Last evening, following the leadership meeting at church, I was sitting talking with two friends. We were talking about the invitation of the Lord to continue to go deeper in relationship with Him. We were discussing how the Lord is moving in our body, drawing people in, and how people are embracing that invitation.
Our conversation took a personal turn and we discussed how the Lord continues to draw us and how that invitation is to allow Him to be Lord of our lives, every part of it. I said, “Yes, the Lord isn’t satisfied being the Lord of our spare time!” As soon as I said that, we all stopped, and it was clear that this was significant. This morning I want to mine that statement and one that follows for those in ministry that is closely related.
There are many things to dig into, but first I want to explore this concept of Jesus being the Lord of our lives. It is something you often hear in church, but for those of us who live in countries that don;t have Kings and Lords, the idea needs some expansion.
Rather than writing a whole new book, suffice it to say that in our life as Christians, we enter into the Life of God, literally becoming a new creation (2 Cor 5:15), and finding our lives hidden in Christ (Col 3:3) as sons and daughters of the King. He has paid for our lives, and redeemed us and invites us back into the type of relationship that we were originally created to experience. Jesus' primary message was one of the return of the Kingdom of God, and as followers of Him, there is the invitation to us all, to enter into that Kingdom, to allow His Kingdom to shape and define our lives.
Living with a King or Lord, means that we follow His commands. This is where we, especially those who are Americans, can struggle, for we think our lives are ours to manage. We don’t fully grasp this idea that God wants to be Lord of our lives, every part of it.
Jesus speaks of this when describing His followers, and their call to lay down their lives to follow Him, here is an example from Matthew 10:38-39 NIV:
[38] “Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. [39] Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”
In our modern, western life-style, what does this look like? How do we lose our life? I believe that this is related to our idea that we own our lives. Scripture is quite clear that our loves were bought and redeemed by Christ Jesus (Gal 3:13-14). This truth is behind the statement I made last night.
We so often live our lives like our relationship with God is just an added extra. We manage and control every aspect of our lives, and we give God some of our time, going to church, maybe volunteering for ministry, etc. I will say this, God is pleased with all of this, but the Invitation is always there to press into deeper relationship, where more and more of our life is given to Him or put under His control.
It is not that God is some control freak who wants us to be mindless servants, but rather He desires sons and daughters who are so much like Him that we are able to represent Him to the world! Secondly, He wants us to be obedient for our own sake, for He knows us better than we know ourselves, and has a perfect path for our life available to us, should we choose to listen and obey. Again, it is for our betterment! He loves us so much that He wants the very best for us, and He is best able to see what that is and direct us to that end.
In my life, this is the constant struggle, to give more and more of my life to Him! Trusting His plan and purpose! I try to embrace Him throughout my busy day at work, and sometimes I do better than other times. He is always there willing to accept me as I am, and lead me forward.
God’s primary motivation is love (John 3:16) , and His Command to us is to love as He loves us! ( John 13:34-35 NIV) [34] “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. [35] By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
So how do I give more of my life to God?
I start with time! I give the Lord the first 1-2 hours of my day, most every day! I listen, I read, I engage in conversations with Him! I listen to what He is saying,and I try to follow what I believe He tells me to do. I spend most of my work day trying to maintain that awareness of my relationship throughout the day. Most days I do a pretty lousy job of it, just being honest. I get distracted, struggle to maintain my peace and awareness of my relationship with Him. Most evenings I am asking myself what I should do, rather than asking the Lord what I should do, and this is what I feel the Lord is putting His finger on today.
Now I must say I have been following the Lord for close to 50 years, and He has been gracious to me always, inviting me forward, happy with any progress I make, but always inviting me to more. When I first started following him, I was lucky if I could cut out 14 minutes a day, but it was something I knew I wanted to do.
I find that the Lord issues the invite, and then provides the strength and desire to enable me to press forward. He shows me where I can expand my awareness of Him, how I can be a better witness to His impact in my life! He gives my body the strength I need to get up early, to seek Him in the place of prayer! He is so good!
The question for me this morning is, “will I enable Him to be Lord of my spare time?”
I woke up this morning, looked at the clock, it was 5:35am, and the first thought that entered my mind was whether I would lay back down or give him my time this morning. This morning I got right out of bed! (It is a every day decision).
As I did so I was reminded of a verse from an old Keith Green song that goes something like this, “And He, He rose from the dead, and you can’t even get out of bed!”
This morning I was successful, and I will see how I do the rest of the day. I know that whatever I do, the invitation will always be there for me to press in deeper, to know Him more! In doing so, I will have the opportunity to lay down my life more and more, and that is the path to all he has for me!
My prayer is that you might hear this same invitation and that you might choose to accept it and press deeper into relationship with the One who loves you and paid the price for you to enable you to be in relationship with Him.
Amen!
