Pulled In Two Directions!
Ξ August 28th, 2007 | → Comments Off | ∇ Christian Living, Family, Growing In The Lord |
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Have you noticed how difficult it can be to seek God? If you’ve mapped out the time, something almost always occurs that takes you away from it. Maybe you thought you would have time this morning but so many things came up before you went to work that you couldn’t get to the time you spend with God. You know that you want to have the time. It’s really important to you that the prayer time happen, the Bible study is part of your life these days. But there is never enough time to do everything so you skip the time with God because you have to get to work and pay the bills, right? Do you feel pulled in two different directions?
The world is very intruding. If it isn’t one thing it certainly will be another. The problem here is that if the world intrudes that much, then there will likely never be enough time for you to seek God in any meaningful way. You might get a couple of minutes here, ten minutes there. No real amount of time with God is possible in that situation. The priority is to get to your job and pay bills. Time with God does not pay the bills, right? No paycheck there. If you continue to choose the world over the Lord even if you are genuinely wanting to have time with Him, James has a word for that. It’s called double-minded.
(Jas 1:5-8) But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and with no reproach, and it shall be given to him. But let him ask in faith, doubting nothing. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. For do not let that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, not dependable in all his ways.
The Lord wants us to ask Him concerning wisdom without doubting. He gives without telling us how bad we are or how much we missed it. However, we still must ask without doubting Him. The description is interesting here about what a person looks like who is doubting. He’s like a wave in the sea, wind swept and tossed around. That’s not a person who is sure of what they believe. It gives a picture of someone who will agree with anything but believes nothing. They go along with whoever they’re with. A person like that cannot be depended on for anything.
This type of person would have a real problem accepting anything from the Lord because the next person that came along would sway them. What does all this have to do with not having the time for the Lord? If you cannot find the time to be with and chat with the Lord, you are not growing and learning to trust Him. A lack of trust makes a person double-minded. They want to believe. They seek Him and want to do so more but the world intrudes to the point that they simply MUST do what the world requires.
The Lord requires that you put Him FIRST in your life. If you cannot find the time for Him, then He cannot be first in your life. When the world gets into your life more than the God does, then the double-mindedness becomes confusion and doubt. Doubt erodes trust. When trust is not there, temptations come in. A person is tempted when their personal desires and wants overrule what God has asked of them. They are drawn away from God with the lusts and desires of the flesh (that can be anything, I’ve learned, not just what most people think lust is.) Temptation that turns into fullfilling the desires and lusts brings about sin. From sin, you get death, spiritually and sometimes, physically as well.
Take the time to seek out the Lord even if the world…meaning friends, family, job or whatever the circumstances..tries to take you away. What I have found is that most of the time, when I set out the time for the Lord first thing in the morning, there are mucho distractions. BUT, if I keep going anyway, much gets accomplished and the next time is usually easier. Why? Because you are starting to resist the devil.
The scripture says that if you do resist him, he will flee. (James 4:7) So, start resisting the one individual who can make your day miserable. I don’t say that he won’t do anything about it. In fact, he will keep throwing things at you. But, when you are in the Lord speaking His Word, learning the Word of God, the devil is having to work harder. After a while, he moves on. Not bad, huh?
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