10 Minutes with God:
Thursday, July 31st, 2014
Have you ever stopped to think about all that is supposed to be
included in the well balanced life? In
order for us to be “healthy”, we are supposed
to find time to work hard, but not over work.
We should of course make time for family, that is a priority. We need to have space for other vital
relationships (friends and if you are married, couple friends). You need to be sure to work-out (your body is
a temple after all), eat right, stay up-to-date on the latest cultural events,
be politically informed, leave a little space for entertainment or refreshment
and in the 8 minutes that you have left, sleep.
As Christians, we add to the list our daily devotions, spending time in
prayer, serving in our community and in the church and making it to our small
groups. It’s exhausting just
thinking about it all.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean to suggest that these things
aren’t important. They
are. It is important to read God’s
Word and to serve, to pray and to be healthy.
It is all important but when you add it all together, you can begin to
see how easy it is to lose our focus on our God given mission in life. There seem to be a million different things
coming at us every day, vying for out attention and clamoring to be done
immediately.
I often think of this as a modern day problem, an unintended
consequence of the advancement of technology or something like that. Sometimes I even find myself longing for the
good old days, simpler times and all of that. As it turns out, the problem has always been
there. We saw the potential for this
yesterday in the life of the disciples from Acts 6. In the infancy of the life of the church,
there was a very real threat for them to become distracted from their primary
mission, “prayer and the ministry of the word” (Acts
6:4).
Even Jesus was not immune to experiencing the pull of warring
priorities. Take a look at Mark 1:21-39:
21 And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the
Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. 22 And they were astonished
at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the
scribes. 23 And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean
spirit. And he cried out, 24 “What
have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know
who you are—the
Holy One of God.” 25
But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be
silent, and come out of him!”
26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud
voice, came out of him. 27 And they were all amazed, so that they questioned
among themselves, saying, “What
is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits,
and they obey him.” 28
And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of
Galilee.
Jesus Heals Many
29 And immediately he[f] left the synagogue and entered the
house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon's mother-in-law
lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. 31 And he came
and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she
began to serve them.
32 That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were
sick or oppressed by demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered together at the
door. 34 And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out
many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew
him. And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed
and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and those
who were with him searched for him, 37 and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” 38 And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns,
that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” 39 And he went throughout all
Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Most of the time I think of these last few verses as a model for
prayer, and they are, but in the larger context of Mark 1, there is something
else going on here that stands out to me.
I think that Jesus is also modeling what it looks like to stay on
mission. When the disciples wake up and
find Jesus, they essentially say to Jesus, “where have you
been, everyone is waiting for you.” The
people had seen the miracles and the demons that were cast out, and they wanted
more. When morning arrives, there is a
gathering of those looking for Jesus to do more of the same and they are
wondering when he is going to get to work.
Jesus’ reply however isn’t to return and meet the requests of
those waiting for him. Jesus instead
tells his disciples, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I
may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”
Kevin DeYoung, is his book Crazy Busy comments on this passage
saying, “When all Capernaum waited for his healing touch, he left for
a desolate place to pray. And when the
disciples told him to get back to work, he left for another town to
preach. Jesus knew the difference
between urgent and important. He
understood that all the good things he could do were not necessarily the
things he ought to do.”
Jesus understood his mission and his mission determined his
priorities, not the other way around. In
the end, nothing could deter him from that mission. Jesus is the perfect example to us of what
focused and purposeful living looks like.
Pastor Sterling Moore
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