“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and
mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he
cannot be My disciple.”
Luke 14:26
Jesus wants us to exclusively love
the Father through Him. In comparing our love for Him to the love we have for
our loved ones, we find out that we need to love Him more than we do those He
has given us. He alone should be who we worship and live for. Should we love
our loved ones, yes! It’s just that Jesus needs to hold first place in our lives. He even tells us that if we have our
order turned around, we should hate this. It should bother us. We should make things
right if they are not. He also informs us that we can’t be His disciples if we
don’t love Him more.
Anyone that knows me knows that I
love my family. My family is very dear to me. They also know that I love the
Lord with all my heart too. I spend hours with the Lord each and every morning.
I love this. I worship Him in song for as long as my heart delights, pray to
him, read and meditate from my bible, and read many devotionals. My time with
Him is sweet, and I am so thankful for our time together and the fellowship that
we share.
The favorite years of my life have
been those of being a wife and mother. I LOVE being a mom. I loved raising my
girls and teaching them to truly know God and to apply God’s Word in their
everyday lives. They are grown now and are both in college. It is an absolute
joy (and a humungous gift from the Lord) to have them home every summer. I get
to be a “real momma” once again! Our time together is very special. This year
was a little different though for me spiritually. I was used to having hours to
sup with the Lord each morning. This year I was struggling, trying to find time
to with my Lord. I would be trying to do this with someone else in the room. I was
finding that I would hardly take in anything spiritually during my time with
Him. I was doing it. I was doing the right thing. The same thing I always had,
it was just that I was not getting anything out of it. I'm sure that He wasn’t getting anything
out of it either. Sometimes I could go upstairs and shut my door, being alone
with Him. This would work. But once in a while Dave would be home and he would
be sleeping so I couldn’t. I have found that I need to be “alone” with Him for
things to work. You may recommend that I get up early and do it. I did this
sometimes. Sometimes it worked. And … oh … when they did I realized just how much
I missed the closeness that we shared. I loved my time with my family, I even
treasured it, it was good, but my very best friend in all the world was being shoved
out of my life some. I didn’t like it. It hurt. I prayed about this as I could
see that there was a problem. I asked the Lord to help there to be a balance in
my life. I needed Him to make things work out for the summer. He has provided the
answer to my hearts cry. I am so thankful. Nicole was given a job on first
shift. Brittney was given the opportunity to work a split shift. She works a few hours in the late morning giving me time with her before she goes to work. Then, she comes home so we can all enjoy an early supper together. And, then, she goes back to work, leaving me time to be with Nicole. This leaves
me several hours in the late morning and early afternoon to be alone with the Lord. Problem solved! God
is good.
Be encouraged today. Love your
family, thank God for them, but be sure to love the Lord even more. It will
keep things right with Him, and then everything else will be blessed. Remember that we love others best when we love God most.
Father, we truly want to be Your disciples. We thank You
for our family, friends, and loved ones. We love them with the love of the
Lord. Help us to guard our relationship with You. Make our relationship with
You happen. We want to love You above all. We also desire a balance in our
lives. Please, Lord, make this happen. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment