Jesus said, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4 KJV). A walk of faith requires a hearing ear, and a listening heart so that one may listen to every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God. A life without distractions goes a long way in hearing every Word spoken. One of those distractions may be a person’s routine. Routines can distract people by consuming them. A person cannot expect to be led by routine and fully be led by the Holy Spirit at the same time. It becomes the expected thing, and hinders the Lord from doing something new in the life of the believer. If a person has in his mind that at a certain time he should be doing something specific, he will be more apt to miss what the Lord wants to do different. He may miss what God wants to reveal to him. Routine can cloud the mind from hearing God.
Yes, the Lord may indeed lead us to do things at particular times of the day for stretches of time or seasons, but we need to stay open to be interrupted, and stay open to change. We must remain open to spontaneity, for there will be spontaneous doors that open to us. These may be doors of revelation, doors of ministry, doors of praise, doors of deep worship, and doors that are completely outside the scope of things we might expect. Therefore, our routine must be open to change. We must allow our routines led by the Holy Spirit.
One final thought: for you who are having a difficult time spending time with the Father in prayer, opening up the Bible, and hearing His voice, it may be time to change your routine altogether. It may be that your routine does not really include God, even though you believe. There comes a time when we have to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal those things that distract us from a time of pure devotion. We even have to be open to change those things that appear to be godly. Even “godly activities” can be a distraction. Bottom line: our routine must revolve around Him in order to be open to every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
