Why "7" Minutes?

When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

(Matthew 6:6)

Nan was the mother of three young children and the wife of a youth pastor.  And she was frustrated.  She had been trying to set aside one hour each day for prayer and meditation on God’s Word, but try as she might, it never seemed to come together. The daytime hours were filled to the brim so she tried getting up an hour earlier but invariably her husband or one of the children also woke up early.  Staying up after everyone else was in bed wasn’t any more successful, for then she found herself dozing off in the middle of prayer.

The problem was doubly embarrassing because of her husband’s position, but at last she swallowed her pride and confessed the problem to the senior pastor who listened with no comment as she poured out her heart.  She wondered what he was thinking.  Would he agree with her self-condemnation and make her feel even guiltier?  Or would he offer some solution for gleaning an hour out of her busy days?  Whatever she expected to hear, she was not prepared for the answer he gave.

“Well, Nan” he asked in all sincerity, “do you have three minutes a day?”

Taken aback, she replied, “Of course I can manage three minutes but what good is that?”

Again she was surprised when he replied, “Don’t you think that if that is all the time you have, God can teach you as much in three minutes as he can in an hour?”

Years later, Nan was relating this experience at a women’s retreat I was attending.  As I listened, the title for a book of devotionals I have been longing to write came as clearly to me as if it had been spoken aloud:  “7 MINUTES ALONE WITH GOD.”

But why seven minutes?  Why not three or six or a dozen?  In the Bible, the number seven is a perfect number.  Like our 100%.  So whether it is three minutes or an hour or anytime in between, if that is truly all the time we can manage, it’s the perfect amount of time to be alone with God.  The quality is far more important than the quantity of time. While we must not use this concept as an excuse for laziness when it comes to our daily alone with God time, it takes away some of the guilt caused by arbitrarily imposed expectations.

God is not limited by time as we are, and can give us insights, encouragements, and instructions in an instant if He so chooses.  In fact, since He is not limited by  space, He can continue to do so throughout the day as we carry out our regular duties.

  

Lord, help us understand the need to be alone with You each day,

to read Your Word and talk to You and hear the things You say.

But help us not do so from guilt or burdened down by time, 

for then we’d surely miss the truths You wish to bring to mind.