Five Minutes

Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!

Five minutes in the Word is better than no time in the Word. Five minutes in prayer is better than no time in prayer. When life is packed to the brim and every minute is accounted for, with something to do or someplace to be, time with God often gets squeezed out. We think if we can’t fit in extended time in deep Bible study, why bother trying? In the scope of time, five minutes might not seem like much, but when stacked together, five-minute increments have an impact on the course of our days.

Five more minutes, we tell ourselves as we scroll on our phone, attempting to escape stress and chaos. Even though the buzz of online chatter doesn’t satisfy us, it often seems easier to choose that noise over the unsettling quiet of our own souls.

Five more minutes, we rationalize as we press snooze again. Five more minutes of sleep inches towards thirty, and before we know it, we’ve run out of time to read our Bible—again.

What if we challenged our mindset on how we spend five-minute pockets of time? Instead of choosing to zone out, what if we chose to zoom our vision onto the Lord?

There are many days I begin reading my Bible, only to be interrupted within the first five minutes. I want to throw my hands in the air in frustration, but I’ve learned that God can speak even in just one verse. He can multiply the five minutes I have to offer into a fruitful time with him, just as he multiplied five loaves of bread and two fish to feed thousands of people (see Matthew 14:13-21; John 6:1-13). He is not limited by time, and his Word accomplishes what it sets out to do (see Isaiah 55:10-11). Scripture revives us and restores us—even in one verse, even if the thirty minutes you planned to read your Bible turned into five.

What if we changed our perspective on the little pockets of time scattered throughout our days? What if we spent the five minutes we sit in the drive-through or the carpool line meditating on a Scripture memory verse? Or what if we used the five-minute breaks between meetings to pray over what is worrying us and give thanks to God, who will sustain us for what we are going to do next? What if we opened our Bibles for just five minutes while standing at the stove waiting for water to boil for dinner? These pockets of time can become moments of rest and refreshment when we use them to focus on the Lord.

You don’t have to spend hours in Bible study, prayer, or meditation to reap a harvest from God’s Word. God is with you as you go through your day. Five minutes over the course of your days can turn into a lifetime of seeking God.

Word before World God can multiply the time we spend with him, even if it’s just five minutes at a time.

Grow in Grace Give God your five minutes, and then resolve to dig in deeper and spend more time with him. Feast on God’s Word as you go about your day, and use the five-minute pockets to bring your mind back to him.