Your Daily Devotional: A Place and a Time

“Because He bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath.” Psalm 116: 2

As working women, we know the more structure we have for things we do, the more successful we will be. Habits, predetermined places and procedures will decrease time, energy and stress as we can automatically go to where we planned to go and do what we planned to do. This is very important in everyone’s lives so we can optimize our time and enjoyment. And, this is true with our daily devotional time with the Lord.

The first step in having a successful devotional time is to designate a spot in your home where you will consistently go for your time with God in the morning. This could be a specific area of the house and/or a special chair. In the popular movie, The War Room, Miss Clara used her closet to pray.

The most important thing is for you to choose a place which will be your special spot to meet with the Lord in the first part of your day. Usually, this will be a place which is

1. Quiet

2. Calm

3. Comfortable

4. Free of distractions

5. Clutter free

6. Not likely to be needed by others.

You may also want to consider what other things would be special and meaningful. You may want to be near a window where you can see nature as you consider the majesty of God. You might want to journal your thoughts, so you may need a table with pen and paper, or space for your laptop. Perhaps you like to start the day with a cup of coffee with God. (This is something that is part of my daily devotional time with the Lord).

The most important thing about where is that you have designated a place where you will be able to focus on God and not be distracted.

The next important thing is to determine a time for your devotions.

Some people may not schedule their quiet time in the morning. Rather, for personal and specific reasons, they may need to spend this time at another point in their day. However, even if you can just spend a few minutes at the beginning of your day with the Lord, it will set you up for success for the rest of it. People often comment they prefer to have this time in the morning so their focus for the day starts with a focus on God. We often know what things may take up our time, energy and thoughts, therefore we want to start each day in the right frame of mind.

• Are you anticipating a difficult meeting? Start the day with God and give it to him.

• Do you need to make a difficult decision? Start your day by asking for His wisdom and direction.

• Are you feeling a little more tired than usual? Ask God to give you strength and patience for all you need to do and deal with.

“The prayer offered to God in the morning during your quiet time is the key that unlocks the door of the day. Any athlete knows that it is the start that ensures a good finish.” Adrian Rogers

Do you have a specific spot which you have designated for your alone time with God? If not, take time to determine your special place this week. Then determine a specific time for you to meet with God. He will be leaning down to listen to you.

May God richly bless you this week as you commit to a time and place to meet with Him.

Bonny, Christian Women at Work

Quiet Time and the Christian Working Woman

“Because He bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath.” (Psalm 116:2)

There are many things we may not be able to control throughout our day.

Your day could be a very smooth one or it may turn out to be a day when we have difficult discussions, problems to solve, projects to complete, meetings to attend and obstacles to overcome. However, there is one thing we can control, and that is what we do at the start of our day.

How you start your day will have a huge impact on how you manage and finish your day.

Quiet Time is the time we spend with God at the beginning of our day:

• It is “me time with God” when we can sit in His presence, talk to Him, learn from Him, learn more about Him and just let ourselves relax in His love and presence.

• It is the time when we can be alone with Him and talk to Him about what concerns we have about the day and ask for His guidance on how to handle them in the way that blesses Him and others.

• It is the time to quiet our soul before Him and before the stresses and the demands of the day try to affect us and distract us from the knowledge of His power and presence.

• It is the time to focus on how wonderful and magnificent the Lord is and to remember that the joy of the Lord is our strength, no matter what the day brings.

• It is the time to reflect on God’s standards, and not the world’s, on issues we are dealing with.

• It is the time to see what the Lord wants us to know that may be helpful for that day or one day in the future.

• It is the time to prepare for our day, and the responsibilities that lay ahead, with the attitude God wants us to have because we have had time to reflect on His love and character at the start of our day.

• It is the time of the day when the first thing we visualize is the Lord bending down to listen to us as we speak to Him.

This past week, I had a last minute request from a staff member to take a vacation day. Agreeing to it would have caused the rescheduling of appointments, disappointment and frustration for people whose appointments needed to be changed and extra work for the admin staff. We have a work policy that vacation requests need to be in writing and well ahead of the time requested for the specific days. Agreeing to this request would also not be fair to people who submit their requests ahead of time. All this being said, if a staff member has an emergency then we will jump into action and do what needs to be done. However, this is reserved for those urgent and unusual situations and not a last minute request to take a day off.

As I spent my time with the Lord in the morning, I came across a Bible verse that I had written down a few days earlier. When I had read Psalm 15:2 it had grabbed my attention. I had to write it down. I now know why. God was preparing a response for me that I would need later.

“Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts.” (Psalm 15:2)

I had journalled “Be sincere, kind and honest.” As I reflected, in God’s presence, on those words, I had my answer on what I needed to do.

• I needed to be honest about my concerns that unless it was an emergency, we unfortunately could not grant her request.

• I needed to be kind and realize that there were likely some difficult things going on her life that precipitated this request.

• I needed to be sincere that I wanted to help in any way that I could, even though it was not realistic to give the staff member this day off.

The situation was resolved in that she was able to take a different day off later which did not impact people. I was thankful to God for His leading in how to resolve this issue.

The busyness of life is not a reason to miss solitude time with God in the morning. In fact, the busier you are, the more you actually need this peaceful and close time with the Lord.

There is not a recipe on what your quiet time should look like or how long it should take. There are specific things you will want to include but the structure should be individualized to you and also how you learn best. Next week, we will discuss some of the things to consider in your quiet time and different approaches you can take. I hope you will join us next week as we review this time in the morning when God bends down to listen to what you want to tell Him.

May the Lord richly bless you this week!

Bonny, Christian Women at Work

The SWOT Analysis: A Biblical Perspective – Part 2

”He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

Some times, we learn best by seeing an example of what it is we are learning, so this week, I share how I have recently used the SWOT Analysis.

We recently initiated a new program in our Physiotherapy clinic called “ReCOVery: The Post COVID Rehab Program. Over the past year, there have been numerous studies and reports of the long-standing effects many people who have suffered COVID continue to experience. We have seen the role that physiotherapy and individualized care can contribute to their recovery. Putting this new program through a Biblical SWOT Analysis reveals the following:

Search: This is a new condition which will require physiotherapy for people to improve and build their lives back again. The motive behind initiating this is to provide an evidence-based individualized program to people that is professional, caring and based on best evidence.

Wait: As news began to spread about the long term effects people with COVID were experiencing, we had already hired a Physiotherapist with research experience who still did not have a full case-load. She was able to conduct the initial research on Long COVID. Therefore, this did not take extra financial resources or time from another project.

Offensive: The initiation, delivery and promotion of this program was professional, intelligent and organized. It is focused on helping people and there was a team that worked together towards this goal. The work was shared and normal everyday work activities continued.

Time: We felt peace about this project and did not see anything in God’s word that caused us to reconsider this new initiative. We have now started to see patients and will continue to prayerfully review the program as it unfolds in the business.

Do you have a project, product or program you are considering for your business? Take time to put it through the Biblical SWOT Analysis and consider what the Lord is saying to you.

May God richly bless you this week at you do His Work … at work.

Bonny, Christian Women at Work