7 Minutes A Day With God....or MORE

Two weeks ago, at FCA, our leader talked to us about learning to live IN God rather than WITH God. I was really confused by this at first, because to me, they sound the same...Boy was I mistaken. He explained to us that with you are living WITH God, you are basically practicing a religion. You go to church and do thing things expected of Christians, but then continue to live amongst your worldly things. It is only when you choose to live IN God that you truly have a relationship with Him. Living in God requires sacrifice, suffering, pain, and hardship...no one said it was an easy task...in fact God even tells us that in the good book...but He also says that we will be surrounded with love and shelter and that the reward in heaven far outweighs any on earth. After this revelation of truths, he asked us..Which One Are You? Then He challenged us to a task...to spend 7 minutes a day with God. To take just 7 minutes to open scripture, read a passage, reflect on it, and pray. Think 7 minutes sounds like a long time? Think again. I was lucky to make it under 10 minutes. This simple exercise helped me to open up to God more than I believe that I ever have. Every passage that I have read applies to my life. Every prayer that I pray gets deeper and deeper each time. Tears have streamed down my face even in the midst of a great day. God pulls the emotions from my insides and lays them all out on the table. I know that He hears me. I know that He will listen. Sadly, I have been plagued with a heel injury. Long story short, I jumped off the steeple pit and jammed it in. I am used to being injured...you all know that. But this time I'm taking it a different direction. Instead of moping around, restricting my food, and overexercising to stay in shape...instead I am keeping my eyes set on the positive things, getting in more quality work outs over quantity, fueling my body appropriately, but most importantly...utilizing the power of prayer. Now, I can't claim that I do all of these things perfectly ever day. Some times I snap into the reality that I can't run with my team when I take a barefoot step and feel a sharp sting. Some times I break down as I still walk in the unknown about what exactly is wrong with my heel. Some times it just makes me sad, and makes me wants to look up and scream why. It's a battle for sure, but I keep fighting my way back to being positive and understanding of God's plan for me. I will continue to pray, continue to fight, continue to breath easy...and continue my time with God every day...only not limiting it to only 7 minutes.