One day a religious teacher came to Jesus and said, “Which is the first commandment of all?”
Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
This is the first most important commandment of all times. It is a very simple commandment. It is very simplistic in that God needs nothing else from us but that we should love Him as much as He loves us.
And yet if we are all honest with ourselves, we find that having a close relationship with Jesus seems so far away sometimes. The “stuff” of life seems to tug at us. The overwhelming “to do” list cries for our attention. The everyday challenges of life at times seem to put a “haze” about our life and walk with God.
I’m merely wondering … what if we could pay just one third of the attention to God as we do to our Facebook page, our twitter feeds and Google accounts, the latest game or television programs, .. I wonder — how would our lives be so much different and easier.
It’s not that these things are wrong. Social media is an excellent way to keep in touch with friends. Playing games on your iPhone or iPad provide a break and a challenge. And watching your favorite television program can give time to relax, but I am reminded of this verse from Proverbs 4:23, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”
The first verse of that chapter says “Hear, my children, a father’s instruction.”
What this father is saying to his son is, “This is how life works. After living a lot of years, I just want to tell you something. What’s really important in life is keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
I mean, more than anything else, it is important to keep (guard) our heart.
If you are like me. I find that I often fritter away my opportunities to spend time with God. There are so many “time-killers” that rob me of a moment with my Savior. I get confused with what’s important and what is urgent and what is, well — not necessary at all.
David understood that spending time alone with God was essential. He found that his time with God not only was a much needed refuge but his means of survival.
Jesus guarded his time with God escaping the demands of the day and of the people to be with His Father.
Oswald Chambers, whose works have often challenged, encouraged and convicted me said this in his writing, My Utmost for His Highest: “Guard jealously your relationship to God. Jesus prayed “that they may be one, even as we are one” – nothing between. Keep all the life perennially open to Jesus Christ, don’t pretend with Him. Are you drawing your life from any other source than God Himself? If you are depending upon anything but Him, you will never know when He is gone.”
Notice that last line, “If you are depending upon anything but Him, you will never know when he is gone.”
Let’s face it. Spending time with God does not ever just “fit in” to our day’s routine. We must schedule and then jealously guard that time, but the more we honor that appointment, the greater our desire to protect it, and the greater our walk with God.
All God wants from us is that we should show Him the care and concern that He shows to us. He wants us in our entirety, all of us, our soul, body, mind and heart because it was that much He gave to us in the form of His Son on the cross of Calvary.
Being hungry for His presence and desiring to be in the presence of the Lord on a daily basis should be our greatest priority.
How are we spending our time? Have we taken time to spend time with Jesus today? Are we “guarding jealously” our relationship and walk with God?