Get Out Of My Life God…I’m Busy!
But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
(2 Timothy 3:1-5)
If for one minute you thought someone was going to break into your home, wouldn’t you do everything in your power to protect your home and your family? You would probably add extra locks to the doors, purchase an alarm system and run through a family drill on what to do in case someone tries to break in, having 911 on speed dial! We would go to every extent to make sure our family was safe and nothing would get stolen. Then why do we not do the same with our spiritual homes as well?
We must remain alert to red flags and warning signs of the enemy trying to steal our time away with God. He does this through temptation, confusion and distraction. If we are not alert to it happening, we can leave God and fall back into the world. Sadly, with the times we are in, we are seeing this happen more and more with Christians. The Apostle Paul witnessed this with one of his workers, Demas. Paul makes note of it in 2 Timothy 4:9-11:
“Be diligent to come to me quickly; for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica—Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry.”
Notice what Paul said regarding Demas…”having loved this present world”. Demas was enticed back to the world, leaving Paul’s side in their work for the Lord.
Christ also warns us about loving the things of this world in Matthew 6:19-21:
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
So what does all this have to do with being busy? Simple. When we put all our focus on the things of the world, it separates us from God. Soon we become busy and distracted by the lust of our eyes and flesh of these things. We then begin to spend more time with these “treasures” and less time with God. Although we know we must spend time with God because it’s a good thing, we begin to make excuses and justify why we can’t “just yet”. “Just yet” soon becomes “too busy”. Once we are pulled away from God through temptation, we begin to forget what is right and what is wrong. The things that we knew through the Word of God that were wrong, now start to look right to us. The enemy will use confusion to reason why the wrong things are actually right…the very things that will lead us to sin and death.
To understand fully, we must go back to the beginning, with Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:15-17:
Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Pretty easy instructions. Eat from any tree in the garden EXCEPT from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That tree will kill you! There are many different plants and trees on my land that produce nourishment. However, there are some that are poisonous and can harm or even kill us. The berries look wonderful, especially if one is starving, but if eaten it could make one very ill or cause death. So we must stay away from it. It could be that Adam and Eve did not understand the concept of death as we do now. But God’s instructions were clear…don’t touch. Yet, we see later on in Genesis 3:1-7 how Satan had twisted things up a bit to confuse Eve, causing her to fall into temptation and then lead her husband into it as well:
Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
When we boil it down, what was the real problem? Eve listened to something/someone who told her contrary to what God had told them, twisting the words around a bit to make it seem right. When she listened, her eyes were opened up to something that looked desirable and ok to her but was actually deadly for her. She then shared it with Adam, who also took a bite of the fruit and was now led to the same fate. Eve allowed herself to be distracted. In that distraction, she experienced envy, jealousy and pride which all led to sin.
How do we know if busyness and distraction are causing a problem in our lives? Simple…if we can find more reasons to do the things we want to do than to spend time with God…it’s a problem. If we find that every time we try to sit down with God the phone rings, someone comes to the door or our family suddenly needs us…it’s a problem. If we find that whenever we sit down to spend time with God, thoughts of other things we must do come to mind and we get up and do them…it’s a problem. If we are in church and we allow distracting thoughts to tempt us away from worshiping God or listening to the sermon…it’s a problem. If we enjoy spending hours on our phones or computers but can’t fit in one hour with God…it’s a problem. If we allow busyness and the things of the world to take our time away from God, we are sending a clear message to Him:
GET OUT OF MY LIFE GOD! I’M BUSY!
Our time with God is precious and we must protect it at all costs. We must not allow anyone or anything steal that time from us. It’s our time to reconnect with God and become strengthened and healed by Him. It’s our time to learn about Him and build our relationship with Him.
Take some time today to see if your time with God is being stolen. If so, make every effort not to allow it to continue. Unless it’s an emergency, everything else can wait to be taken care of until after your time with God is finished. The enemy is good at tempting and luring us away with things of this world. These wonderful little treasures may seem good now, but they won’t save us. Ask God to show you where it’s happening and then to help you overcome it. In the end you will have a more rewarding loving relationship with your creator.
“Lord, forgive me for allowing the things of this world to distract me from spending time with You. You always have time for me and I am grateful for that time. Thank you for sending me warning signs that I’ve moved off the path. Please help me back on the path and in the right direction. Help me to put aside every distraction in my life that takes away my time with you. Lord, thank you for always watching out for me and for being faithful even when I am not. I pray this in the name of Jesus…Amen.”