Like most people, I
have a very busy life. I run a business, and my days are filled with
meetings, closing deals, handling the day to day operations, etc. Sometimes it
seems as if there are not enough hours in a day to get everything done. So my
time is very valuable to me. But it’s usually in those times of my life where I
find myself extremely put off and annoyed at being inconvenienced with my time,
where the Lord speaks to me most powerfully. This was the case in the Summer of 2011, when
I was feeling extremely aggravated, as our plane sat on the tarmac still awaiting
clearance for takeoff after an already hour delay. My family and I were headed to Hawaii, my
favorite tropical place on earth for a much needed vacation. So, yeah, I was a
little upset with the delay. But rather
than staying in that state, the Lord led me to pick up my bible. I opened it to
Genesis and my God began to speak to me through His word.
“The serpent said to
the woman, “You will not surely die. For that in the day that you will eat of
it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. “
Genesis 3:4-5
Man was not created to handle the knowledge of good and
evil, or to know sin. That was not Gods
plan for mankind. Genesis 1:31 tells us that God said His creation was very
good. It was perfection, but ever since that day in the garden when Adam and
Eve chose to believe the lie of Satan over God’s truth, man has been struggling
with his sinful nature. We sin without even thinking about it. It's as natural
as breathing. On the contrary, walking
in peace with God takes effort. It is a conscious choice that we must willingly
make every day to stay close to Him and walk in obedience. We need to get up
and seek His face daily, not because we are trying to earn our acceptance, but
because we need to be filled, refreshed and poured into in order to walk this
Christian life. When we seek God's face, we don't become sinless, we just begin to sin less. It’s not a works thing,
it’s an effort thing. We need to make the effort to spend time with Jesus. It
comes down to what we value. And just like we value our time, our God values the
time we spend with Him.
One of the few things we have to offer our God is our
personal time, everything else He already owns. It’s already His. But our time on earth is ours until He
decides to call us home. He loves us so much, that He just wants to spend time
with us. After all, we were created for His good pleasure. That is the only
reason we are alive today. What is the meaning of life? To fellowship and worship
our creator – The Great I Am, Jesus Christ, the Alpha and the Omega, the First
and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
As the Lord spoke these profound truths to me, my heart was
moved to repentance, and my spirit was revived. What I had seen as an inconvenience
was actually a God opportunity. God is always speaking to us but are we
listening? Sometimes he just might orchestrate situations in our lives so that
we will spend time with Him. Those times are always a blessing and may even be
an opportunity to shine our light and draw others to Jesus. One of the flight
attendants asked me if I was reading a good book. Talk about an open
opportunity to talk about Jesus. Be thankful for interruptions.
by James Trent
by James Trent
