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I’ve never been great at staying organized. In fact, I would often explain my organizational skills as being “organized chaos”. To the outsider, my piles of clutter look like piles of clutter, but to me they look like a sophisticated filing system that only I can figure out. Lately, I’ve been trying to change that so that I am able to stay organized and do life and ministry more affectively.

To help me make that change, I have been reading some books on being organized. One of those books had some great thoughts about how to start your day so that you feel you had a productive day once it ends. The concept is simple: “Start your day with the most important thing.” Don’t start your day by going on Facebook or watch TV because those things aren’t the most important thing. In fact, if you went a whole day without them you wouldn’t miss out on anything. However, the most important thing for us as Christians to do today is spend time with the Lord.

Most of us would have to admit that we miss out on spending time with God frequently because we try to “fit it” into our day instead of making it the priority of the day. Jesus knew the importance of connecting with His Father as He woke up early before anyone else in order to be alone with Him. (Mark 1:25) What are you going to have to do to make God a priority? Will you have to wake up earlier? Will you have to deny yourself time in front of the TV or on Facebook? Whatever it is, make sure to that spending time with God becomes the most important thing you do today.

“Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win!” - 1 Corinthians 9:24

In this verse, Paul is using a metaphor for what many Christian’s relationship with Jesus Christ looks like. The average “follower” of Jesus looks like a guy who shows up to a track meet in flip flops, eating a bag of chips, and out of breathe because he’s so out of shape that walking from the TV to the bathroom is his version of a marathon. Paul’s challenge is simple: why run to compete when God calls you to run to win?

An affective servant of Christ is the person who is “all in”. The person who demonstrations self-discipline, trains everyday, and feeds the itch that can only be scratched by the prize of winning Christ. Philippians 3:8 says, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” Why fill our lives with material things and meaningless activity that adds nothing to our lives when we can have Christ?

The answer is selfishness. We want things to be easy. We would rather be mediocre or lukewarm if that means our life will be easier. But running to compete will never please God. I don’t know about you, but I want to have the heart of Paul. I want to do more for Christ than just compete. I want to honor God with my life. I want to gain Christ at all cost. I want to run to win!

I use to hate it when I was a part of a prayer meeting and the people who prayed before me would pray for the exact same things that God had laid on my heart. It would drive me crazy because I felt I had to think of new things to pray about that haven’t yet been “taken” by others. When it was my turn I would panic as I desperately searched for something new to talk to God about only to babble meaningless words about something that I was not truly passionate about.

As ridiculous as this sounds, we’ve all done it. Is this truly the way that we should pray? Absolutely not. If God lays something on our heart, we must respond. We cannot ignore it because others might think we “stole” their prayer or that we are unoriginal. Prayer is a time for us to communicate with God. Our focus must be on Him and not on others.

Life moves very quickly and it’s very easy to miss out on opportunities to meet with God. Most of us need to learn to slow things down. We need time to be still in the presence of God, meditate on Scripture, and communicate with Him through prayer. The following is an exercise that is meant to help you learn to slow things down and connect with your Savior.

Step 1: Preparation – Find a quiet place where you won’t be distracted. Make sure to turn off your cell phone and other electronic devices that could be a distraction (ipod, TV, video games, etc.). Take a few moments to be silent and turn your heart and thoughts towards Christ. Pray that God will help you slow down as you rest in His presence.

Step 2: Read Scripture – This is not meant to be a first-one-to-finish-wins type reading, but a purposeful reading to help you absorb Scripture. Select a passage to read. Read through at least twice. The first time, read through the passage slowly from start to finish. The second time, stop at any word or phrase that might stand out to you and read that word or phrase several times before moving on. Don’t try to finish, but finish once you’ve absorbed every word, phrase, and sentence.

Step 3: Meditation – Take some time to reflect on those words or phrases that stood out to you. Why did they stand out? What thoughts or questions come to mind? What memories or other images come to mind? How does this passage apply to you? What could God be trying to speak to you about through this passage? Like eating your favorite dessert, take your time and enjoy every bite.

Step 4: Response – Through meditation you will experience a response to God and His Word. It might be a response of praise, thankfulness, confession, repentance, purpose, etc. Whatever your response may be, take time to speak to God about it. Communicate to God your response and what this passage has revealed to you.

Step 5: Contemplation – Take your final moments to contemplate what God has spoken to you about, what you’ve read, or your response to this time of mediation. During this time it is important to learn to rest in God’s presence. Think of this time as being similar to a child resting in the arms of his loving parent.

This might seem unusual and unnatural at first, but the purpose is meant for you to learn to slow things down and meet with God. This exercise has been adapted from Enjoy the Silence by Duffy and Maggie Robbins.