Do Checklists Keep You On Task?

Anyone love a good checklist?  I love the sense of accomplishment that a checklist gives me. It’s also amazing how much more I accomplish in a day if I write each item down and create a checklist. That check list gives me a reminder, keeps me on task, frees my mind so I don’t have to keep running through everything I have do that day, ect.

I can relate this same concept to spending time with the Lord daily. I want to be faithful to spend time with the Lord daily but sometimes I forget. I get busy with other things and all the priorities of life and the day is gone. Adding ‘time with the Lord’ to my checklist is a necessity.

What does spending time with the Lord daily mean to you? Is it reading the Bible? Praying? Both? There are multiple terms for spending time with the Lord: devotions, quite time, ect. But regardless of what you call it, it should be Spending Time!

I think perhaps we are missing something when our goal is to read the Bible and pray, just to check it off our list. We need our time with Him to be more than checking something off our list. We must take the time to spend time.

When I choose to spend time with another person, the best times include conversation that goes two ways: they talk and I talk. Spending time with God should be similar. I talk (prayer) and He talks (listening). My time spent with a friend isn’t as enjoyable when I’m the only one that talks or when they are the only one that talks. It’s the back and forth.

Reading the Bible is one way we listen. The Bible is God’s voice and He speaks to us through it. Another is to sit quietly before Him and wait for that still small voice. I believe God still speaks when we take the time to quiet ourselves before Him and listen. Taking time to think about God, think about what we just read in His scripture, think about our Pastor’s most recent sermon, think about where He’s leading us, think about what He’s calling us to do, to be. I think we often miss this important part of spending time with God. We read, we pray, we’re off to the next thing. It’s important that we give God time to speak to us, to change our hearts, to move in our lives.

Years ago I created a log sheet, it’s not a true checklist, but it does have built in reminders to spend quality time with God. It offers a reminder to read the Bible, to pray, and to spend quality time with Him. In the log I label it Thinking About God or Journaling. In many ways what I mean is to meditate on God, meditate on what you just read, what He’s speaking to you and allowing the space for His still small voice to break through. Although to meditate on God is a Biblical principal, mediation in general is a concept that is no longer directly tied toward our relationship with Jesus. For that reason I intentionally chose a phrase to more clearly express what I mean.

Joshua 1:8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Or journaling. Journaling can be a very effective way to keep your thoughts straight to process your thoughts and to keep you on task. Perhaps your mind wanders too much sitting quietly but putting pen to paper opens the flood gates of what God is doing in you. There’s a lot of flexibility in how to spend that time but the important part is that we do spend the time.

I’ve included the Devotional Log here as a free download. Try it out, maybe it’s just the reminder you need.

Click on the image below to view and save the checklist

Be blessed!

Trying out the log? Let me know what you think! Send us an email or leave a comment below.