Good morning and welcome to Saturday. I hope that you had a good week. If you are like most people, life is moving at warp speed right now. It is hard to believe that it is October 1st. Do you ever feel like life is a blur and one day just seems to blend into the next? I went to a store the other day and they have both Halloween and Christmas decorations on display. Maybe that is a reflection of how time flies or perhaps just the pagan culture in which we live. Btw, we are less than two months to Thanksgiving and then a month after that is Christmas and there is no end to the things that need to be done. Hopefully, all of our busyness will not cause us to overlook the reason why we celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas in the first place.
Back when I was in the construction business, I had a reminder affixed to my filing cabinet. It simply said, “Be not so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” Occasionally, I would happen to notice it hanging there and I would say to myself, “Yeah, I need to do that someday.” Unfortunately, I have always been a workaholic. The tendency was always to work harder, to do more, to add something else to the calendar. Obviously, the danger in that is that you may be extremely busy but without truly living your life the way that God meant for you to.
Does God want us to work hard and be productive? Absolutely. Does God’s Word teach that we need to do our best? Yes. Does it also teach what are priorities are to be? Of course. We are to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” In the midst of a crazy-busy world, we are to allow God His rightful place in our lives. We are to keep in mind that He is not another activity that we squeeze into our schedule. Rather, it is a relationship that we are to be building. And relationships take time. We see in the life of Jesus that He would go off alone and spend time in prayer with God the Father. If Jesus, the very Son of God, needed to do that, what about you and I? The life that we are to be building is, first and foremost, our life in Christ. Perhaps we could restate the reminder to say, “Be not so busy with anything in your life that you neglect to build your life in Christ.” By the way, since most of you are serving in ministry, don’t forget that that is no substitute for time alone with God.
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)
May God bless you this week as you spend time alone with Him.
Pastor Larry
0 Comments