Life is hard. My life could be completely summarized in those three words. And many teenagers because of this don't spend time with God. They worry about the worries of this world and in many cases, the only time they spend with God is when their family forces the off to Church. But even when they go they aren't giving it their all and not taking in what they are learning.
These teens say "I have school, sports, friends, and no time to walk with God." But that’s not true, they have time but they choose to put God Last on their schedule. Matthew 6:33 says "but seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness." We should always have time for God because he should be the first thing we plan to do. You don't necessarily have to make God the first thing you do in the morning (although that is an awesome system to get into) But you need to plan him into your schedule first. We need to plan what we are doing around spending time with God, and not the spending time with God around what we are doing.
For example, If you have had a long hard day and you know that you are only going to make it another half hour or so. Then when you get home don't go sit on the couch to watch the TV unless you know that you will have enough energy to do a devotion after the show is over and before you go to sleep. God wants us to spend time with him daily, but it is little excuses like watching that one last TV show that can often get between us and God.
Another excuse that teenagers normally uses to get out of their time with God is School. They say they were studying so hard and were up so late that they physically had no time to walk with God. Matthew 6:25 says "Do not worry about your life." This verse is telling us that no matter what is on your plate and no matter how important it is, God still wants to be put first. Do you seriously not believe that if you give God a 30 minute devotional before, after or even during studying, that he will not give you enough strength to finish what needs to be done.
There is actually a story in the bible that though originally written about money still works perfectly for time as well. In Matthew 22:15-22, the Pharisees laid a trap for Jesus. They questioned whether it was right to pay taxes to Caesar because if they did they would have less money to give to God. Jesus then, recognizing the trap they had set, responded "Give to Caesar what it Caesar's and give to God what is God's." This verse can be used perfectly to illustrate the time we spend with God. Because it is not a choice of which choice do we give our time to, but how do we split our time up between the two. We use the excuse of "we can not spend time with God because we have to spend time on other matters." But just like this verse says, give the time you need for school to school, and likewise give the time you need for God to God.
God gave you everything that you see around you. He created everything from the trees surrounding your house to the skin that you are currently wearing. But his only wish for us to give back to him is our Time. He doesn't ask for us to have a 6 hour devotional everyday, but he asks that we spend some time with him (If you really look inside of yourself you will know how much time you need to spend in devotion to him). But then, even in the times that we are not spending personally with God we should still be doing everything in a sort of way that glorifies God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 states this exactly and says "what ever you do, do all to the glory of God." So no matter what each day is spent doing, every single thing we do should be done for the glory of God. And thus every second of every day will be spent growing us closer and strengthening our relationship with God.
Your points are very good. Just remember that while you are trying to encourage others to spend time with our Lord and Savior, they have to want to do it. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink.
ReplyDeleteAs you write and encourage others, think about how you can appeal to their hearts. Whether it's through their pains, sorrows or lack of enjoyment in unfulfilling earthly things, use your past to appeal to have others reach out to Jesus for a lifetime of happiness. Make sure you remember that while you can promise a lifetime of happiness, that it doesn't come without challenges. As long as Satan is here on earth, he won't quit making life seem more "fun" on his side.
I'm very proud of you and how the Lord is using you. Please keep me up on your writings, I would love to read your "inspired" work.