Daily Solace
by Sandy Willoughby
Exploring solace to find a way to explain
what it means is a soothing experience on its own. The words hummed a sweet melody to my
soul as I envisioned my daily time spent with my LORD of all LORDS... my KING of all
Kings... my Master, my loving Father, my every single everything.
This is my daily solace... my daily
comfort, relief, strength, and hope. The terms to describe this beautiful word are:
"to make cheerful";
*console - to alleviate grief, loss, or trouble,
*comfort - to give strength or hope to, soothe - to bring comfort, solace or
reassurance to,
*relieve - to free from a burden : give aid or help to: to set free from an
obligation, to ease of a burden, to remove or lessen the monotony of
I may bore you with my constant
repeats of this topic... the topic of quiet time in your every day. I pray that I don't...
that the LORD will shine through my simple words and that His love will flow like a
precious fragrance from heaven into your hearts.
Quiet time with this GOD has changed my
life and guess what? He is still changing it. He is giving me moment after moment and
memory after memory to keep my spirit alive in Him. To reach out to His other children
with my outstretched hands, my open arms, my willing shoulder for others to cry on! He can
look into the hearts of children who have turned away from Him in shame, disgrace, fear or
sorrow... He can look deep into their eyes without my help, I know... but I want Him to
have yet another way to reach another of His children!
We - as women - have this tendency to do
what we are supposed to do because we are supposed to do it. We are told and instructed to
love our husbands so we follow this by doing things we read are showing love... we do this
with everything. We go to church, attend Bible studies, and so much more because we are
"supposed to".
When told that the right thing to do is
have a quiet time, devotional time or prayer time... we strive to find a way to force it
into our day because it is the "right thing to do".
This problem isn't as bad with our
children usually... we are told to love them and guess what? Most of us do... naturally,
easy, willingly, lovingly! We don't love our children because we are told to or because it
is the "right" way! We love them because we LOVE to love them!
Before I go further and confuse you...
listen closely to what I'm trying to share here... it is important.
We need to reach a place inside of us
that goes to our Father because we WANT to love Him. This is not to condone living by
emotions or feelings instead of His truth... we need to learn that right away! We go on
the truth of His Word regardless of the situation or the feelings that are associated with
the situation!
The point here is that we need to learn
to love God. We need to learn Who He really is and not Who we've learned Him to be up to
this point. If quiet time is a dreaded, hurried, fit in, not very enjoyable time for
you... it is being done out of duty and not delight.
We should be able to love our
Father and spend time with Him in awe over His love for us. We will have times when we
don't feel it... we aren't "non-spiritual" when this happens! It just does and
we must climb out of it as we can through steady reading of the Scriptures and prayer.
God loves us whether we do a quiet time
or not. He loves us whether we ever go to Him in prayer, read His Word or anything else.
The relationship... the bond and connection He has with us won't suffer anything from His
end. He's right there... He's involved and in love with us... period.
Learning to know Him and understand some
of this love is for us! It shows us Who this God really is and WHY we would want to be
close to Him. It creates a personal relationship that we can FEEL deep inside and it
changes everything. It changes us from the core of our inner being all the way out.
We are changed because we gradually
change our preception of HIM. Let's face it... most of us have at least some times where
we don't depend on Him strong enough, love Him passionately enough, or believe Him nearly
as valiantly as we should. He IS dependable, He loves us PASSIONATELY, and He IS worthy of
every beleif we long to have of Him.
I read everything on quiet times,
times of devotion, and prayer times that I see. Why do I seem to be focusing so much on
the act itself? Because I have finally grown to love it. I have finally reached this place
where I realize that I am meeting with GOD. I am not disciplining myself to do something
for me. I'm not performing a duty or an obligation! I am going to HIM and HE meets me
there... He is always waiting on ME... me... HE is waiting for... me.
As I was finishing up one of the
paragraphs above I thought about the book I'm reading on this exact subject and realized
it was in my automobile! I asked Blake to PLEASE get it for me and he did:) but I just did
get the chance to glance through it. I wanted to add something wise and wonderful from it
and will share something but not nearly as many things as I would like:)
Here is what I've chosen to share:
"Most worthwhile practices become part of our lives only if we make real effort under
less than perfect conditions." >The writer shares some words from C.S. Lewis:
"The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they
seek it while the conditions are still unfavourable. Favourable conditions never
come."
The book? Feeding Your Soul - A Quiet
Time Handbook by Jean Fleming. Any of you who have read "A Mother's Heart" by
Jean Fleming know what a talented and lovely writer she is on those issues close to a
woman's heart! I love that book, too!
This book, "Feeding Your
Soul" is simply beautiful to me. I have cherished not only the words and reading
those words but also the delicious ideas and suggestions for a truly deep and meaningful
quiet times. I'll just share one of those ideas here:
SIMULATING SPIRITUAL APPETITE
Have your quiet time in Philippians 4:6-7
every day this week. Each day:
* Copy the verse in your notebook.
* List your current concerns.
* Pray about your concerns one by one.
Ask God to work on your behalf.
* Thank God that He hears. Thank Him that
He wants to use each of these situations to draw you to Himself in deeper trust and to
give you a history of experiences with Him.
Taken from: Feeding Your Soul by Jean
Fleming.
I still have times where I have to drink
a cup of strong coffee down to get myself awake enough not to fall back asleep:) so that I
can get to the place I go to meet God in.
People have different views on how we
should come to God... I meet Him in my p.j.'s!
I do have times where I don't feel like
making my appointment but guess what? Never... not once... have I EVER not left that time
feeling fed by the LORD'S love. He touches me and I am not the same. He blesses me with
His unfailing tenderness in the gentle way He cares for me.
I wouldn't know these if I didn't come to
Him. He would still operate the same... He never changes but I wouldn't be nearly as aware
of Him and what He does for me if I never ran to Him! Him... the solace to my soul.
During tomorrow's quiet time I will
pray that He will help each one of you not yet coming to Him to find a way to do so. I
will pray that for each of you and for those of you already meeting this precious Savior
of your soul to come to Him not out of duty, fear, or a written "rule"... but
for consoling your grief - your loss - your trouble... for comfort; giving you strength,
hope and soothing reassurance of His love for you. I pray that you will run, walk, stumble
or climb if necessary to Him so that He can relieve you; free you from your burdens, help
you with your cares, to set you free for that block of time of your obligations... to
remove or lessen the monotony of your daily tasks, chores, obligations, and many roles.
Do you have a longing not
fulfilled? A dream as unmade as your bed before the day begins? A question with seemingly
no answer? A problem with no solution in sight? A pain that just keeps hurting? A wound
that won't heal? A challenge with no idea of how to find victory in? A mountain you cannot
climb alone?
There is ONE way... ONE answer...
ONE perfect "right" in all of life's wrongs --- His Name is Jesus. Go and get to
know Him... get to know everything you can. A lifetime isn't long enough to fully know who
He is but a lifetime spent without trying is truly lacking and less than it was intended.
Find some way to meet with Him, my sweet
sisters. Meet Him on your knees, with your head bent in prayer, with your face and arms
uplifted toward His heavens, your handwritten prayers, and/or any other way you choose...
just choose one and go --- He'll meet you there... He'll be waiting... for YOU... for you.
He'll be waiting for... you.
© 2001 ~ Sandy Willoughby ~
