Put the following four words in the correct order of importance;
Work, Family, Church, God
What did you come up with?
Actually, this is a trick question. The best option is to remove God from the list, put the other three words in any order you’d like and then place God on top of the list. It might look something like this:
Most of us today would describe our lives as busy. Probably too busy is more like it. When we consider our lives as having compartments like work, house work, hobbies, family time, devotional or quiet times with God, church activities, evangelism and on and on, there is simply no way we have time for it all. However, if we follow the picture above, and we write God over whatever category you place on the list, pretty quickly we can begin to have more time. How can that happen?.
The Scriptures teach us that “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” (Colossians 3:17). In this verse we find the principle of writing God over our lives, in all we do.
Here are a couple of suggestions to help you realize the time you need to live a full, faithful and fruitful life.
1. Hold your life open and accessible to God at all times. Ask Him what His priority is for you in any given situation. This will require you to die to your agenda and replace it with God’s agenda. This may require you add a hobby to your life so you will engage a person of peace (Luke 10) and help them to learn to follow Jesus. It may require that lay down a hobby or other activity that is distracting you from hearing the Lord and following His lead. Whether God adds, subtracts or rearranges things in your life, you will need to learn to become flexible in some ways as you discipline yourself to follow the Holy Spirit’s lead in your life.
2. Stop seeing life as a bunch of categories (work, rest, play, church etc.) and begin to see your life as a continuous story where God interacts throughout. When we move in this direction then God is prevalent in every moment. Whether we are pumping gas, watching a sunrise, straining to lift weights, enduring another meeting at work or spending time leisure around the home, when life is viewed as a continuous action of worship, we find rest and fulfillment. We are no longer missing out on doing something, we are enjoying God in whatever we are doing.
So stop categorizing and start writing the presence of God over everything you do. Listen to His voice and follow His lead. You will more time than you can imagine and more fruit than you ever dreamed possible.
I would love to hear your thoughts. Let me know if this is helpful to you and your church.
©2012 Ed Waken
Originally posted on Ed’s Blog here
Ed tweets @EdWaken
Used with permission.
See also:
Conversations Not Conversions – Ed Waken
Who Is In Charge?: ReTooling Leadership 1
Jesus’ Example: ReTooling Leadership 2
The Leader’s Priority: ReTooling Leadership 3
Organic Evangelism Principles
The Deal on Disciple Making – Video
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What is God like? God’s characteristics are described for us throughout the Bible. It is important for us to understand as much as we can about what the Bible says about God. Read each passage below and write out what you find out about God from the Bible verses.
