Make Time for God

Make Time for God

A 5-Minute Devotional for Busy People

Minute 1: The Hook

Your calendar is a hostage situation.

Back-to-back meetings. The school pickup. The deadline that moved up. The email you forgot to send. And somewhere between the alarm and the collapse into bed, you told yourself: "I'll pray tomorrow. I'll read the Bible this weekend. I'll get back to God when the quarter slows down."

But the quarter never slows down. The inbox never empties. And God has become something you squeeze into the cracks — a quick "help me" between lanes, a rushed verse before sleep claims you.

You feel guilty about it. But guilt hasn't created a single minute. So you keep telling yourself the same exhausted lie: "I don't have time."

Minute 2: The Scripture

Read Mark 1:35 (ESV):

"And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed."

Now read Daniel 6:10 (ESV):

"When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house... He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously."

Minute 3: The Twist

Here's the twist that will expose your excuse:

Jesus was busier than you — and He still rose while it was dark.

The Greek phrase for very early in the morning, while it was still dark is ennycha lian — it means the deep night, the hours before dawn when the body craves sleep most. Jesus had just spent the previous day healing the sick and casting out demons. The crowds were already lining up for the next morning. And instead of sleeping in or prepping His sermon, He went to a desolate place — erēmos topos, a wilderness, a lonely, empty spot — to pray.

If the Son of God needed to steal away from the demands of the world to be with the Father, your "I don't have time" isn't a scheduling problem. It's a humility problem. You're trying to be the only human in history who doesn't need God to function.

And Daniel? He wasn't a part-time monk. He was a busy administrator in a hostile empire, running a province, managing politics, and navigating a culture that wanted him dead. When the king signed the decree outlawing prayer, Daniel didn't start a prayer movement. He simply did "as he had done previously." The Hebrew implies an established pattern, a rhythm set long before the crisis. The lions' den didn't produce his prayer life. His prayer life prepared him for the lions' den.

We think we'll make time for God when life gets simpler. But Daniel and Jesus prove the opposite: You don't make time for God because you have time. You make time because you know you don't.

Minute 4: The Practice

Five minutes. Three moves. Right now.

Stop looking for time and start protecting it. Daniel had a decree to break and a kingdom to run, but he had already staked his claim on three daily appointments with God. Pick one time tomorrow and guard it like a meeting with your CEO — because it is.

Give God your firstfruits, not your leftovers. Jesus prayed before the crowds arrived. Before the demands started. Give Him the first five minutes of your morning — not the last five of your exhaustion.

Make it small and unimpressive. Daniel's prayer wasn't a conference. It was a posture. Three times a day. Knees down. Thanks given. You don't need an hour-long devotional. You need a consistent five minutes that says, "You come first."

Minute 5: The Prayer

Lord, I've been treating You like an appointment I'll get to if the day opens up. But Jesus rose before dawn, and Daniel prayed with lions waiting. They were busier than me, and they still made time. Forgive me for acting like I can run my life without the One who gave it to me. Today, I stop looking for time and start returning it. I give You my first five minutes. I establish a rhythm before the crisis comes. Not because I have time — because I need You more than I need another hour of sleep, another scroll through my phone, or another item checked off my list. You first. Always. In Jesus' name, Amen.

One Sentence to Carry With You Today:

You don't find time for God; you decide that everything else can wait.

Now go. The calendar is full. But He comes first.