Spending Time With God: Day 3
Requirements for Overcoming an Unhealthy Fear Based Life
A Circumcised Heart
A pure heart is a single-minded heart. It's your number one aim in life - to know God. So what is a circumcised heart? Circumcision means "a cutting away." A circumcised heart is a heart that is willing to cut away the good but unnecessary things that crowd out God.
Let I said yesterday, Ivory Soap has no added ingredients, but soaps like Irish Spring do. Now there's nothing really wrong with the added ingredients in Irish Spring. But if you're looking for pure soap, Irish Spring won't satisfy. The point is, some things that are not evil in themselves may have an evil influence if they crowd God out of our lives. Scuba diving is not evil. If it is, I'm in real trouble, because I love to dive. Playing basketball is not evil. Playing sports in general is not evil. Going to amusement parks is not necessarily evil. Having fun is not evil. But these things (and other normal activities in life) will crowd God out of our lives if we let them.
We must make time with the Lord a number one priority. There are lots of choices in life, and those choices will determine the priorities in our lives. So we must be careful or the "busyness" and simple pleasures of life may crowd out our time with the Lord. Here are two examples of this potential dilemma:
The Demands of Ministry
This is one of the first things I think of as a Minister. I get paid to be a full-time minister, to study, pray, teach, and "shepherd the flock." Ministry is very demanding.
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon, and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!" Mark 1:35-37 (NIV)
People were always looking for Jesus. Many times He would take His disciples and try to get away to a lonely place, yet the people would find Him, and they would crowd Him. Why? Because He ministered to them. He met their needs. He helped them. And so everybody wanted His time. But in spite of the demands on His time, Jesus made it a priority to get away and spend time with the Father.
It is my conviction and my experience that the most important meeting of the church is not Saturday or Sunday morning. These are vital meeting, but I don't believe it's the most important meeting we as Christians can have. The most important meeting we can have is our own personal time with the Lord.
In Luke 5 Jesus healed a man of leprosy and told him not to tell anyone. And of course, like so many others Jesus touched, he went out and started telling people. It says in verse 15, "Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses." (NIV) He had a harder time finding the lonely place, the solitary place. The very next verse says, "But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." Luke 5:16 (NIV)
No Christian leader is more effective in his leadership than when he is alone with God, on his knees... For the greatest transactions of a man's experience are made, not in a church, but behind closed doors.
The late Dr. Andrew says, “In order to grow in grace we must be much alone. It is not in society that the soul grows most vigorously. In one single, quiet hour of prayer it will often make more progress than in days of company with others. It is in the desert that the dew falls freshest and the air is purest.”
How true that is. We must make time for God. Ministry is a good thing. All of us ought to be involved in ministry. We're all called to be ministers. But sometimes-even ministry can get in the way of the most important thing - God Himself!
Father, I give you permission to; cut away the things in my life that crowd you out. I really want to spend more time with you today and always. Amen
Today’s Promise
My God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory – Phil 4:19
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