John 15:7
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
Too Busy for the Word?
I had a bad habit years ago of rushing out of bed at the last
possible moment to have just enough time to shower, shave, grab a bite
to eat and then try to squeeze in some Bible reading just before I went
to work. Being a bi-vocational pastor is hard enough, but to try and
short myself in the Word of God was the height of folly. Instead of
believing I didn’t have enough time to read my Bible or more of my
Bible, I didn’t have enough time in my day not to! In other words, the
very fact that my day is jam-packed is the very reason I need to start
my day off with reading my Bible. I now get up earlier, and next to
praying, the very first thing I do is read my Bible. It has made a huge
difference in my day. Not only is my day not as hectic, I have the Word
of God in my heart and mind when I start my day. Was I really too busy
for God? Yes, for a very long time, but not anymore!
Too Busy for the Talk?
What if our boss came up to us and asked a question? Can you conceive
of telling him or her that you’re too busy to talk to them? But that’s
exactly what we are telling God if we leave no time for prayer. I
started a new thing at the same time I started getting up earlier in the
morning to allow time for me to read my Bible. I set the alarm clock a
bit earlier, and in that time before I get up, I pray. The first thing I
do is pray, followed by reading the Bible. I say, “No prayer, no
coffee, no Bible, no breakfast,” and I am sticking to that, as tempting
as it is to cut corners, but if I cut out these vital things in my day,
my day ends up typically much worse than if I started my day off with
prayer and with the Word of God. If I am too busy to pray, then I am too
busy! That means that I have to start cutting things out of my day that
are not as important as prayer and Bible reading. We don’t treat our
friends or our boss that way, do we? By shorting them when they want to
talk to us? But that’s exactly what we do when God is speaking to us in
His Word and when we are speaking to God in prayer but have no time for
these. Jesus ties our time spent in abiding in Him with answered prayer
(John 15:7).
Prioritizing the Day
If you wrote down and kept a journal of everything you did in a
week’s time, from the time you got up until the time you went to bed,
what would your journal look like? Where is the most time devoted to? Of
course, work, family, or school may well take the vast majority of the
day because Jesus said that He worked (John 5:17), so there’s nothing
wrong with that, but, of course, Jesus’ work and ours are a lot
different. He worked solely for the Father, and even though we do, too,
we must work a secular job to support ourselves and our family. If you
had the list before you right now and started ranking these items, which
would you put as #1, then as #2, and so on? Something to think about,
isn’t it?
A Closing Prayer
Great Creator God, thank You for giving me Your Word to grow by, and
thank You for lending me Your ear to listen to me in prayer. Please help
me to learn to prioritize my life so that I can never be too busy for
You, and forgive me when I have so often done just that. In Jesus
Christ’ Holy Name I pray.
Amen
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