Five Minutes - Word before World

“Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!” (1 Chronicles 16:11, ESV)

“They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.” (Matthew 14:17-21, ESV)

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11, ESV)

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).

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 to meditate 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.