The message all boils down to looking inward and finding that one thing that you least want to give to the Lord...and then giving it to Him...because that is the one thing He wants MOST. It all comes from this scripture about the rich, young ruler who was asked to sell his treasure.
And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.'" And he said to him, "Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth." And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. (Mark 10:17-22)
I tend to think I truly love the Lord. But loving God is not just saying, "I believe Jesus is God, and I love Him." It is truly putting Him first as your treasure. And that is where I say "ouch".
Because I do love God.
I do pray before meals.
I do read the bible.
I do go to church.
I do give.
BUT...do I put Him before EVERYTHING? Do I love him more than anything else in my life?
For me, the least thing I want to give to Him is my time. I mean, I get an hour (if I'm lucky!) of time in my day that is only for me. I want to do whatever I want with that time. But I wonder if the reason my time seems unbalanced is because I have not given my time to Him.
So, here is my personal experiment...lots of people give up things for Lent. Well, there are 4 weeks until Easter, and I want to give my TIME to God. Being diligent and disciplined with my time. He gives it to me. May I honor Him with how I use it.
If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it. ~Luke 17:33
(For a more succinct message, go to the source: http://www.mychristchurch.com/messages.html )
3 comments:
That's a big thing to give up for Lent. What does that look like (Just being nosy)? Is that more prayer? Volunteering? Reading the bible?
Well, it seems big and small to give up. For me, it simply means using my time productively. During naptime, instead of running to do Facebook or other playing online, I focus on enriching things...anything from quiet time to reading (ranging from the bible to God-focused books to magazines on design) to even cleaning or cooking. God is in all the small things of creating. He is the ultimate creator after all. While the girls are awake, I'm conscious about leaving the TV off to fill the house with sound. Instead I listen to music. The first day was very joyful and peaceful with this new approach! We'll see how day #2 goes!
That sounds like it will require lots of willpower. I hope it works out for you. I wasn't inspired to give anything up for lent. I suppose it's because we are still pretty new to the religion as adults thing. There will always be next year!
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