Greetings,
Our discussion today is about a subject that you may not
like unless God convicts you after reading this. For many years I traveled and I visited
churches during the week. The vast
majority of the messages I heard were messages that went overboard not offend
the congregation. So, to hear a message about how we spent our time during the
day is not something we normally hear.
How Much Time Do You Spend With God?
2 Corinthians 13:5
(NLT) Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves.
Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the
test of genuine faith.
The Word of God says to examine ourselves to determine if we
are walking the walk that pleases God. I
do this quite often because I want to be obedient to what God’s instructs us to
do. I spend a lot of time reading His
word, meditating and praying. I had to
ask myself this question: “Do I spend
enough time with the Lord?” This message is for me first.
Below, I broke down a 24 hour period of time that is fairly
accurate in this day and age. Keep in
mind this illustration is for a typical work day and does not include Saturday
and Sunday. That is a completely
different story. A typical day is
probably 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM or 16 non-sleeping hours. So, what do we do with our time? Many of us have to account for 8-10 hours at
work but does not include stay at home spouses and retired folks. This leaves us with 6-8 hours of leisure time
which may include attending activities or entertainment, shopping, watching
television, computer, texting/Facebook, video games, working around the house,
and eating dinner. Did you notice that I
did not include time with the Lord?
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How Much Time Do You Spend With God?
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24 Hours in a Day
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8 Hours Sleeping
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16 hours of work or leisure (Awake Time)
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How much time do you spend with the Lord? Christianity Today’s survey showed that only
19% of believers read the Bible every day. So, if we gave our lives to Jesus
Christ and we claim to be a Believer, what are we doing with our time?
Understand that the world we live in “lies under the sway (controlling influence) of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19).
We all know the wicked one is Satan and his dark kingdom. Our world is getting darker by the day
because Satan is influencing us to the point that we worship his world which
includes the work place (work can be pretty wicked), watching TV, entertaining
ourselves, etc. How do these things
bring glory to God?
The next illustration will show you what one hour with God
is in comparison to your “Awake” time.
One hour with the Lord is not even a tithe (10%) of your
“Awake” time. Certainly, God deserves
more than what we are giving Him.
Understand that Satan’s world and God’s world are contrary
to each other. Galatians 5:17 For the
flesh (world) lusts against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so
that you do not do the things that you wish. If we are operating at 94-100% in Satan’s
world, we will lose the battle. In order
to turn the tide, we must spend more time with God because the more time we
spend with Him, the more God will be contrary to the dark kingdom in our lives. You cannot say you are guaranteed a place in
Heaven when you live a life in Satan’s world.
The Bible is of the best way to develop a relationship with
God because “In the beginning was the
Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The Bible allows us to know God’s
commandments, to build a relationship with him, to hear from Him, to know how
much God loves us and to receive His blessings “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the
Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you
today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the
earth. And all these blessings shall
come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God
Deuteronomy 28:1-2.
In closing, I pray that your time with God remains steadfast
in your loyalty to Him; do not turn back the familiar things of the world. In choosing God and His ways, we can rest in
knowing that He will provide for us a way to enter His kingdom. He will cover us and redeem us.
I will leave with this Scripture from Pastor Andrew in
church today:
Joshua 24:15 (NLT)
But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve.
Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will
it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and
my family, we will serve the Lord.”
Blessings to you all,
Tony Sanchez 3-23-14
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