I didn’t grow up in the church. I didn’t know God’s Word. I was in my early 30’s before I ever went to Youth Camp; the truth is, I think I got much more out of Youth Camp at 30 something than I ever would have in my teens. Those Youth Camp trips were some of the best times of my life. There is nothing sweeter than watching a gym full of kids raising their hands in praise to the Lord, tears streaming down their cheeks, the altars full, teens of all ages rushing to the front to find out what they have to do to be saved. Imagine an entire week set aside for no other purpose than to develop a closer walk with Jesus. The energy is electric!
To this day I can’t tell you the name of the camp, the name of the speaker, or any of the texts that were used that week. What I can remember is one quote; one quote that will stay with me forever…
“When you get up in the morning you will find that God has been sitting on the end of your bed for hours just waiting for you to wake up so He can talk with you.”
Chew on that for a little while…
We’re in the process of building a new church, I’m talking about an entirely new work; it’s an incredibly exciting time for all of us. But with a new church comes responsibilities that some of us haven’t had in a while. More room means more classrooms. More classrooms mean more teachers, more students, more teams, discipleship training, prayer meetings, Bible studies, VBS, ministries, custodians, etc. The busier we get “working for the Lord” the harder it can get to carve out one-on-one time with Him.
This reminds me of an old Larnell Harris song, I Miss My Time With You. Really think about these lyrics as you read them.
There He was just waiting in our old familiar place,
An empty spot beside Him,
Where once I used to wait
To be filled with strength and wisdom
For the battles of the day.
I would have passed Him by again
But I clearly heard Him say,
Chorus:
“I miss My time with you,
Those moments together.
I need to be with you each day
And it hurts Me when you say
You’re too busy,
Busy trying to serve Me.
But how can you serve Me
When your spirit’s empty?
There’s a longing in My heart,
Wanting more than just a part of you.
It’s true,
I miss My time with you.”
“…you’re too busy trying to serve Me…”
Service in the church… When we become saved, all we can think about is serving God; we’re ready to go to work, to do something, anything for God. We find ourselves taking on any job or position that’s available because we’re excited and we want to be a part of this wonderful organization, to make a difference for God. I can’t tell you how many times I have taken on a job or a position because no one else would take it or because it was a great idea and I wanted to be a part of it. The problem with that was I never consulted God. I never considered my spiritual gift or my talents. Before long I began to find myself experiencing a kind of emptiness. My job/position would then begin to feel like more of burden than a blessing. I couldn’t quit because there was no one else to take over; so I stayed. I would then become more and more ineffective in that ministry; my prayer life would suffer, my attendance might decrease, my ideas diminish, and ultimately my ministry would fail - not to mention how much my family would suffer because of my attitude. Sound familiar?
“…My efforts have no meaning when Your presence isn’t there…”
I would begin to find myself kind of disconnected with God, my first love. We HAVE to stay connected. When we’re connected, we know what God’s will is. We know what job we’re supposed to take or even if we’re supposed to take on a job at all. When we’re seeking God’s will we know which direction to take. When we’re connected, God blesses us and the ministry.
God has blessed each one of us with specific gifts and talents needed to make sure the church operates efficiently. The problem here is, we don’t know what our gifts are so we work outside of them. We also don’t know how to say “no”. We are afraid it might make us appear somehow less spiritual, less cooperative, less _____ (you fill in the blank).
We can find ourselves, over time, just “doing” church. Serving God turns into doing “busy work” for God. We can have the best intentions; after all we’re doing honorable things. However, those particular honorable things may not be on God’s agenda or it may not be God’s timing.
When we get so busy that we don’t even notice God sitting at the foot of our bed, when we rush right past Him to get to the next task, we have a problem.
“…but You’ll provide the power, if I take time to pray. I’ll stay right here beside You and You’ll never have to say, ‘I miss My time with you…’”
This is from the second verse (which I did not print). When we are maintaining that connection with God, we automatically begin operating out of the “overflow”. No longer are we doing things our own way and in our own strength. When we surrender, our schedule becomes His schedule, our agenda His agenda.
Occasionally my prayer has been, “YOU order my steps God.” In that moment, I truly mean it – BUT – if you will notice I said OCCASIONALLY; this is not a prayer I pray daily. I am the self-proclaimed Queen of the Schedule. A couple of blogs ago, I mentioned to you that God is dealing with me on the issue of control. My schedule is one of those areas of control. When we were leading mission trips years ago, the key word was “FLEXIBILITY”. (In fact, I think I was the genius who came up with that!) I struggled with it then and I struggle with it now. “Going with the flow” has never been one of my virtues.
The bottom line here is that I struggle just like you do. I struggle with quiet time, Bible study, commitment, service, and ministry; all of it. However, experience has taught me that I don’t have to “struggle”. I can just maintain a steady connection to my heavenly Father and the overflow of His grace, and His mercy, and His love will spill over onto all these areas through me.
I just need to wake up and welcome my Father who waits at the foot of my bed.
