Sorry I haven't posted for a while (if anyone has noticed!). I am still alive, just rather busy. I seem to get very tired very easily in my Christian life. I'm always striving to resist sin, love others more, live a better life. And then one day I get exhausted and it all falls apart - I feel numb and empty. I've got so caught up in "doing" I have no time to exist in God's presence.
The story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10: 38-42) shows the priority that Jesus had. Mary and Martha were sisters who Jesus stayed with for a time. Martha rushed around, making sure all the preparations were ready, food cooked, everything was in order - good faithful service. However, when she complained to Jesus about her sister Mary who was resting in His presence - learning from Him and spending time with Him, Jesus gently informed her that Mary was the one with her priorities right!
We learn again in Acts (Acts 2:42-47) that the early church focussed their time not on striving for better lives, or serving the community, but on teaching, prayer, worship and fellowship - and the church grew because people liked what they saw and wanted a piece of it. Not to say that it isn't really important to serve others, or that God doesn't want to see us grow and change for the better, but that if we prioritise these things over spending time with Him, we are not getting it right - we can't sustain these without His presence in our lives.
I strongly believe that if we don't love God (and that grows from spending time with Him, in prayer and reading the Bible), we can't get the rest of it right. If as individuals and as Christian communities we place Him in our centre, as our priority, we will begin to see our lives, and others' lives change. With that in mind, I'm going to concentrate on trying to get to know my Father God better...
