Happy New Year! I hope my first post of 2023 finds you well! It’s almost two weeks in and it’s been very eventful for me already (spiritually speaking). I know a new year usually ushers in the want for change, it’s a time where the resolution is born and we become obsessive for the first three weeks for whatever we are focused on, then usually lose momentum and quickly fall back into old routines. For this reason I never made new year resolutions because I knew I was never consistent with whatever I set out to accomplish. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was definitely weak! This year I decided to reflect back on 2022, and really look at my walk with God and highlight my growth. I think it’s necessary to evaluate important relationships in your life and make improvements if needed. This world and it’s many distractions can have us not focused on what really matters, and our priorities can easily shift. Whether it’s work, family, friends, social media etc before we know it, we are spending less time with the Lord and we become stunted in our growth. Growth is so important, and we can not be like nursing babies forever! When I don’t grow, I hear from God less. My worst fear is to feel disconnected from God, especially since I know how much I need Him. To do this walk without Him is impossible, and I need to be by His side or I will easily be devoured.
Looking back at 2022 I realised I had a stagnant walk with God, therefore I felt like spiritually I hadn’t grown as much as the previous years. This saddened me. Although I served God on Sundays, leading worship at my church, I noticed that relationally I was not where I needed to be. Sometimes our serving can be a substitute for building deeper relationship with Jesus. We spend time doing for God but forget to spend time with Him also. Our serving can not replace intimate relationship, although it might seem to be possible to have two for the price of one. So seeing where I lacked, for the first time in a long time I made a new years resolution!
This year my resolution is to be more intentional with my time with God, and really start to pay attention to where I spend most of my free time and how I can make better use of what I do with it. I guess it’s a poor excuse for a resolution really, as it’s something I should be doing without thought! But I am not perfect, and I need the help or at times an incentive. Someone once told me to do something, even if I didn’t feel like doing it until I got a routine. I can be honest and say I don’t always feel like doing what I should be doing. I didn’t want to have another stagnant year where my main focus was on serving and nothing else, so God reminded me of the story of Martha and Mary in the Gospel of Luke.
Martha and Mary were sisters. Jesus spent time with them when Martha opened her home to Him. Mary sat at the feet of Jesus as He spoke and taught, while Martha was distracted by all the preparations that needed to be made to host Him. Martha, clearly annoyed that Mary was not helping her with the work, (probably doing nothing in Martha’s eyes) taking into consideration the culture of the times, it would of been the women that would of served most likely. Martha goes to Jesus and asks Him if He cares that she has been left to do the work by herself? “Tell her to help me!” are her words to Jesus! Can you imagine!? This is what He says in LUKE 10:41-42 “MARTHA, MARTHA,” THE LORD ANSWERED, “YOU ARE WORRIED AND UPSET ABOUT MANY THINGS, BUT FEW THINGS ARE NEEDED-OR INDEED ONLY ONE. MARY HAS CHOSEN WHAT IS BETTER, AND IT WILL NOT BE TAKEN AWAY FROM HER.” That’s probably not the answer poor Martha was expecting. As simple as this story is, it tells us so much about what we should deem most important. Serving as Martha was doing was important, the fact that she was honouring Jesus, we should all strive to serve and honour Jesus in what we do. He definitely was not saying do not serve, but at that moment she had an opportunity to be like Mary and be close to Jesus, listening intently to his infinite wisdom, but she missed it because she was concerned with what was least important at that moment. God wants us to spend intimate time with Him, so we can hear Him, so we can learn from Him. We might not have Jesus in the same way Mary and Martha did but we have the Word, and like it says in JOHN 1:1 “IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD, AND THE WORD WAS WITH GOD, AND THE WORD WAS GOD.” We are so blessed to have a God that is relational and wants to be close with us! Jesus is with us until the end of ages, and we too can sit at His feet today!
Like I said before, this world is full of distractions, and it’s easy to lose focus on what’s most important! But every so often God will send a little nudge to get you to refocus, just don’t get lost in the doing that you miss out on experiencing Him fully. It’s easy for our serving to feel like work if we are not careful. People view us doing all these things we do to serve God and it looks to them like our intimacy with God is at the same level as our service. They don’t stop and ask you “hey, how are you really doing?” that’s a dangerous place to be. It always reminds me of the religious leaders of the bible who to the outside world, they appeared so holy because of how they presented themselves and the “work” they did, but they did not know God at all! It might be the extreme end of the spectrum but it’s always best to keep these things at the forefront of your mind, the enemy is real out here!
So I encourage you also to be more intentional with your time with God. God wants to do so much in us but we have to be wiling to give Him our time. I really want to have more encounter with Him this year, and I know that will come the more I search Him out. Last year I was asleep spiritually, today I am wide awake!
PROVERBS 8:17 “I LOVE THOSE WHO LOVE ME, AND THOSE WHO SEEK ME FIND ME.”
MY CONVICTIONS 