 minutes and an hour just like you. But what are we doing with that time?

Are we worrying? Are we waiting? So he says, if you truly wait on the Lord, it looks like this. Lord, you're sovereign. You're in control. I don't know if you're going to answer. I don't know if this is your will.

I'm seeking you. I'm praying. I'm hoping this is. I'm just going to wait on you and I'm going to trust you. I renew spiritual strength. He's not necessarily talking about somebody lifting 100 pounds and then waiting on the Lord.

They can go now lift 200. It's not a physical weight. It's a physical strength. It's a spiritual strength. They're built up and they're encouraged. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint. That's what a true prayer warrior deals with most of the time is this renewed strength and they can go back into battle. And the prayer closet is where victories are won.

Renewed Strength and the Eagle's Wings

It's this image of an eagle picking up her own little young. And this is interesting. I'm going to talk about that right now. Deuteronomy 32 11. It says this. As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings, so is God.

And it's interesting because we have this picture of God stirring us up so we jump out of our comfort zone. That's what the mom eagle does. You might think it's me but she stirs up her nest. And the little, do they call them chicks?

I don't know what they call them. Little eaglets? Is that a word? Eaglets? Think so? Sounds good. So they go out. Come on. And they're falling. They're doing all this. And it comes, Deuteronomy says this.

She hovers over the young and then she spreads out her wings over them and then takes them up, carrying them on the wings of the mom. Isn't that an incredible picture of God? It parallels right with this.

Just like eagles, they will mount up wings like eagles. They'll be strengthened by God. So those who wait upon the Lord will build up their strength. Yes, he'll kick you out of your comfort zone. Who doesn't have to be kicked out of their comfort zone?

Come on. All of us do. God kicks me out of my comfort zone. Come on, Shane. Kick out of the comfort zone. The radio stations kick me way out of my comfort zone. Way out. I've got to negotiate lease agreements with four different locations.

I've got to get liability insurance. I've got to talk to all these different programmers. We've got to come up with programs and contracts and all these things. It's like way, way out of my comfort zone.

But it has to be done. He'll kick you out of your comfort zone, especially when it comes to ministry. Kick you right out of that comfort zone and put us into what he's called us to do. Life drains us.

Waiting on God through prayer renews our strength. I don't think I had to tell anybody that, did I? Life doesn't drain you. Please talk to me afterwards. Just tell me your secret. But it does drain us.

But then when we get into prayer, it will build us up and strengthen us. Romans 8, 26, 27. This is the NIV. In the same way, the Spirit of God, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. So when you go to pray, the Holy Spirit is going to help you in your weakness.

We do not know what we ought to pray for. Do you ever get to that where you don't even know how to pray sometimes? Lord, I don't even know how to pray right now. I'm mad. I'm hurt. I'm confused. I'm bitter.

I'm frustrated. I don't know how to pray right now. But as you sit and you wait on God and you just, just, just. Some of my best prayers are when I haven't said a word. You know, I see some head shaking.

Because he doesn't hear our words. He hears our heart. And when you can get the heart position and you're just, whether you're kneeling. I looked at John, John Wesley's prayer room. Just a little room he had in his house.

He had a little cushion. He had the Bible in front of him. He would just meditate on that. And many times, not even, not even say a word. Because you don't have to say a word. The heart is thinking. It's praying to God.

The Holy Spirit, it says right here, helps us in our weakness. The Spirit himself intercedes for us through words that cannot be understood. Wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit.

Because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with his will. So what you, you guys, you have this incredible tool known as prayer. It's God's hammer that gets things, breaks things. It's God's compass that gets us in the right direction.

It's God's leveling tool that puts things in the right balance. Prayer is what God has orchestrated to move his hand, to get things done. And so you can go before God and just say, Lord, I don't even know how to pray.

And your heart's just waiting there for God to answer. And you're, the Holy Spirit's ministering to you. Maybe you're being broken. Maybe there's tears being shed. Maybe you're just looking for direction.

But the Holy Spirit will intercede on your behalf. I like what J .I. Packard said. This is so true. The Spirit fixes our prayers on their way up. The Holy Spirit fixes our prayers on the way up. As our prayers are going to God, the Holy Spirit fixes those and adjusts them.

I don't know exactly how that works. It's just the Holy Spirit within us and the Holy Spirit that he's referencing here. They cry, Abba, Father. And it just, and basically, help get me out of this, Father.

You know, help me here, Holy Spirit. I don't know what to pray for. And I don't know about you, but my thoughts have been changed during prayer times like that. Where you thought it was this direction, then he shifts it over here.

And maybe you thought this was his will, but now it's over here. And then you just start to, instead of being, you're praying for your enemies, now you start to love them and have a compassion for it.

Your whole heart changes during prayer. And the Holy Spirit begins, that wasn't what I was praying for. My whole list of things has turned into just pleading for others. And God's changing my own heart.

God, I am, I do need to work on that. I haven't met, oh God, this isn't about them. It's about me. God, would you please help me? It's not about my spouse. It's about me, God. And your whole prayer life switches because the Holy Spirit is helping you in your weakness.

Prevailing Prayer and Spiritual Power

Samuel Chadwick, one of the books I recommended, said, there is no power like that of prevailing prayer. It turns ordinary men into men of power. It brings fire. It brings life. It brings God. Here's, I think, a mistake that we make.

We think the enemy is only focused on trying to get us to sin. Or trying to sidetrack us. Or trying to trip us up. That's all he does. But have you ever thought that he also wants to get us away from prayer?

To get us so busy that we lose that power, that spiritual power, that spiritual insight. To get us out of the prayer closet into the busy world. To keep us so busy and doing different things that we don't have time for God.

Don't have time to hear that still small voice of the Holy Spirit. So it's not just about getting us to sin or take us out. It's also about removing us from the power closet. And getting us away from God.

You have to make time in this area. The enemy operates in secret. So does prayer. You're going to have to fight him on his turf. And E .M. Bounds, I've quoted this so many times, but I love it. When faith ceases to pray, it ceases to live.

When our faith ceases to pray, it ceases to live. And E .M. Bounds went on to say, Prayer is deathless. It never dies. The lips that utter them may be closed to death. The heart that felt them may cease to beat.

But the prayers live before God. So wasted time. I'm sorry, waiting time is never wasted time. It's that time where we're... And I often wonder how much of waiting has more to do with me than what's going on.

Because in the waiting time, that's where the relationship with God is built. Can you imagine if all our prayers were answered the next day? Well, that job opportunity just opened up. I don't need to pray anymore.

My prodigal son is home. My marriage is perfect. My car's fixed. Everybody's just praying like a genie in a bottle. Okay, God, do this, God. But see, it's in the waiting time. That's like in Samson. It's a great parallel.

It's in the waiting time that that strength comes back. The anointing comes back. But let me tell you this. I want to get to this as we close pretty soon. Prevailing prayer will cost you. Prevailing prayer will cost you.

Get alone and be honest with God. You provide the sacrifice. We sing that song sometimes. You provide the sacrifice. God will provide the fire. But always remember, prayer is a sacrifice. True, genuine prayer is a sacrifice.

It's hard. It goes against the flesh. It goes against often sometimes common sense because I don't see it or I don't feel it. And this thing that is so powerful, why is it so difficult? Come on, let's be honest.

Is it hard to listen to worship music? Not really. You just adjust the radio. Is it hard to read the word? Yeah, for many people. But it's much easier than praying. Praying by far is the hardest thing to do.

That's why you can have a full church on Sunday, half on Wednesday, maybe a dozen at a prayer meeting. And if I make it an early prayer meeting, half of that, because it's hard. We don't often see the benefits right away.

And that's the sad thing because the benefits are far more than anything we could want here on this earth. And I've made this analogy before and we like to laugh at it and it is true, but it's not really funny.

It's kind of sad. But if we said, okay, 6 a .m. prayer this Sunday, the first 50, we want to give $1 ,000 to you for Christmas. Do you think we'd have 50 people here? Come on, you'd have a line out there.

Who would be sleeping out front? Like Target, Black Friday. I mean, but isn't it so true? Because the value of $1 ,000, I see it, I have it, I can spend it. We neglect the value of prayer or it becomes commonplace, becomes difficult.

I can sleep in, it doesn't really affect me. But let me tell you, prayer affects you spiritually at a very deep level. It's the difference between the victorious Christian life and barely getting by. It's the difference between dealing with your demons and dealing with besetting sin and eradicating those things and struggling with it for the rest of your life.

It's about seeing prayers answered and people come to know the Lord. It's about so many things. It's the powerhouse. What else moves the hand of God like that? Worship or me teaching? I mean, worship is great.

It brings the atmosphere in. But what really moves the hand of God? God's waiting for us more than we're waiting for him, I think sometimes. Oh, eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it even entered in the heart of man the good things that God has for those, that he's prepared for those who love him.

It's always you seek me, you find me. If you ask and you knock, how much more will I give you the Holy Spirit? If a good God wants to give good gifts. And it's through prayer. Think about all the stories in the Bible.

When Nehemiah prayed, God answered. When Ezra prayed, God answered. When Elijah prayed, God answered. When Moses prayed, God answered. When Joshua prayed, he got direction. And on and on it goes. Esther prayed and fasted.

And it's the heartbeat of the Christian. So we have to get back to that. We have to get back to prioritizing and removing things that are pulling us away from that. Prevailing prayer is so important. I remember Carter Conlon.

Do you know, have you recognized that name? He's a pastor of Times Square. He just released a new book on prayer that I've got through most of as well. But he tells an incredible story. I believe in the book or in a message he gave about a pastor who fell down very sick.

He was actually in a coma. But during that a coma, he could see, spiritually speaking, that God would show him. Even though he's laying there, he could see a prayer meeting where pastors were meeting.

It was a big conference. And the pastor leading that said, okay, let's pray for this brother who's sick. And as the people started to pray, this man who's in a coma could see these leaves starting to rustle in the floor of this house.

There's four walls. The leaves are starting to rustle and getting ready to burst out of the top. And just as they were getting ready to do that, he heard the man say an amen. And the leaves fell down.

And then he saw this young girl. He called him a servant girl that was part of his ministry. And he saw her praying. And he thought, oh, if these guys couldn't even pray for me and see healing, what's she going to do?

And as he watched her, she began to prevail in prayer. Prevail in prayer is something interesting. You get to a point in prayer where you go from, I'm kind of bored. This is difficult. To now you're contending.

You can feel God moving. You're persevering. You don't want to give up. You're prevailing in prayer because you see the answer coming. You're about ready to get up out of that prayer closet and say, oh, God's going to answer because I spent time with the King of Kings.

And it's not a microwave Christianity. It's prevailing prayer. The old saints used to say, let's pray until we pray through. Let's pray until we get an answer. Let's pray until the answer comes. That's all very true because the more time you spend in prayer, the more assurance.

There's been times I prayed and I said, God's going to answer. I know God's going to answer. And it usually takes a while. So anyway, he sees her praying and praying and she's just contending. She's pulling down heaven and she's persevering in prayer and she's waiting on God and she's praying for this man.

And all of a sudden, these leaves just burst through the roof of this house and he wakes up from his coma, his sickness. He woke up right then because of her prevailing prayers. And he saw it. This pastor saw that.

God showed him these things and how important prevailing prayer is. I mean, I don't understand it fully. I don't know if I would do things that way, but I know that God honors that prevailing prayer. It's like we honor anybody that works hard, don't we?

I don't want to think it's a work, but the person who just goes all out and does the most for you, stays extra hours, and is the best. They're always, and you want to reward that person. So I think it's the same with God.

He says, seek and I will answer, or knock and I will answer that door. Seek and you will find me. It's that perseverance. And I don't know where or how long you have to go. 10 minutes, 15. You don't put time limits on it because for some people, they might get closure and clear-mindedness with God within 10, 15 minutes.

It's not about, oh, I've got to do this. Put in a certain amount of time. It's about wanting this relationship. And sometimes I only have 15, 20 minutes in the morning. Sometimes I've got a couple hours where I can look at a text and I'll just close the Bible and just start praying that and God will bring things to mind and get off on different areas of prayer and then look to the word again.

And remember what Christ did going down, that I just read recently when he went to the cross in Calvary and cleaning my heart and being thankful. You allow the scriptures to penetrate your heart and you pray on those.

That's why you meditate. It's not just read to be read like a book. Oh, that was interesting. What's for dinner? It's meditating, chewing. The Bible says pondering, contemplating, absorbing because it becomes part of who you are.

You read that text and you, Lord, what are you saying to me? And so many things have popped out at me as I'm reading the Bible. One verse recently was Jesus said that wisdom is justified by her children.