Do you take the time to be alone with God?

Matthew 6:6 (ESV)

But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Jane Haining, a Scottish Missionary to the Jewish children in Budapest in 1932, knew her priorities: loving God and others. She often took the time to talk with our Father in a quiet place. She always genuinely shared everything with Him. He became her everything.

Jane, with her heavy Scottish accent, was very popular in Budapest. Many amongst the children attending her school were orphans. They loved her, for she genuinely loved each one of her students.

World War 2 broke out while she was on leave in Scotland, but nothing would stop her from leaving immediately for Budapest. She had to be there to protect her Jewish students. Soon missionaries living on mainland Europe were called back to the safety of their own countries. Here again, Jane went to a secluded place to receive confirmation of our Father's will. She realized then that she couldn't leave her students. If children needed her in days of sunshine, how much more she needed to be with them during the dark days of the war, and during those darkest times, when Jews were persecuted relentlessly by the Nazis, she tried everything in her power to protect those children.

Sadly, someone denounced her to the Gestapo. She was arrested and thrown in a dark cell. She was accused of being a spy and of helping Jews. Later she was deported with her Jewish children to Auschwitz, and on August 16, 1944, she went to the gas chamber with a group of Hungarian women. She gave her life for her children, just as Jesus did. She had a heart after God's own heart.

Role-playing leads nowhere. We need genuine believers who will make a difference in this world, just as Jesus did: "Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived." 1John 2:6 This can only be made possible by spending time with our father.

Do you take the time to be alone with God?

Dear Lord, we pray that we would take the time to go into the secret place and cry out to You so that we will know what You have for each of us. In The Name of Jesus, Amen.