Dear Friends,
Last month I received a sample devotional magazine in the mail. As a pastor it happens often! It was called "Mornings With Jesus." As I browsed through it I found some good selections, but one in particular by a lady named Jeannie Blackmer which I thought was a good reminder of our need to be aware and focus on what's important in life. Enjoy.
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."
John 10:10 (ESV)
"My husband, Zane, and I are opposites in many ways. He's competitive and I'm not. I obsessively clean and he doesn't mind clutter. I'm a planner and he's spontaneous. Unfortunately, we've fallen into a trap of arguing with each other about ridiculous little things, such as which drawer to store the toothpaste. During our engagement, our premarital counselor warned us of the detrimental pattern of silly arguments. He told us to remember we are on the same team and we're not each other's enemies. Although our personalities are so different, I never thought we'd become a couple who argued all the time.
I asked my group of close friends to pray for us. Turns out, they, too, sometimes struggled with senseless arguments in their marriages. Then, one of the girls showed us a video of two gazelles with their antlers locked and fighting. In the background a lion was sprinting toward the two of them. The two gazelles were so engrossed in their conflict that they didn't see their enemy coming. Then the lion pounced and killed one of the gazelles. What a powerful image of how Satan, the thief, comes to steal, kill and destroy.
When I argue with Zane, one or both of us can be hurt and our relationship damaged. Jesus said He came to give us abundant life. Arguing with my loved ones is not living life abundantly. So I'm trying -- not always successfully -- to avoid silly arguments and experience the abundant life and relationships Jesus came to give us. And to remember who my true enemy is."
As one who loves National Geographic documentaries, the image of the lion sprinting toward two clueless gazelles was such a vivid picture of how easy it can be to get distracted by trivial things and not see the real danger at hand. And, of course, it's not just arguing about silly things. It could be focusing on making lots of money while one's marriage is falling apart, or scrolling through mindless feeds when a child stands across the room watching and needing our love, attention, and guidance. Or it could be an unhealthy addiction to sports, or the TV, or games on our phones. Things that consume so much of our limited time and cause our spiritual lives to suffer from the neglect of prayer or fellowship with Christ through His Word. After all, every choice to spend time on one thing is a choice not to spend time on another.
And I'm not talking good versus bad, but good versus needless. Satan knows that as Christians we are much more likely to fall for the trivial than the evil. We are more likely to succumb to seemingly 'harmless' things that eat up our time than those things we know are harmful. But in the end the effect can be the same, because those activities can take us away from investing in our relationship with God, and people, and time spent conversing, laughing, and just enjoying meaningful and life-giving fellowship with others. Those things are much more likely to get nudged out by the silly, trivial, and unimportant distractions of life, than those we know are sinful. We must be wise since our enemy is wise.
Living in His All-sufficient Grace, Pastor Jeff
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