Monday, January 21 2008

Living

“Give ear and come to Me; hear Me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, My faithful love promised to David.” Isaiah 55:3

Good news brings life. And God longs for us to receive His good news. There is so much that He wants to give us. But are we willing to listen? Do we listen when He speaks to our hearts to sit with Him and partake of the life He offers?

Relationship demands intimacy and priority. If we are not spending the time with God that He longs to have with us, we are robbing the Kingdom and robbing those He has called us to serve because we cannot give out that which we do not have. We will end up giving and receiving our meager portion, not God’s greater serving.

This life-giving priority is often the opposite of how we think in the world or how we think as women in caring for others. Too often, we serve everyone else and accept the little bit of time and energy that remains for our Lord. We give Him the leftovers. We think we’re being unselfish by putting the needs of others before our own, but the truth is that we’re putting people and daily responsibilities before God. We end up running on empty because we’re not taking the time to sit and sup with the Lord.

Given these circumstances, how useful are we to God or anyone else? It may help to be reminded that our lives were bought with a price, therefore, this resource of time God gave us is not our own. It may also help to remember that Christ only did what The Father called Him to do. What things are we doing that God didn’t call us to do?

God’s first and greatest commandment is to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength (Mk. 12:30). “All” does not mean a meager portion. And His second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mk. 12:31).

May we spend some of the time God graciously gives us to examine our hearts and repent so that we may receive and give out His richest love.