Overview
Tony Washington examines “Take the Time” through Mark 1, Numbers 11, Matthew 11, Isaiah 45, showing how know, time, things shape a believer’s relationship with God, daily choices, and service to others.
Transcript
Understanding Take the Time
Have you ever noticed how you can be blessed and peaceful and enjoying life and then suddenly you’re not, right? Or you can be feeling good, then all of a sudden anxious or afraid, or, you know, you’re in a certain scenario and life’s going pretty good and you’re blessed, you’re blessed with God and you’re blessed with your life and a, you know, series of events happen and then you’re not, or you’re scratching your head, you know, sort of bewildered, like, what happened to my happiness and what happened to my blessing? Well, tonight we’re going to get right into that topic. So if you look at 1st John, chapter one, please. You know, this world we live in is a frenetic, that’s a good word, frenetic, crazy place.
And, you know, lots of people, I won’t say everyone, but lots of people are going a thousand miles an hour and nobody has time for anything, you know, or don’t take the time that they need in their lives. And if you look at 1st John, chapter one, in verse three, it says, that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ.
And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full, you know? And if you think about that, that is God’s intent for our default mindset, right? God wants us to enjoy life. He wants us to be peaceful and not worried about how it’s going to work out and this kind of thing. That’s our default, normal barometer for our mindset, right? That’s what God wants for us.
And then it says in verse five, this then is the message, which we have heard of him and declare unto you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all, right? And so if you think about it, if God is light with no darkness at all, any time we are out of sorts, as it were, some darkness has crept in there somewhere, you know, some fear, some worry, some anxiety, some agitation, some troubled state, right? They’re all really darkness. They’re not in alignment with God and his word. They’re darkness.
And this is our indicator that we need to take some time to get things back straight. Because if you think about it, fellowship really takes place in our mind. God has already done all the things for us.
God already did all the heavy lifting and fixed, you know, legally fixed things for us. He got rid of our sin problem. So this fellowship that occurs, occurs in our minds.
And so sometimes we have to, not sometimes, often, we have to take the time to get things back straight. We have to invest the time to get things back straight. And if you look at Mark, this is a great record that I’m sure you’ve heard before.
But in Mark chapter 1, I have to remember to give people time because not everybody’s electronic nowadays. But in Mark chapter 1 and verse 32, it says, yeah, in verse 32, and it’s even when the Sunday set, they brought unto him all that were diseased. Now think about this.
They brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils, plural, and all the city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many that were sick of diverse diseases, cast out many devils, and suffered not the devil’s deceit because they knew him. Right.
So this is the night, this is his day before. Right. And then it says in the next verse in 32, or in verse 35, and in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed.
And, you know, I always think about that. He got up before the world got up and he went and spent some time talking to God, you know, and really, I’m sure some of that process was just getting things clear and straight in his mind, you know, because this is a man and this is a fantastic man, but this is a man who’s busy and, you know, he’s got a lot of things going on and a lot of situations involving all these different people. And, you know, he’s tasked with always getting it right, beyond my comprehension, but he’s tasked with always getting it right.
And so he would get up and take the time he needed with God. And, you know, I think, you know, people have made arguments that it should be first thing in the morning or, you know, and I think, well, what if you work the graveyard shifts, you know, and you get up at 8 p.m. and have breakfast and get ready for, you know, so I don’t think you can just define it by it has to be in the morning. But the point is that you take some time to get things cleared up and to get things straight.
The Biblical Foundation
And the way that I do it is something that I refer to as morning pages. Well, that’s the name of it. And I’ll get into that in a second.
But I had an unusual thing happen to me. I was working for a company until I wasn’t. You know how that goes.
And then I started job seeking. And long story short, it took me a little more than a year to find a new job. And, you know, in all honesty and in the spirit of full disclosure, some of that’s probably my own fear.
And, you know, let’s just accept responsibility. But it took me longer than a year to get a job. But during that year, God taught me and showed me so many things that I needed to understand and be clear on in my life.
He taught me about bondage and legalism and listen to the wrong voice. And I could just go on and on because it was over a lengthy period of time. But I think when I look back, I think, you know, that time was one of my best times of learning that I that I’ve had in my life.
And really, I needed it at that point in my life. I’m not saying that, you know, God’s plan was for me to be unemployed for a year, which I don’t recommend for you unless your wife’s a good earner. Sorry, honey.
But, you know, at the end of the day, I learned more things in that year and during that time that I was off because I just used the time and I’ve just spent time with God like I had the time, you know, outside of job seeking. So I spent the time with God. So, again, I’m not promoting that, you know, we should quit our jobs and spend a time of learning.
But I am promoting that it’s beneficial to our lives to take the time we need to be successful, to take the time we need to get our minds straight, to get things cleared up in our brains. You know, we live in our lives and it’s so fast sometimes. And the tendency is to just keep moving forward.
Well, just keep moving forward. Well, if you have stuff that’s bugging you, if you have stuff that you’ve been struggling with for a long time, maybe, or you have stuff that’s eating away at you day by day, it’s worth it to take the time to track it down and to get it straight. It’s worth it, you know, because in the end result, you’re going to be that much better off.
So I do a process called morning pages. All it is, in synopsis, is I just have conversations with God in the morning and I write it down in my journal. That’s what morning pages is to me.
It kind of evolved. It didn’t start that way. It was more like a journal, but it kind of evolved that way.
Examples and Spiritual Lessons
But I noticed it’s a time, first of all, that I look forward to in the morning. All my kids, people that know me and love me, know that I’m big into morning pages because they’ll say, hey, we rented this place by the beach and you would love it that it has a great table outside for your morning pages. But see, the point is, they know I’m going to take that time.
And during that time, I just express what’s going on, where I’m at with God in detail and with complete honesty. You know, the good, the bad and the ugly. With complete honesty, I go over things with God, things that are bugging me, things that I don’t understand, things that I haven’t been able to work out, things where areas where I keep getting defeated, maybe, whatever it is.
And don’t get me wrong, it’s not always a Tony complaint session. A lot of times I’m just so thankful, I don’t know how thankful I am, you know, for the things he does or I acknowledge his blessings that are very clear. I want them to know that I know that that was him, you know, whatever.
But I use that time to commune with God and to take the time I need with him. To get things straight. That’s what I’m talking about.
If you look at Numbers 11, here’s an example of Moses. And I know John is an Old Testament expert, in my opinion, and he would know all about this, but this is Moses, I can find it, in Numbers 11. And he says here, in Numbers 11, so, you know, he’s getting ready to do this mission.
And then he says in verse 11, Moses said unto the Lord, wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? Wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? Have I conceived all these people? Have I begotten them, that thou shouldst say unto me, carry them in thy bosom? As a nursing father, beareth a suffering child under the land which thou swearest unto their fathers. When should I give flesh to give unto all these people? For they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. I’m not able to bear all these people alone because it’s too heavy for me.
And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee. Out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight, and let me not see my wretchedness. And then God answers him and says, no, we’re going to divide this work up, you know, calm down a little bit, Moses.
Well, I love that because he’s being very clear with God, you know, and, you know, if you think about it, God is our father. He is literally our father. And there’s nothing we can’t say to him.
You know, yes, we’re humble. You know, I don’t I don’t get that way. But, you know, there’s nothing that we can’t say to God.
Say it. Right. He already knows everything that’s going on.
And I think you’ll find that the more you say it and the more you talk it over with him, he’ll answer you. He will help you to understand. He’ll guide you to a place in the Word or just sometimes right out say something.
Oh, solve my issues in a moment of time. Right. But that’s the benefits of taking the time with him.
Faith in Action
I don’t know if you ever saw the movie The Apostle. It’s one of my favorites. It’s kind of a weird movie, but it’s one of my favorites because there’s a scene where he’s in his upper room in his place, I think, where he lives and he’s having a screaming match with God.
He’s pretty upset. But I don’t love the fact that he’s screaming at God, obviously. But I love the fact that he’s so breathtakingly honest.
You know, you said such and such and it’s not happening, you know, whatever. You know, it was just the attitude of believing God that, you know, he could communicate with him that way. That’s why he’s loved it.
Here’s a here’s another example. Look at Matthew chapter 11. And again, some familiar verses, but I think interesting to think about in this context.
And in verse 28 of Matthew 11, it says, Come unto me, all you that are labor, that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And, you know, what’s interesting about this is Bollinger has a note on this on verse 28. And he says here, Christ refers not to sins, but to service, not to guilt, but to labor, not to the conscience, but to the heart, not to repentance, but to learning, not to finding forgiveness, but to finding rest.
And what I found so interesting about that was after all that Christ accomplished for us, we don’t need to figure out all those things anymore. You and I don’t need to figure out how to make ourselves right before God or pure before God or worthy or deserving or righteous. All those things have been solved for us.
So really what’s happening to us is something is taking place in our minds where our fellowship with God exists. Something’s taking place to disturb that fellowship. And so we want to get rid of those things that are disturbing that fellowship.
Sometimes it’s clarity. For me, with morning pages, it always results in clarity. That’s why I love it so much.
But it goes on to say, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And I’ve always loved that because the rest is that you don’t have to do the work.
I don’t have to do the work. The way that we find rest to our souls is we get back to what God’s word says. You know, if we’ve got some tyranny of acts that we need to do to make ourselves righteous, well, then we’ve got to get back to the truth of God’s word that we’re already righteous.
So rest in that. Stop working, you know, stop trying to figure it all out or, you know, think that it’s consequences of sins that are happening. And this is how, you know, at the end of the day, it’s the adversary getting to our thinking and getting our thinking to get out of bounds.
Walking in Love and Confidence
Look, listen to this one from Isaiah. Like I said, my greatest reward for morning pages is clarity. And if you think about it, isn’t that what we need? Don’t we need clarity? We just want to understand what’s going on sometimes.
Sometimes, you know, the world is confusing. The adversaries are especially confusing and slippery. You know, one of the things that I learned during that year off work was a lot of these conversations that were going on in my head that I thought were between me and God weren’t between me and God at all.
Right. It was between it was the adversary, the accuser and me answering accusations that you’re never going to win at that game. Right.
But I just got the clarity like that can’t be God because God said in his word, he doesn’t judge me. He doesn’t have anything to judge me for. Right.
He’s already judged me, righteous in Christ Jesus. So how could that be him whispering, you know, my faults and failings and accusations to me? See what I mean? It was the clarity of spending that time that got me to that. In Isaiah 45, it says in verse 2, I will go before thee and make the crooked places straight.
I will break in pieces the gates of wrath and cut and thunder the bars of iron. And I’ve been there. I will give thee the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places that thou mayest know that I am the Lord which called thee by name and the God of Israel.
For Jacob, my servant, and Israel, mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name. I have surnamed thee, though thou knowest not me, thou hast not known me. I am the Lord and there is none else.
There is no God beside me. I have girded thee, though thou hast not known me, that they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none beside me. I am the Lord and there is none else.
And I just love that because God’s promising to give us clarity. He’s promising to give us understanding. And think about it.
He is your father. He is my father. And extra bonus as a father, he knows everything.
Right. He knows exactly why you’re feeling blue. He knows exactly why you’re feeling down, why you’re not enthusiastic, you know, why you’re unhappy in this scenario.
He knows exactly what needs to happen in your relationship for it to be more fulfilling for your work. Maybe it’s a totally different line of work. God knows all of those things.
Applying the Teaching in Daily Life
And if we spend the time with him and take the time with him and talk them over, he’ll just lead us right into the best way. In James, in the book of James, two more verses, but in the book of James, it says, and I’ll read, I’ll start actually in verse two, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse or many temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. Or another way to say it is the testing.
Right. And that’s not by God, which you know, I know, you know, right. But knowing this, that the testing of your faith worketh patience or endurance.
But let endurance have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. You know, whenever I read that, I think it’s like you finally stopped running away. You know what I mean? You know, like James and the giant peach.
When you finally stop running away and you get rid of fear and just take it on, you’ll see God will help you to see things for what they really are. And then you’ll really be settled. You know, you won’t be so easy to shake up and twist around.
In verse five, it says, If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God to give it to all men liberally. And I pray it’s not, and it shall be given him. And I love that God added that part in there.
And I pray that’s not, because you know what that means? That means God’s going to tell you what you need to do and he’s not going to give you any grief about it. He’s never going to say, I told you so, or I told you ten times ago. Right.
He’s just going to tell you what to do. He’s blessed that you come to him for the answer. How about this one in Proverbs, and this is Tom’s favorite verse, I know for sure.
But in Proverbs chapter three, we’ll just get there, it says in verse five, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding, and all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path. And that direct there is like rightly divide their paths, like he wants us to enjoy life and I’ll show you the way to get there. Right.
That’s what this is saying here. It’s saying trust in God, just talk it over with him, you know, say it’s OK to say, I don’t know and I don’t understand. Matter of fact, that’s my favorite thing to say, God, I don’t know and I don’t understand.
Why pretend otherwise, you know, if I’m all twisted up over something, normally something silly. In Psalm 25 it says, there’s another one, in Psalm 25 in verse four, if you got there in a hurry. I’m not.
In Psalm 25, verse four, it says, Show me thy ways, O Lord, teach me thy path, lead me in thy truth and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation, on thee do I wait all the day. Right. So now back to 1 John.
A Life Shaped by God’s Word
So it’s available to us, is what I’m saying, and the only thing that we have to do to get it is to take the time, commit the time, whenever that is, commit the time to get things straight. I know the natural temptation when you’re bothered by things or when you’re disturbed by things, well, I’m just going to keep moving, I’m going to stay busy, I’m going to keep moving. And, you know, maybe sometimes that’s effective, you know, sometimes maybe you did just need to move ahead.
But a lot of times I think we need to just take some time with God and talk it over. You know, I’m writing it, but then I like to write, you know, maybe you don’t like to write, but maybe it’s just time to take the time to talk things over with him, the good, the bad and the ugly, and let him help us. You know, he’s more than willing, it would be crazy actually, not to get help from him.
So back to 1 John, chapter one, remember it says God is light and in him is no darkness at all. It says in now in verse six, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin.
So it’s where it’s in our mind, you know, you can you and I can say, oh, it’s all good. It’s all good. But it ain’t good.
Right. But when it’s good is when we back to walking in the light in our mind. Right.
Walking in the light can’t be doing good works or can’t be doing works, I should say. Right. Because there’s no requirement for us to do works.
It’s in our mind. We bring our minds back to the light. What does the word say about this situation? For example, the word says God doesn’t judge me.
So someone’s judging me, but it ain’t God. You get it. It’s that simple.
Because we take the time to get it straight. So in summary, a lot goes on in a day. Things hit our minds, concepts that aren’t true, accusation and judgment, sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious, fiery darts, hurtful words, you know, negative scenarios, all that stuff.
It’s going to happen to us. And we’re in a contest. So because we’re in a contest and because we’re God’s children, we need to take the time to get it all back straight.
We need God’s clarity for our hearts. He’s always right there and he will always answer us. Take the time.
Amen.
Key Takeaways
- But see, the point is, they know I’m going to take that time.
- A lot of times I’m just so thankful, I don’t know how thankful I am, you know, for the things he does or I acknowledge his blessings that are very clear.
- But a lot of times I think we need to just take some time with God and talk it over.
- And this is our indicator that we need to take some time to get things back straight.
- But the point is that you take some time to get things cleared up and to get things straight.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main message of “Take the Time”?
Tony Washington examines “Take the Time” through Mark 1, Numbers 11, Matthew 11, Isaiah 45, showing how know, time, things shape a believer’s relationship with God, daily choices, and service to others.
Which scriptures are central to this teaching?
The teaching draws especially from Mark 1, Numbers 11, Matthew 11, Isaiah 45, Psalm 25.
How can believers apply this teaching?
And this is our indicator that we need to take some time to get things back straight.
Scripture References
Mark 1; Numbers 11; Matthew 11; Isaiah 45; Psalm 25
This text was prepared from the teaching audio or source document. Please verify scripture references against your own Bible.
