Fitting God In
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Matthew 22:37
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind"
When you read this verse you’ll probably think, “Well, of course! I already know that! I already do that.” I say that too! Let’s be honest though . . . ok, I’ll go first . . . It has been twenty minutes since I typed the first sentence of this devotion. Not because I was “waiting for inspiration,” either. It is because I “had” to check my e-mail, and then I “had” to reply to a couple of emails. Then I wrote something I wanted to share with a friend about a healing service at our church last night, then I checked my email again. Sound familiar? Maybe not the particulars, but I bet the pattern does!
You may think to yourself, “So what. At least you got the devotion done, Mary.” And yes, I will get it done and post it. However, the “so what” is that I did not honor God with all my heart and all my soul and all my mind while I was working on this. I was “fitting Him in” with the rest of my activities for the morning. I knew that was the case every time I veered away from the task at hand. And yet, I allowed it to happen. I gave God less than my all. In fact, I gave Him only what I could fit in.
I know; we’re all very busy. And still, you’re probably wanting to cut me a break saying, “It’s not so bad to fit God in. That’s more than some do on any given day.” I’m talking about my relationship with God though. Not anyone else’s. You see, God has seen me through almost 50 years of living—most of it good and joyous, with plenty of strife and struggle, sorrow and hard work thrown in. Regardless of the descriptive words used, He has been there through it all. Every morning when I wake up, He’s there, waiting for me. Every night when I go to sleep, he waits for me to turn over my cares and concerns to Him so I can rest and be refreshed the next day.
I’m so grateful God doesn’t get distracted! I can’t imagine Him deciding to “put me on hold” to stop a war somewhere or go get coffee while I was hanging out there waiting for Him to answer a prayer. I’m glad He cares about me enough, and that his grace is deep and long and wide enough to contain the depth and breadth and width of my need for it.
When Jesus said to Love God so completely, He wasn’t just talking about lip service. He was talking about our intentions, our priorities, our obedience, and our humility. To place any one or any thing before God is just simply sinful. Again, I rejoice that in my repentance, I receive another chance, and another . . . and another . . . and another.
My prayer today is that you will join me in placing God first and foremost in life. And that you repent of your distractions in gratitude for the fullness of God’s grace.
Mary
