devoting your time to God
August 24, 2012
During one of the retreat messages, the pastor spoke about the idols we have in our present day, the things that consume us and distract us from God. He spoke of the sad example of a kid who died from playing 40 hours straight of Diablo 3. I heard the people around me chuckle at the mention of the familiar popular game Diablo 3 while others laughed at how 'ridiculous' and 'dumb' the kid was.
Yes, the story is a bit ridiculous since most people are probably aware enough to not play 40 hours straight of video games. However, as I thought about the incident, I felt it relates more than we would give ourselves credit for. We may not play 40 hours straight of video games, but what about when we allow ourselves to play until 2 AM? And cause ourselves to sleep late? Wake up late for work? Have a quiet time with God that is half the time just a struggle to stay awake? What about if we 'only' spend so many hours on TV or video games or Facebook or Tumblr or Pinterest or Twitter each day and give God merely 20-30 min depending on how much time we say we've 'only' got?
I may not play 40 hours straight of video games, but if I spend 2 hours everyday scrolling through Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter, I must be honest, that is still quite a ridiculous and stupid use of my time.
I may not die physically from it, but what about my spiritual life? How many hours do I spend on meaningless things versus with God? How's that affect my spiritual life? What's that say of me? The things I allow into my life or give myself to influence and effect me. It's easy to see which people are immature, crazy, or irresponsible with their activities and time (like it is easy to laugh with disdain at the poor kid who died after 40 hours of gaming), but it's not so easy to see how the activities affect us. So let us remind ourselves of what is said of the Israelites in 2 Kings 17:15 - "They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless." What our hearts follow after, jump after to do with our time, shows a lot of who we really are. Think about what your heart is first inclined to do when you have free time - and that will show you where your heart is at.
For me personally, time is a treasure and a responsibility that God has given me to be a faithful steward of. It's easy for people to say/sing "God, I give you my life. I only want You. Lead me. Call me into missions, into ministry, into small group leading, etc." But I often wonder how we can truly serve and give ourselves wholly and completely over to God as the Bible calls us to (Rom 6:13) if we cannot give something as small and seemingly inconsequential as the daily use of our time. Can we really give our lives over to Him for a ministry if we cannot even submit to Him the activities we choose to partake in for leisure? I would argue no. If our heart's desire is really to give our entire life to God, then we start now with our time - because is that not what life constitutes of? "Life" doesn't mean merely career, job, calling, ministry, etc. (though many seem to use the terms interchangeably), it means the day to day living, the day to day actions. And each day we get exactly the same 24 hours of time as everyone else does - and it is our choice to either hand over the 24 hours to Him and say "God, to You I give my life - starting with the use of my time" or cling to the time and say with mere words "God I give You my life, but not my time' as ridiculous as that sounds. Faithfulness starts with the small things; the taking of each activity - video games, facebook, tumblr, social events, the very words we speak, etc., and bringing it before God and asking "Your will? Or my will?" And being ready to obey even if it is not what you would have wanted. Because that is what it means when we say that we no longer live, but Christ lives in us. (Gal 2:20) All that is of ourselves, comes from ourselves, desires, wants, etc. - these are dead, and Christ alone lives in us, so we do not do as we would do, but as Christ who lives in us would lead us to do.
2 Pet. 2:19 - 'for people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.' We're slaves of God, not to again subject ourselves as slaves to the things of the world, but very often, we unknowingly serve the distractions that we allow to consume our time. I don't think the kid started playing diablo3 with the intention of playing 40 hours straight, nor do I think many people start watching TV, scrolling FB, playing video games, with the intention of spending as much time as they ultimately do - but that is why Peter is able to say that anything that has mastered us, we become slaves to, because the activity controls us and leads us to spend more time than we would have intended to. To be a slave means to have your life dictated by a master, to not do things as you want but as your master wants or permits. We have become slaves to God (Rom 6:22) - so let us start living in every aspect and way of our lives by His will.
Many people often ask 'how do I know God's will for me?' We seek God's will only in the 'big' issues - jobs, marriage, school, major, career, etc., but I want to challenge people to consider that walking by the Spirit and walking in the will of God (if that is their desire) starts at the smallest and seemingly most inconsequential things - what we devote our time to, minute by minute, hour by hour.
During one of the retreat messages, the pastor spoke about the idols we have in our present day, the things that consume us and distract us from God. He spoke of the sad example of a kid who died from playing 40 hours straight of Diablo 3. I heard the people around me chuckle at the mention of the familiar popular game Diablo 3 while others laughed at how 'ridiculous' and 'dumb' the kid was.
Yes, the story is a bit ridiculous since most people are probably aware enough to not play 40 hours straight of video games. However, as I thought about the incident, I felt it relates more than we would give ourselves credit for. We may not play 40 hours straight of video games, but what about when we allow ourselves to play until 2 AM? And cause ourselves to sleep late? Wake up late for work? Have a quiet time with God that is half the time just a struggle to stay awake? What about if we 'only' spend so many hours on TV or video games or Facebook or Tumblr or Pinterest or Twitter each day and give God merely 20-30 min depending on how much time we say we've 'only' got?
I may not play 40 hours straight of video games, but if I spend 2 hours everyday scrolling through Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter, I must be honest, that is still quite a ridiculous and stupid use of my time.
I may not die physically from it, but what about my spiritual life? How many hours do I spend on meaningless things versus with God? How's that affect my spiritual life? What's that say of me? The things I allow into my life or give myself to influence and effect me. It's easy to see which people are immature, crazy, or irresponsible with their activities and time (like it is easy to laugh with disdain at the poor kid who died after 40 hours of gaming), but it's not so easy to see how the activities affect us. So let us remind ourselves of what is said of the Israelites in 2 Kings 17:15 - "They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless." What our hearts follow after, jump after to do with our time, shows a lot of who we really are. Think about what your heart is first inclined to do when you have free time - and that will show you where your heart is at.
For me personally, time is a treasure and a responsibility that God has given me to be a faithful steward of. It's easy for people to say/sing "God, I give you my life. I only want You. Lead me. Call me into missions, into ministry, into small group leading, etc." But I often wonder how we can truly serve and give ourselves wholly and completely over to God as the Bible calls us to (Rom 6:13) if we cannot give something as small and seemingly inconsequential as the daily use of our time. Can we really give our lives over to Him for a ministry if we cannot even submit to Him the activities we choose to partake in for leisure? I would argue no. If our heart's desire is really to give our entire life to God, then we start now with our time - because is that not what life constitutes of? "Life" doesn't mean merely career, job, calling, ministry, etc. (though many seem to use the terms interchangeably), it means the day to day living, the day to day actions. And each day we get exactly the same 24 hours of time as everyone else does - and it is our choice to either hand over the 24 hours to Him and say "God, to You I give my life - starting with the use of my time" or cling to the time and say with mere words "God I give You my life, but not my time' as ridiculous as that sounds. Faithfulness starts with the small things; the taking of each activity - video games, facebook, tumblr, social events, the very words we speak, etc., and bringing it before God and asking "Your will? Or my will?" And being ready to obey even if it is not what you would have wanted. Because that is what it means when we say that we no longer live, but Christ lives in us. (Gal 2:20) All that is of ourselves, comes from ourselves, desires, wants, etc. - these are dead, and Christ alone lives in us, so we do not do as we would do, but as Christ who lives in us would lead us to do.
2 Pet. 2:19 - 'for people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.' We're slaves of God, not to again subject ourselves as slaves to the things of the world, but very often, we unknowingly serve the distractions that we allow to consume our time. I don't think the kid started playing diablo3 with the intention of playing 40 hours straight, nor do I think many people start watching TV, scrolling FB, playing video games, with the intention of spending as much time as they ultimately do - but that is why Peter is able to say that anything that has mastered us, we become slaves to, because the activity controls us and leads us to spend more time than we would have intended to. To be a slave means to have your life dictated by a master, to not do things as you want but as your master wants or permits. We have become slaves to God (Rom 6:22) - so let us start living in every aspect and way of our lives by His will.
Many people often ask 'how do I know God's will for me?' We seek God's will only in the 'big' issues - jobs, marriage, school, major, career, etc., but I want to challenge people to consider that walking by the Spirit and walking in the will of God (if that is their desire) starts at the smallest and seemingly most inconsequential things - what we devote our time to, minute by minute, hour by hour.
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