Relentless

I am currently doing this study called Experiencing God, its a great study for someone who is looking for ways to understand and hear what God is telling and convicting us to do. Today's session was called "Walking with God", and basically discussed the importance of taking time to "walk" with God and speak to him, and worship and praise him. How ironic that I read this after I've gone a full week of putting forth lame efforts to spend time with God. He's funny like that sometimes, I hope he's getting a kick out of this because it slapped me in the face when I read it.

I'm an unbelievably busy individual. I am taking 3 classes right now 2 of which are my senior capstones the other is my final graphic design course all of which require a ton of out of class hours, I work a minimum of 43 hrs a week, and I try to stay involved in the church as well (bible study, alive, church, sometimes youth group, and I was coaching Upwards Basketball which actually just finished up which is a sad day...). But with a schedule like that its SO easy to just fall "victim" to my flesh and say "I'm too tired and I wouldn't get anything out of reading tonight" or those moments in the morning when I've already go an alarm set to go off at 630 to get up and read and its just so easy to justify hitting snooze because "Oh I've got such a crazy hectic busy life...". I sit back and think of the countless moments that I justify not spending time with Him and it makes me sick with myself. I can go home to lubbock and make time to hang out with my friends (nothing against that or doing that at all, they are amazing people and i love them so much and felt blessed to hang out with them) but I cant seem to drag myself outta bed in the morning when my phone goes off telling me to "Make WAR" (dybs :-)). So then I become disgusted w/ myself which does ABSOLUTELY no good in all honesty and hearing a song at alive this past thursday helped me get past that pitfall (thank goodness for David Crowder and his song "Everything Glorious"!). But the slap in the face came in the workbook when it said "People who struggle to spend time with God don't have a scheduling problem; they have a love problem." Ouch dude...

I love God, but I had to ask myself after reading that, do I honestly love him MORE than anything else? more than sleep, coffee, tanning, my 7 tv shows i watch on the internet, or my parents and sister, my adorable neice or even my nana??

2 Corinthians 5:14 says:

¹⁴For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (NIV)

If I acted crazy, I did it for God; if I acted overly serious, I did it for you. Christ's love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do.

Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own. (The Message).

Why am I not crazily and relentlessly pursuing God even when I think I'm too tired? Who cares if my flesh tries to tell me that i'm too tired to hang out with my Father? The Bible holds countless examples in scripture where God gave strength to the tired and the weary. And i'm about 95% positive that my version of "tired" doesn't even compare to a fraction of what God's people endured in biblical times.

The bottom line is this: I need to make it a priority to love God with all my heart.

"God created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, for a love relationship with Himself. After Adam and Eve sinned, they heard God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. They hid from Him because of their fear and shame. Try to sense the heart of a loving Father when He asked that wonderful love question "where are you?" (Gen. 3:9). God knew something had happened to the love relationship.

When your relationship is as it out to be, you will always be in fellowship with the Father. You will be in His presence expecting and anticipating the relationship of love. When Adam and Eve were not there, something had gone wrong." (Experiencing God)

I've already asked myself what is it that is keeping me from pursuing this love relationship with my Father. If you're experiencing this as well I urge you to take the time to step back and ask yourself the same question. He wants a relationship with us, but if we don't make it a priority to love him it is going to be really hard for the type of relationship we were created to have to actually take place. So pray for that, pray that loving God with ALL of your heart is made a priority in your life.