ZPCBlog

About the author: Pamela and her husband, David, have been grateful to be a part of ZPC's congregation for approximately 15 years. Both love being a part of the Great Banquet community and being involved in a variety of ways musically. Pamela is also involved with Revive and Restore women's ministries. 

This week's scripture: Isaiah 35:1-10

Each year as Advent season begins, I worry that I will lose or miss the reason for this time of year. Typically, a musician’s schedule from October on is packed with researching music, rehearsals and, come December, a multitude of performances. It’s a blistering pace filled with long days and late nights. After the last of the Christmas eve services is complete and we are home, we collapse in bed around 3 am feeling blissful, fulfilled, and exhausted. With so many commitments, even Jesus-centered ones, it can be easy to forget for whom we are singing.

Due to the pandemic and the plummeting of our rehearsals and performances, this year looks completely different. But the concern is the same. How do I keep this time well? How do I anticipate Jesus’ coming and prepare my spirit for all that will mean?  

Spending time with God is the perfect answer. He knows how to ready our souls. Before Jerry’s challenge, I had already been consistently reading Scripture. I am so grateful that, at the start of 2020, Scott encouraged us to read the Bible daily. Since then, I have been following a plan to read the Bible in a year and that plan is almost complete. It has been an amazing time of refocus and growth. But recently, I had started to feel restless, wondering if something needed to be done differently, if I was getting everything out of my time that God wanted me to have. (God often redirects me through restlessness!) Jerry’s challenge came at the perfect time to show me how to meditate and to see how God blesses and uses that time dedicated to him.

Christian author Jerry Jenkins talks about writing and the fact that it will not just happen. It is something for which we actually have to *carve* out the time. Spending time with God is the same. It will not just happen. We carve out the time by deciding exactly when we’re going to spend time with God and then not allow anything to disturb that time. We have to decide to do it and then be purposeful about making it happen. 

For me, I start my day with God, spending time with him first thing. I have found that to be best for me – I run to him as soon as I wake up before I allow the world’s noise to clamor for my attention. I am much better equipped for the day when I have God’s perspective in place first.

I complete my daily reading of Proverbs or Psalms, something from the New Testament, and something from the Old Testament. Since the challenge, I may begin my 15 minutes right afterward. Other days, I will do my 15 minutes at a later time in the afternoon. I pray first for wisdom, I read the Scripture that is the focus for that week, I then read the ZPC devotional. I write down Scripture and phrases from that time that stick out to me. I look back on those and, with my spirit quieted, I see how God speaks.    

What struck me with this week’s Scripture was Isaiah 35:4:

“…say to those with fearful hearts,
    “Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
    he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
    he will come to save you.”

The beginning of the Scripture talks about the desert, the wilderness, and the cities rejoicing. God reassures those feeling weak, those with feeble hands and unsteady knees, that he would come to save us. This reminder could not have come at a better time. Though our deserts currently seem parched and our wilderness dark and overgrown, our God will save us. There is no need to fear. You can feel the jubilance of all of creation, rejoicing at God’s glory and splendor. The rescued enter Zion singing and are overtaken by gladness and joy!

Had I not spent this dedicated time with God, I would have missed it – this amazing reassurance in these desperate times would not have been received. My eyes would have skimmed the verses but my heart would not have taken them in. I carved out the time to be with God and he made himself known to me. That fills me with deep, unending joy!

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