Key Points:
- Repent
- Rest
- Reset
In The Busyness of Our Lives
It’s very easy to get your life out of order, as I was reminded last week.
In the busyness of our lives, we can often get distracted and even rationalize stress as a good thing, convincing ourselves that we are trying to prove ourselves to our boss or provide more time and money for our family.
But if we are not careful what happened to me can happen to you too.
We can get so fixated on trying to get things done that we miss the life God has right in front of us! This is a HUGE sin…not only do we hurt those around us, but we also end up disrespecting God’s plans and priorities over our lives.
But, praise be to God that His purpose prevails despite our blindness. If we are open to it, He will get our attention through the pain we are causing a loved one by our disorganized life, through His Holy Spirit knocking on our hearts, through us hitting a brick wall (figuratively I hope), or even some combination of these and help us change.
For me, this meant letting go of trying to get caught up on work after some leave because I was ignoring my worship time and my wife. For you, it could be learning to spend time with your kids before your hobby, or paying attention to your wife instead of the big deadline, or even realizing that becoming so busy at church is taking you away from your personal worship time.
As stated by Adam Mabry in an article on TGC (The Gospel Coalition):
“That’s how the god of this world still works. Motivated by fear of lack or failure, we labor for the heaven of earthly prosperity, wealth, and luxury. Or worse yet, we labor for subsistence, afraid that if we stop we’ll miss an opportunity to be great.”
Prioritizing Your Life God’s Way
The key here is this, God has a designated order of what should be our priorities in life:
- First place should always be Himself [Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:34-40]
- Next is to love your wife [Ephesians 5:25-33]
- After that is to love everyone else [Leviticus 19:18] and within this is where we look at our relationship when it comes serving in ministry, being a volunteer, and serving our bosses [Colossians 3:22-24]
When we get any of these too far out of balance we start to feel it…even if we ignore or justify that feeling. If we choose to sit in that out-of-balance life, others around us suffer as a result of it.
As Frank Powell emphasized in a recent article from Relevant Magazine about the cause of stress and ways we can overcome it:
“Before you know it, you’re rushing to the shower, grabbing a cereal bar, throwing on some clothes, yelling at the kids to put on their clothes and sprinting to school or work.
Arriving at your desk, you re-read the same emails that have been in your inbox for days but you don’t want to address. You pull up Facebook and Twitter on your browser. Maybe you SnapChat a few friends and upload a picture to Instagram…
Combine the 24/7 connection with the demands on our time from friends, church, activities, family, job and so on. The result? Severely burned out, extremely overwhelmed, habitually anxious people.”
So What Should We Do When This Happens?
Well, here’s what Frank says “Set your schedule. Get rid of unnecessary activities. Then, give your attention to the tasks at hand and the people in front of you.”
Similarly, John Mark Comer states in his new book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry:
“To restate: love, joy, and peace are at the heart of all Jesus is trying to grow in the soil of your life. And all three are incompatible with hurry.”
I know it’s not easy (especially when it comes to letting go or disconnecting from whatever stole your time). But I promise that it is always worth it.
And above all, we should turn it over to God, Humble ourselves in spirit and in prayer, and be willing to follow through and obey His plan for our lives.
In Closing
If you are in an out-of-balance time in your life right now, I encourage you to pray this prayer with me.
Lord, I recognize and repent of the way I have treated my priorities. I have made them my own and thought that I could fix things myself. Will you please come in and rearrange my life to fit your order of things. Will you please give me the grace and humility that I need to go through this process with you and let go of my life once more.
Lord, I thank you that you hear my heart and grabbed my attention and I apologize for any sin I might have committed against you and for any hurt, I may have caused others in my disorder.
Please heal my heart and make me right with you. Amen.
