This past Christmas/New Years I flew out to California to visit my family. Before every plane takes off the flight attendant always goes through the emergency plan in case something happens. Normally I don’t pay attention because I have heard it a ton already. For some reason this time I was listening. While explaining the oxygen masks and how to use them she said this, “Please secure your own mask before assisting others.”. Most people would hear those words and think, “How selfish”. If you think about it, its a wise statement, how are you going to help anyone if you can’t breathe yourself? This of course got me thinking that I need to apply this in other areas of my life as well.

I have nothing to offer anyone if do not first take time away. This is not selfish, it is preparation and if you are a Christian you are always thinking of ways that you can prepare yourself to be used by God in the lives of others. I have found personally that if I don’t spend time in the presence of God away from people that I do not have a way of building others up and pointing them towards God’s purposes. I must be saturated with His word, filled with His Spirit and confident of the mission that He has set before me.

Do I always succeed? No. Do I continually keep pursuing? Always.

One thing that I have been learning is how to listen to God, through His word, through circumstances, through silence. So when I say time away, I’m not just talking about “devotional” time or “bible study” as valuable as those are. I’m talking about quality time with Jesus, just sitting and listening to him and talking to him as we must do in any quality relationship. I don’t know about you but I don’t recall ever going out to lunch with a friend and then sitting and reading the book that they wrote while they are sitting there waiting to talk to me. I know that is a drastic comparison and I am not diminishing the effect that Scripture has on our lives, but I want to remember that it is my goal to know God more and more and to share my life with Him.

I believe that by knowing God we come to know ourselves and we also come to know others and see them as God sees them. So don’t forget to guard that time that you spend with God, you really are helping others when you help yourself to God.