Dec 13, 2015 6 min read

Last time we talked, I was kind of…what’s the word…intense. After reading the commentary again, I could see how someone might be a little turned off or turned up by my bravado. I won’t apologize. I meant every word. We (yes, as in me and you) need to better prioritize our time and order our steps so that we truly honor the most important people in our lives, including the lord.

Doesn’t it seem that during the holidays, we often find ourselves busy buying gifts, attending parties, and baking goods? Our intention may be to show love and appreciation to those that we care most about; however, I’d argue that it has become more about the spending of dollars and not about the spending of time. We have become absent from our own relationships. We’ve replaced our time with things. And even worse yet, God has become absent as well. There is an empty chair for him at our tables. We sit there anxiously waiting, wondering if he will ever arrive. We never take a moment to consider if we even actually invited him to dinner. Our God is absent from our lives and it’s all our fault. Let’s dig a little deeper.

Eleanor Mumford, internationally renowned evangelist and former national leader of the Vineyard Church in the UK and Ireland, recently delivered a message called “Your God is too Absent” at Vineyard Columbus.

You might recognize Mrs. Mumford’s surname. Her son is Marcus Mumford, the lead singer from the folk band Mumford and Sons. During her message, Eleanor shared some personal stories from her own life. With her wonderful sarcasm and humorous delivery, she reminded us that our God is not absent. “He is manifestly present. He is absolutely interested. He is totally engaged. He is not absent.” She went on to say that, “Our God is involved. Our God is present through his people and the presence of his holy spirit to empower his people.”

“But wait a minute Gina. You just said that our God is absent.” Yes. You are correct. I did. But its not because He is not present. He is absent because we have not invited him into our lives. We have not honored His presence. We have not spent time seeking His heart. “OK Gina. I’m not interested in a second beat down today.” Alright. I understand. I don’t want to beat you up. Let’s think about it this way.

When you woke up this morning, what was the first thing that you did? Be honest. You got it? Great. What was the second thing that you did? Got it? OK, good. How about the third thing? The fourth? The fifth? Of those first five things that you did, can you honestly say that you gave a moment to God to say thank you? Now think on those five things again. Of those five things that you did, did any of them include a complaint, whine, moan, or grunt of anger and frustration? Hmmm. I’m gonna leave you here to meditate on your morning rituals for a moment.

There is significant time and research dedicated to exploring the importance of morning habits of successful people. In reading various articles and text about the topic, I found a few themes. One very apparent theme is quiet time spent in prayer. Now folks give it different titles, but ultimately, its prayer time. Forbes and Microsoft call it visualization. Open Forum calls it meditation. Gina Jones calls it prayer. How awesome would it be to start our days off with an open invitation to God? How much better would our days be if our first thoughts were in thanksgiving for what we have instead of spent in groaning about what we lack? And what better way to connect to a God who we feel is absent, than in quiet time devoted only to him?

Recently, a friend reached out to me to ask about prayer. A family’s member prognosis had caused her to pause, consider her life and examine her relationship with God. Specifically she asked me about prayer. I shared with her that prayer isn’t necessarily about saying the “right” words or praying at a specific time of day or in a particular location. And although I’ve been “in church” my whole life, I haven’t always had a strong prayer life. I would pray when I was in need or pray out of habit. It wasn’t until 2013, that I decided to devote more energy to my prayer life. I was afraid that I wasn’t doing it right and that I didn’t know enough scripture to even begin to get it right. So I started to pray at the same time every day. I told her that having a schedule helped me to give uninterrupted specific time to the Lord. I am a morning person, so 5 a.m. works for me. I only started with 10 minutes and over time it’s turned to 30 minutes. But sometimes it’s still just 10 minutes.

So what does this all mean? Well, it means that we need to do more to connect to God. It means that we can’t replace our “God time” with a donation to an organization at Christmas or tithe at church. It means that our God is not absent.

Mrs. Mumford said several memorable quotes that I won’t soon forget but there was one that has impressed upon me the importance of connecting to God. She said, “We need the power of God to do the work of God so that we can fulfill the call God has on our lives.” As we end this year, I ask you to consider Eleanor’s statement.

Were you plugged into the ultimate power source this year?

Did you make room for him in your life?

Lets give thanks to him because he decided to be present anyway.

Gina Jones is a life-long resident of Fayette County and serves the community as an encourager, educator and advocate. Learn more about Gina at www.gmarieproductions.com.