Creating a God First Schedule
One never drifts into becoming more the person that you feel God wants you to become. You actually have to declare that you want to become that new kind of person. And in my way of thinking, one of the best ways to declare it is to put it on your schedule.
What’s causing you all kinds of anxiety that if you took some schedule steps could relieve that anxiety? My word of counsel all the time, is just don’t put a schedule together too quickly. Take your time. Be prayerful about it.
Continually ask yourself, “What would a God-in-first-place schedule really look like in my life?”
Maybe you feel like your schedule has just gotten out of control and it’s unfixable; it’s unsolvable. There’s too many moving pieces in your life; you’re overcommitted. You’re exhausted and you don’t even know if you have the energy to try to fix all of this.
Gang, don’t forget God is for you. God is for you. And if you’ll take a step of faith – just take a couple of hours. Get off by yourself and ask the question, “Who do I want to become?” “What craziness do I want eradicate from my life?”
Slowly but surely, the Holy Spirit will give you ideas. And you can look at each day of your week and say, “How can I live it a little more sanely?” “What has to go?” “What has to be re-prioritized?” “What do I need to say goodbye to?” “What do I need to say hello to?”
If you’ll just give this a shot and take a faltering first step, you’ll experience some progress. And when you get the motivation of some progress under your belt, then you can make modifications. And then you’ll get it more fine-tuned as the weeks and months go on.
And pretty soon you’ll be done with the craziness. Pretty soon, you’ll be in route to be the kind of person that you know God wants you to become.
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Bill Hybels is the founding and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, which has six regional congregations and a total weekend attendance of more than 24,000. He is the bestselling author of more than twenty one books, including Simplify: Ten Practices to Unclutter Your Soul . Bill and his wife, Lynne, have two grown children and two grandsons.
