The inspiration for this post comes at a point in time when most college students are dealing with finals week. It is my first time with this experience. All of a sudden, when I look at what I have to do for the week, it seems like it has doubled. I thought I was busy before, but this, this is crazy! And since I have twice as much school work to do, that means that I will be twice as busy. This also means, that I will have to work harder to make time for God.
What is it in your life that seems to be distracting you? Because not everyone is a college student, not only that, but there are a whole ton of other distractions that we have other than homework. I struggle to get my homework done because of these, which makes it twice as hard to make time for Devos.
But, believe it or not, there is a remedy, but I have to warn you, it won't be easy.
Mark 9:43a: "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off." If you read a little bit more it says the same thing about your foot and your eye, saying it is better to have life and one hand, leg, and eye, rather than to go to hell with both.
The answer is to get rid of whatever it is that is holding you back. To "kill it".
The hard truth about this is that it is through these types of things that the Devil holds you back, keeps you from the true prize. And believe me, you do not want him to get the upper hand.
Another thing that you need to do is Pray. Now a warning, don't think that all you have to do is say"God, please don't let me fall into the traps" it is a two way street. You will be able to find a lot of help through God, but you, you personally also have a HUGE part in it.
Here is an excerpt from a book I really enjoy. "Wrestling Prayer", by Eric and Leslie Ludy.
"Evaluate your sleep habits. Can they be changed to create more opportunity for prayer? Evaluate your leisure activities. Can they be changed, or altogether abandoned, to create more room for intimate time with your Lord? Evaluate your work schedule. Can it be altered to make prayer a great priority? If not, can you find a different job, a new career? Are there moments in your day that currently are being wasted on trivialities that could be transformed into something more sacred and eternal?
Most of us constantly battle with the fact that God seems distant, intimacy with Christ seems difficult to obtain, and our prayers don't seem to be heard. But God says, "You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13 NKJV)
We aren't finding Him because we aren't searching for Him with all our hearts. We are too preoccupied with watching reality shows, too busy downloading the latest songs on iTunes, and too enamored with Hollywood's newest production to let our whole being be poured forth in constant and unreserved devotion in the service of the Lord who died to save us.
Most of us feel we don't have enough time for prayer and seeking God. But we don't even consider giving up our nightly TV time, our weekend movie fests, or our YouTube fetish in exchange for spending time in His presence.
First Timothy 5:6 says that those who live in pleasure are dead while they live. Are we living for pleasure, or living for Him?" (pp 121-122.)
Now if you know me, you know that I don't have Facebook, and I don't like the fact that people have one, because I think they waste too much time on it. Well, I have a confession to make: The thing I spend the most time on is either playing games on my computer, or watching TV. And that is no different from spending time on Facebook. Over the past few years I have been trying to to tell people that they are wasting their time on something, even though what I do/have been doing is no different. And even when people would try to point this out to me, I would ignore it, act like it didn't matter because it's not Facebook. In a way, I was hiding behind Facebook. "Well, it's not Facebook, so it's actually not that bad." That's what I would tell others and myself. I'm a hypocrite. I am guilty of trying to remove the speck out of my Christian brothers and sisters eyes, without taking the plank out of my own (Matthew 7:4-5)
We all have some work to do, myself, I have the most, even though I have been "preaching" to people for so long. Things are going to change for me, and I encourage you to change as well.
In closing, I have another quote from the same as above, and two bible verses.
"If you want an earth-shattering prayer life, be willing to do whatever it takes. No matter how much your flesh may scream in protest, seek Jesus Christ with all your heart. when you do, I can guarantee you will not be disappointed." (P 124.)
1 John 2:15-17: "Do not love the world, or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life - is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever."
1 Thessalonians 5:22 "Abstain from all appearance of evil."
Right now! Now is when you go, you go pray, you go worship Him! Shut off your computer right now, and go do it. Spend time with Him. The One True God. Your all in all. We would all be nowhere without Him. How can we give Him anything less, then our everything! Our all! ... Our whole life.
Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."
Those finals are a push, aren't they?! =P The strange thing is, after pushing and pushing, you'll suddenly find yourself with *nothing* to do. While we do school, it's God's will that we do school. When school is out, however, we have to not only block out the great time wasters such as TV, Facebook, and computer time, but we also have to FILL our time with things of God. It's hard to get rid of those things that are idols of our time because we also feel a pull to them, but just getting rid of them won't shut the door for more idolatry to come in. We also have to pour God into the time that usually waste.
ReplyDeleteI also like what you say about acting off our prayers. Prayer is like the fuel we need to get ourselves moving, but nothing will happen if we don't get behind the wheel and go for it. Love the Ludy quote, the dude is totally one of my inspirations for Godly living in every area of life.
Hypocrisy is no stranger to, well, everyone. We may not see the idols in our lives, and that's also where prayer comes in handy. I've found personally that God responds pretty quickly when I pray for Him to reveal the idols in my life (usually right while I kneel by my bedside!).
There's a certain disadvantage to setting a solid prayer time every day, because it can quickly become mechanical. But I'm convinced that if we don't make the time for God and ask Him to fill it, we won't have time for God at all. If we ask Him to give us a thriving and intimate prayer time, we'd better be willing to back it up with action.
Camden
1 John 5:21
Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
James 5:16
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
2 Timothy 1:7
For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.