March 3
Lev 27:14 - Num 1:54 | PS 46:1-11 | Prov 10:23 | Mark 11:1-26
What does your daily routine look like? When you get up in the morning do you have the radio playing or the television on? When you get in the car to go to work, is the radio playing? Then at work you're busy. You get home and get busy with the family and then go to sleep. On the weekends, do you go to church faithfully, and when you're there how attentive are you? These questions must be considered, because if God is trying to communicate with you have you given Him any quiet time to do so? Like most others, my life is very busy. Because of this, I get up early, usually between 4:30 - 5am every morning. With my Bible open, along with some time in prayer for over an hour it is just me and God, no one else. When on vacation I usually find some quiet time walking along the shoreline to be alone with God. God may speak to you through His word, through prayer, through the pastor at church, through the Holy Spirit, etc. God will faithfully engage us in a relationship, but a relationship goes both ways. He will not force Himself on us, He shouldn't have to raise His voice. We need to be ready, available, and attentive, without being distracted.
We read in Numbers 1:1, "A year after Israel’s departure from Egypt, the Lord spoke to Moses in the Tabernacle in the wilderness of Sinai." A little over a year before this we read in Exodus 3:1-2, "One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up." This was after a forty year period of not hearing from God. How many times in Jesus' three year ministry did He step into someone's life. Before that moment the day was like every other day. Then in one moment everything changed. But these moments require not only God to reach out to those individuals, but they also had to be available and receptive.
As sad as this might sound, we must all ask ourselves if we have rendered ourselves too busy for God. We might say that He is the most important Person in our life, but is there proof behind this statement based on how we live our lives? Our spouses and children know how important they are to us, not just by telling them (though that is a good thing to do), but by giving them the most precious commodity that we have. Our time. May we stop squeezing God in. Instead may we center our day around God, then figure out how to squeeze everything else and everyone else in. Perhaps this means getting up earlier, going to sleep later, driving with the radio off, spending lunch by yourself, etc. May we all pray to God and make ourselves available daily.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: