What do you do? The truth is that you do what you value.
You spend 3 hours a night watching television or surfing on the computer because you value that stimulation or lack of it. You go to church or you don't go to church because that is something you value. If you play a musical instrument at some point you valued learning and being able to play that instrument to create music.
If you take time to chart out a 24 hour day or better yet, a 168 hour week, you will discover what the true values in your life are. A person who loves football may actually spend 3 hours watching the game, listen to the announcers wrap up the highlights of the contest, and then listen to 30 minutes on the coach's show the next day. He may read 15 minutes of news story about the players the next day and even read ESPN summaries and previews for next week. In short his 6 hours of attention demonstrates that he values the entertainment and stimulation of football. On the other hand, a person who states that he values time with God but spends less than 10 minutes a day is trying to fool himself into believing that is something he treasures.
What if you want to change your values to include something that you have chosen to make important to you? Let's suppose you wish to learn how to improve your golf game or get better at some activity. The first step would be to seek out classes or someone who could give instruction, then schedule the time to work on it, and finally take a certain amount of hours to practice or be involved in the activity until you make progress or master it. The same principle applies if you wish to know God.
In order to live for God, to place the highest value in your life on glorifying Him, you have to make some deliberate choices. It all starts with the realization or revelation that Jesus Christ is worth your everything, your whole effort, and your greatest attention. Love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. Human nature just won't or can't do this without God Himself accomplishing it in us. Scripture tells us that in His light, we become light. We are changed by beholding His glory. In short, man only changes when we see God. What is it worth to you to see God?
If seeing Him and knowing Him is a high value, then you choose to set aside time to be with Him, to seek teachers who can explain spiritual principles, and to put yourself in a place and disposition to receive His revelation. The time you give and what you do shows you value this relationship. We invite you to choose to make knowing God a higher value in your life. Give greater priority and time to seeking God and let Him work through your new desire. As you treasure getting to know Him and His great love, you will begin to find time and to reflect on His character more each day. Gradually this desire will reshape the things you do, until your actions demonstrate the greatest value in your life. The awesome, beautiful, holy, all-wise, worthy Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus is worth your time and effort.
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Well put, Gene! We already know all to well that we can't expect to get to know someone better unless we spend time with them. People who barely spend any time with the Lord may get to hear Jesus tell them in that Last Day, "Depart from me, ye that work iniquity; I never knew you."
ReplyDeleteI confess I have let work and other temporal things pull me away from one-on-one time with my Creator and Savior. I am returning to spiritual blogging, which is not only my primary outreach, but also helps me focus on God and the Bible.