Do you ever just spend time with God because of who He is, not for what He can do for you? Have you spent time with Him to tell Him how much you appreciate Him and to thank Him for all that He’s done for you—not just to give Him a whole list of everything you need to be happy?
“ … At this moment, each one of us is as close to God as we choose to be. ”
It’s easy to be busy all the time with an endless to-do list instead of stopping to spend time alone with God.
Whatever you’re doing—or not doing—the truth is, at this moment, each one of us is as close to God as we choose to be.
The Choice of Busyness
In Luke 10:38, there was a woman named Martha who made a choice. She kept herself so busy while Jesus was visiting her and her sister. Jesus took notice.
“…Jesus entered a certain village, and a woman named Martha received and welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister named Mary, who seated herself at the Lord’s feet and was listening to His teaching. But Martha [overly occupied and too busy] was distracted with much serving; and she came up to Him and said, Lord, is it nothing to You that my sister has left me to serve alone?”
Martha was distracted and kept herself busy. She was distracted from Jesus by work! Do you ever find yourself saying, “I do all the work around here. Everybody else is always having a good time while I just work, work, work, work!”
Martha may have thought the same thing, because she pleaded with Jesus for Mary to help her. “But the Lord replied to her by saying, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; There is need of only ONE thing and Mary has chosen the good part…” (verses 41 & 42).
What’s Really Important
Work is definitely important, but it wasn’t the most important thing for Martha to be doing at that particular time. You know, learning what to do and when to do it is a very key issue because when we do the right thing at the wrong time it becomes the wrong thing to do.
This was not the time for Martha to be working because Jesus was passing by. There was an opportunity for her to spend time with Him that she might not ever get again. What Martha needed was to make a better choice. She needed to make a wiser choice, and that choice was to spend time with Jesus.
Paul prayed that the Phillipian church would be able to make wise choices so that they would “surely learn to sense what is vital, and approve and prize what is excellent and of real value [recognizing the highest and the best, and distinguishing the moral differences].” (Philippians 1:10)
We need to begin to discern the better choices in our lives, and we need to make those choices. And time is the number one thing we need to choose to invest for intimacy in any relationship, not just a relationship with God.
What Kind of Relationship Do You Want?
God loves you so much and He wants to have a personal, intimate relationship with you. If you want to have a closer walk with Him, you’ll need to make some changes and some of them will be challenging.
To make more time with God a priority, you may have to say “no” to some people that don’t want to hear “no,” and you may have to cut off some things that really aren’t bearing fruit in your life anymore. But the reward of growing closer to God will always be greater than the difficulties you experience to get there.
Make a determined decision today to get as close to God as you can be.
