I was reading a blog this morning written by a woman who went to Japan as a missionary. At first I just glanced at some of the pictures, admired her background and read a couple of the post titles before deciding I didn't really feel like reading any further. I exited the screen but immediately felt a propmting to return to her blog and delve a little deeper, so I did.
You how when you are thirsty and you come upon water and sometimes you just don't want to drink it even though you are thirsty. You don't feel like drinking water and would prefer gatorade, milk, or soda instead. You actually become kinda indignant at the water, annoyed that it is not something else more tastey. So, you don't drink it and go find one of the other beverages to satisfy your thirst. Then, eventually, for some reason you end up drinking some water and a funny thing happens, you actually enjoy it. Not only do you enjoy it but you feel refreshed and it tastes good to you. At that momment it is better than anything else you could be drinking and you drink more.
Sometimes I find myself feeling that way about God. I'll go about my life without reading His word or hearing His word for awhile until I become thirsty. Then when His word is presented to me I become irritated or annoyed by it. I don't feel like listening to it or spending my time reading it as I would rather be doing other things. So I go and find something else to do. Then, like today, when I finally get a taste of His word or His wisdom my love and wonder for Him comes back. A little bit of life gets pored into me and I want more and I kick myself for refusing it in the first place.
The most recent entry of this missionary's blog was entitled "The God Who Hears Me". It wasn't a long post or even a very detailed post but in it something that she said struck me and got me thinking. It gave me a little sip of what I've been missing. She was talking about how God had blessed her by giving her half a day off at work unexpectedly when she had just tweeted about wanting more time to complete personal tasks and be lazy.
I immediately related to her. When I was working two jobs and trying to balance friends and church I often found myself wishing there were more hours in the day for "me time". One of the excuses that I had for not reading my Bible was that I just never had enough time. So I read on and then she said something that hit me as a profound truth that I had never realized before. It said, "Today I was riding the train, thinking about time, or rather, the lack of it. I do that often lately. LAst night as I was coming home past my bedtime I was pondering why it is so difficult for us humans to manage time. God created the world to give us the right amount of time. We have seasons, night and day, and they are all meant to bless us, not confine us. This must mean we end up confining ourselves."
Think about that for a second. All the verses in the Bible that say that God will provide for us our needs and we think of things such as food, clothes, and water but what I learned today is that this also applys to time. God has given you a purpose. Before you were born that purpose was decided and your days were numbered. God in His infinate wisdom has given you exactly enough time on this earth to complete that task which He has created you for. But we as sinful beings squander the time given us doing what we want to do, chasing after the temporal things of this world and filling our time with things that do not matter.
Do not confine yourself with something that God has created to bless you. Also, If you are doing that which is God's will and purpose for you don't worry about having enough time to complete it.
Matthew 6:31-32
31Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
2 Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
Philippians 4:19
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
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