Well, it has been awhile since I wrote anything. Life has gotten crazy! Trying to balance family, girlfriend, work, business, ministry, and me is tough! I am figuring it all out but it is taking time. A couple weeks ago, my girlfriend and I’s devotional gave me a bit of a wakeup call. See, in the middle of all of this balancing, I let one area slip off the scales: my own relationship with God.
I got caught up in being busy and let the most important relationship I have suffer. Oh, and just in case you are wondering, when my relationship with God suffers, all other areas of life suffer too. I am sure many of you can relate to this. The problem has literally been around as long as Christianity (maybe longer).
In Luke 10:38-42 we are told the story of Martha and Mary being visited by Jesus. Martha is busy in preparations and running about while Mary is sitting at Jesus’s feet and listening to Him speak. Martha is not happy about the fact that she is doing all the work! She says something to Jesus along the lines of, “Don’t you see this?? Tell her to get up and help!” But, instead, Jesus says that Mary is doing the best thing!
See, Mary was focusing on learning from Jesus. Martha was busy trying to do things for Jesus. Neither of these things are necessarily wrong, but Jesus called one the “best”. What really hits me about this is that what is distracting us from our relationship with God may not be bad. In fact, it may be good. However, that doesn’t mean its best. I don’t know about you but I want God’s best!!
When we get so caught up in anything (including ministry work!!) that we neglect our relationship with God, we steal from what we could have. We do something awesome by working for God but we miss out on the best thing by being close to Him! Think about that a moment: God is more interested in being close to you than having you do all these amazing works!
On top of that, when we elevate anything over our personal relationship with God, we cripple our ability to work for Him most effectively! How can we effectively minister to others when we are not growing ourselves? We often say we want revival to “start with me” but we rarely do anything to make that come about. We see ourselves as good with God because we are working for Him or because we go to church and pray.
In reality, God wants so much more for us and from us. He wants a personal, intimate relationship with us. He doesn’t want us to go through the motions and He doesn’t want us to recruit more people to just go through the motions. He wants us to be disciples and disciple people! A disciple does more than just the minimum. They are devoted to the work. How can we make disciples when we are not being disciples? That is like a pastor in a failing marriage trying to be a marriage counselor! It just doesn’t work!
Guys, we have an even bigger responsibility to be close to God. We are supposed to lead our families (and potentially many more people placed under our care) towards God and in a Godly way. This is definitely not something we can do if we are neglecting our own relationship with God. If we want our families and those who look up to us to be close to God we have to carve time out of our busy schedules to get closer to Him ourselves!
None of us will ever be perfect (me included), however, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t put out effort. God never once calls us to be perfect. He does call us to try our best and rely on Him to provide the strength for the rest, however. I want to put out my best. I want to be a disciple and make disciples! Before I can do that I have to be serious about my relationship with God through reading His Word and truly speaking to Him in prayer.
By: Dakota Dalsing
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I got caught up in being busy and let the most important relationship I have suffer. Oh, and just in case you are wondering, when my relationship with God suffers, all other areas of life suffer too. I am sure many of you can relate to this. The problem has literally been around as long as Christianity (maybe longer).
In Luke 10:38-42 we are told the story of Martha and Mary being visited by Jesus. Martha is busy in preparations and running about while Mary is sitting at Jesus’s feet and listening to Him speak. Martha is not happy about the fact that she is doing all the work! She says something to Jesus along the lines of, “Don’t you see this?? Tell her to get up and help!” But, instead, Jesus says that Mary is doing the best thing!
See, Mary was focusing on learning from Jesus. Martha was busy trying to do things for Jesus. Neither of these things are necessarily wrong, but Jesus called one the “best”. What really hits me about this is that what is distracting us from our relationship with God may not be bad. In fact, it may be good. However, that doesn’t mean its best. I don’t know about you but I want God’s best!!
When we get so caught up in anything (including ministry work!!) that we neglect our relationship with God, we steal from what we could have. We do something awesome by working for God but we miss out on the best thing by being close to Him! Think about that a moment: God is more interested in being close to you than having you do all these amazing works!
On top of that, when we elevate anything over our personal relationship with God, we cripple our ability to work for Him most effectively! How can we effectively minister to others when we are not growing ourselves? We often say we want revival to “start with me” but we rarely do anything to make that come about. We see ourselves as good with God because we are working for Him or because we go to church and pray.
In reality, God wants so much more for us and from us. He wants a personal, intimate relationship with us. He doesn’t want us to go through the motions and He doesn’t want us to recruit more people to just go through the motions. He wants us to be disciples and disciple people! A disciple does more than just the minimum. They are devoted to the work. How can we make disciples when we are not being disciples? That is like a pastor in a failing marriage trying to be a marriage counselor! It just doesn’t work!
Guys, we have an even bigger responsibility to be close to God. We are supposed to lead our families (and potentially many more people placed under our care) towards God and in a Godly way. This is definitely not something we can do if we are neglecting our own relationship with God. If we want our families and those who look up to us to be close to God we have to carve time out of our busy schedules to get closer to Him ourselves!
None of us will ever be perfect (me included), however, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t put out effort. God never once calls us to be perfect. He does call us to try our best and rely on Him to provide the strength for the rest, however. I want to put out my best. I want to be a disciple and make disciples! Before I can do that I have to be serious about my relationship with God through reading His Word and truly speaking to Him in prayer.
By: Dakota Dalsing
Follow us on Facebook for more!
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