It is always surprising to me how quickly time passes by. One moment stores are abounding with Christmas decorations, the next they are pushing fireworks and picnic supplies for 4th of July. Over the last seven weeks, my time has been more full than perhaps any other time I can remember. I have always had busy seasons, short week or two intensives, but for the last couple months, I have been in a non-stop sprint. It has been an incredibly rich season of my life as I’ve been laboring to get the new Advanced Training program up and running for Ellerslie Mission Society, but my time has been constrained and thus I have been greatly behind on writing, laundry, blog posts, planning, exercise, etc.
If you ask just about anyone on the streets today how they are doing, it seems a common response is “busy.” We live in a distracted, busy, high-pace culture. It isn’t bad, but we must be aware of potential pitfalls for our lives. And often, one of the hardest hit areas in our lives when we are “busy” is our intimacy and relationship with Jesus. When schedules become full, we toss out prayer and time studying the Word. We have elaborate excuses of why we allow it to happen, but the sad reality is, we allow it to happen.
I have found over these last two months, that even despite incredible busyness, intimacy with Jesus and time in the Word does NOT have to wane. It doesn’t need to be diminished. Granted, it may look different than it normally does, but intimacy with Jesus does not need to be an up-and-down roller coaster experience – it truly can be consistent, steady, and ever-increasing!
I came across a tremendous quote by T. Austin-Sparks the other day, which I want to leave you with. May Jesus ever be the centrality of your life!
The mark of a life governed by the Holy Spirit is that such a life is continually and ever more and more occupied with Christ, that Christ is becoming greater and greater as time goes on. The effect of the Holy Spirit’s work in us is to bring us to the shore of a mighty ocean which reaches far, far beyond our range, and concerning which we feel—Oh, the depths, the fulness, of Christ! If we live as long as ever man lived, we shall still be only on the fringe of this vast fulness that Christ is.
Now, that at once becomes a challenge to us … These are not just words. This is not just rhetoric; this is truth. Let us ask our hearts at once, Is this true in our case? Is this the kind of life that we know? … Is that true in your experience? That is the mark of a life governed by the Holy Spirit. Christ becomes greater and greater as we go on. If that is true, well, that is the way of life.
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