How many excuses do you have? Have you gotten so used to providing them that you can come up with an excuse without even thinking about it? Why are you not spending more time with God?
This world wants to rob our time and focus. It wants us to spend our non-working time being distracted by things that are not of God. It is evidenced by the sheer number of options to entertain ourselves.
Though our options have decreased to some degree due to the current health crisis, we still have access to thousands of movies online and hundreds of TV channels. We still have the ability to play games with people across the internet and interact with social media. In other words, the world is still distracting us as we seek entertainment.
Let’s do the math. We’ll assume that each of us sleeps for eight hours, works for eight hours, spends an hour going to/from work, at least half an hour taking a shower and getting ourselves dressed, and we spend an hour a day on meals. It’s a given that these times will vary based on how long it takes you to commute to work and how long it takes to prepare your meals.
Going with our basic assumptions, eighteen and a half hours per day are spoken for to continue living and provide for our families. That leaves five and a half hours a day that we do something else. What are we doing with our time? Even if you cut this down to just three hours a day of discretionary time, what are we doing with it? We seek entertainment. We seek escape.
Here’s an idea, why not spend some of that time with God? Why not spend at least a few minutes discussing Him, what He has done for us, what we can petition Him for with our families and friends? Our example of the early church is they spent time every day together to do just that.
So, what is our excuse? We have no legitimate reason. We have time to spend each day. Yet we will come up with a lame excuse not to spend time with God, not to attend church, not to participate in classes, not to read about Him, not to spend time in prayer. The current health crisis with church buildings closed is being used as another lame excuse to ignore God. What do you expect His answer to our lack of attention to Him will be?
I pray we all decide to take advantage of being sequester in our homes to spend more time with God. I pray we all see that God is begging us to know Him better. I pray we take a little time to pray for, not only ourselves, but others as well. Spend time with God. Get to know God better. Follow Jesus’ example. Pray more. God is waiting patiently.
Luke 14:18-20 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’
“Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’
“Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’”
Marty Pressey 