Never has there been more clutter in our lives than there is today. The enormous amount of information and in-your-face communication is so invasive, its come to the point where it can have a negative effect on our walk with Jesus Christ and knowing Him.
If we really want a chance of having a significant relationship and fellowship with Christ, we need to take steps to counter the waves of information being thrown at us.
One thing that believers that have had a close walk with Christ through the centuries have all had in common, is learning to tune out the world and look to the Lord within them.
In our modern age, there's nothing more important than simply cutting off the source of the information and communication overload.
When I say cut it off, I don't mean permanently, otherwise we'd have to be out of the world. I mean we need to simply turn off all the gadgets we use to receive information, and sit quietly before the Lord and fellowship with Him.
That includes your telephones, television, Internet, newspaper, etc.
In other words, don't give in to the temptation to grab print or digital gadgets, computers or newspapers. As soon as you do, they're made to grab your attention and draw you in.
In no time at all you're distracted so quickly that hopes of securing quality time with the Lord becomes hopeless.
Rather, what we should do is close ourselves off from it periodically, and better at set times, and simply fellowship with the Lord without distraction.
If you're too busy to do that, then maybe you need to think of lifestyle changes.
This is what Jesus was talking about when He talked about the parable of the seed and the sower. If you've got all the distractions of life combating you, it's impossible for the fruit of fellowship with Him to come forth. It's always full of mixture, which has no value before the Lord.
Once you practice quieting yourself before the Lord, from there the practice can become more consistent, and you can learn to do it in the midst of the hussle and bussle of life. That takes time and practice though, and you've got to start somewhere, which is why quiet time is so important.
So how does one enter into the presence of the Lord? It's simply and immediately by faith. We don't need to feel Him or sense Him, rather we know He lives within us, and that He defines eternal life as fellowship with Him and the Father.
In other words, the desire and will is there on Jesus' part to fellowship intimately with us, so it falls on us to allow the clutter to fall away and simply enjoy the presence of God within us by faith.
That's the key. Exterior clutter is an enemy of our walk with Jesus, so it's our job to ensure we don't get distracted by all the outward things that always pressure upon us.
The truth is those outward things and problems will always be there. Get rid of one and another will surface. That's the way of life in this world. We'll always have troubles here.
So we must learn to continue to fellowship with the Lord, individually and corporately, while those storms of life are always beating down upon us.
If we don't, the desire of the heart of God to be in a love relationship with us will be frustrated, and we'll be a people most miserable.
By the way, this isn't just in relationship to difficult things in life either. Be wary of those people always chasing causes and not Christ.
That's just the 'good' side of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You can get easily led away from the simplicity of Christ in the name of good; sometimes even more so.
Jesus is interested in life and not good. Jesus defines eternal life as fellowship with Him and the Father. It's as simple as that.
The fact that He defines eternal life that way, means it was something in the Godhead that was before time and creation. It was what was of value to God, and what motivated Him to create us.
This doesn't mean we don't do good, just that we don't obsess with the knowledge of good as pushed upon us from without by the world. All you have to do is read the hideous amount of alleged crises out there, and you could become borderline psychotic in despair because it looks like the world is about to fall apart at any time.
Don't worry though, Jesus is still Lord, and has everything under control. Be cautious of those that use time as a weapon to move you off your position of fellowship with Christ.
Time is a tool of manipulation used to get us to give our time and money to something, that if we didn't, the world would surely end.
We see this all the time with those who attempt to use politics as a tool to get what they want, and to enforce their will on the rest of us.
Anyway, be careful of anything that draws you away from the simplicity of Christ, as Paul warns us in the Scriptures.
One of the greatest practices to ensure that is to take quiet time with the Lord, shutting out all outside influences, and from there learn to do it on a daily, and eventually moment by moment basis.
Just ask Jesus to give you the will and wisdom in it, and He surely will answer you.
No comments:
Post a Comment