The Navigators taught me about setting a specific time each morning to hear from God, through prayer and Bible meditation. They taught me that God would keep His part of the appointment but I must keep mine. If we fail to find God during the day it is not His fault--we must seek Him early to find Him ("O, that I knew where I might find Him [says Job 23:3]") or you may not find Him all day!
When you wonder about the whereabouts of God, it is you that moved!
That's the secret--start your day off with Jesus. Martin Luther would pray for hours to open his day, and if he was busy, he would pray all the more. Prayer is a reliable time-saver and investment. This is the joy of abiding in Christ and being in fellowship with Him through the day, but there are other factors to consider and enter into the equation that may trip us up and they are as follows:
We all seem to live hectic schedules and sometimes people seem to be an interruption of "our" time (words like "interruption" and "bother" shouldn't even be in our lingo). I don't think Jesus ever felt interrupted but made time for people in their time of need. We don't want to disoblige someone on purpose, of course, but it is nice to know that they affirm their friendship by saying they can be "bothered" 24/7 if we ever need them. We don't want to give God the leftovers of our money, and this is a way that we don't give Him the leftovers of our time. We have decided to drop all and follow Jesus, as sit were, and this is an application to that. Love is spelled T-I-M-E and a person feels wanted and loved when we give them our time, a valuable commodity and resource.
Being busy is not a virtue, in fact, if the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy. We shouldn't relegate others to our convenience but should be willing to make a sacrifice. Love is sacrificial. We should seek another's audience, for instance, at their convenience, not ours, to be polite--"Please return the call at your leisure!" It's one thing to take advantage of some one's generosity, and another to be in sincere need. I like to give the benefit of the doubt and would rather err on the side of letting me be taken advantage of.
We all have priorities in our relationships, but Jesus said to love our neighbor (the person in need)--He didn't think He'd have to tell us to love our family, which is only normal, and even the heathen do that. When we shrug a person off and refuse to give him attention we can make him feel like a persona non grata. That means they can feel like a nobody and it affects the self-image of a person, among other things as a natural consequence. Sometimes God puts an unlovely person or challenging person in our path to see if we really do love--this is real "tough love."
In conclusion, I'm not saying we should be a doormat or let ourselves get taken advantage of on purpose, but be apologetic, courteous, and humble in declining any opportunity that we cannot meet, since, in view of Providence, God allowed this to happen and there must be a time and purpose behind it. Soli Deo Gloria!
When you wonder about the whereabouts of God, it is you that moved!
That's the secret--start your day off with Jesus. Martin Luther would pray for hours to open his day, and if he was busy, he would pray all the more. Prayer is a reliable time-saver and investment. This is the joy of abiding in Christ and being in fellowship with Him through the day, but there are other factors to consider and enter into the equation that may trip us up and they are as follows:
We all seem to live hectic schedules and sometimes people seem to be an interruption of "our" time (words like "interruption" and "bother" shouldn't even be in our lingo). I don't think Jesus ever felt interrupted but made time for people in their time of need. We don't want to disoblige someone on purpose, of course, but it is nice to know that they affirm their friendship by saying they can be "bothered" 24/7 if we ever need them. We don't want to give God the leftovers of our money, and this is a way that we don't give Him the leftovers of our time. We have decided to drop all and follow Jesus, as sit were, and this is an application to that. Love is spelled T-I-M-E and a person feels wanted and loved when we give them our time, a valuable commodity and resource.
Being busy is not a virtue, in fact, if the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy. We shouldn't relegate others to our convenience but should be willing to make a sacrifice. Love is sacrificial. We should seek another's audience, for instance, at their convenience, not ours, to be polite--"Please return the call at your leisure!" It's one thing to take advantage of some one's generosity, and another to be in sincere need. I like to give the benefit of the doubt and would rather err on the side of letting me be taken advantage of.
We all have priorities in our relationships, but Jesus said to love our neighbor (the person in need)--He didn't think He'd have to tell us to love our family, which is only normal, and even the heathen do that. When we shrug a person off and refuse to give him attention we can make him feel like a persona non grata. That means they can feel like a nobody and it affects the self-image of a person, among other things as a natural consequence. Sometimes God puts an unlovely person or challenging person in our path to see if we really do love--this is real "tough love."
In conclusion, I'm not saying we should be a doormat or let ourselves get taken advantage of on purpose, but be apologetic, courteous, and humble in declining any opportunity that we cannot meet, since, in view of Providence, God allowed this to happen and there must be a time and purpose behind it. Soli Deo Gloria!
No comments:
Post a Comment