The Wait

People are waiting 8, 9, 10, 11 hours - in the rain - for the newest roller coaster at Universal Studios in Orlando. And most of these people are saying that the ride is  “totally worth the wait”.

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What are you willing to wait for? 

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So often we talk about the things that we want - that we need - that we are desperate for. But are we willing to wait? Are we willing to ask - to seek - to labor - - and to wait? 

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What are you desperate for right now?

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What are you waiting for right now?

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Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. (Psalm 27:14)

Could it be

Could it be that God is sitting on His throne prepared to pour down blessings upon His Church...prepared to break down barriers and tear down walls...prepared to bring healing and hope to lives and to families...prepared to bring His Church together in unity and revival... 

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Could it be that God is waiting for the commitment - the faith and faithfulness of a few - to come before Him in prayer? 

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Could it be that God is waiting for His Church to call out in agreement?

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Could it be that God is waiting for His Church to cry out in desperation?

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Could it be that God is waiting for His Church to be ready?

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Could it be that we need to pray?

Respond

We are in an all out war. We are facing an enemy that has spent centuries on this earth deceiving and distorting. This enemy wants to steal, kill, and destroy our lives, families, and children. How will we respond?

Parents, we have been entrusted with one of the greatest gifts from God - the ability to influence and nurture a life. We have the responsibility of affecting the generation to come - in small and large ways. How will we answer?

Your child's...

...friends cannot save them

...technology cannot save them

...sports cannot save them

...politics cannot save them

Jesus is the only hope for our future.

Jesus is the only hope for you and me.

Jesus is the only hope for victory.

Jesus is the only hope for your child.

Read and discuss Scripture with your child - daily.

Sit down and pray for and with your child - daily.

Get engaged in a Bible-honoring faith community - weekly.

We are in an all out war. How will you respond?

There I Was

There I was, lying in an open field, surrounded by the freshly cut hay. I could feel the rough grass under my bare legs and the itch of dozons of insects crawling across my body. 

One question immediately came to mind; “How did I get here?”. 

I was fatigued and injured, unable to continue on my own. Although I couldn’t process the full reality of the situation and all of the decisions that led me to this moment, one thing was clear to me; I was dying. 

As I came in and out of consciousness, the scorching heat of the sun and the thick humidity of the day drained any energy that I had remaining. I attempted to roll over with no success. I fought to cry for help but nothing came out. 

So, in a brief moment of clarity I considered again; “How did I get here?”

I managed to open my eyes and caught a glimpse at the afternoon sky. Through a painful squint I saw death hovering above, waiting in anticipation for me to draw my final breath. 

As vultures circled above my limp, lifeless body. I was taken to a different vantage point. Experiencing an out of body moment, I watched as the vultures circled. Faster now, and swooping closer to the ground, they seemed to be in a competition for my flesh. 

My inevitable final breath would be their starter’s pistol. And so I fought all the more for another breath knowing that my next one might be my last one. 

How did my life come to this? How did I get here? 

I awoke from my nightmare, covered in a cold sweat and gasping for air. My eyes tore open and I was certain that I would see the vultures circling above my bed. 

And that question that was now written on my mind and flooded my heart with fear; “How did I get here?”.

Perhaps you can identify. A series of bad choices, a plethora of wrong decisions have landed you in a territory you are not familiar with. 

Maybe you have been here before. You are - physically, emotionally, spiritually - tired, injured, unable to carry on. 

You want to get up but you’re unable. You want to cry out for help but you can’t find the words. 

So now, with the vultures circling above - declaring your death to the world around - you wait to take your final breath. 

But God says to you the very same thing He said to me; “This is not the end.”

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” ‭‭(Jeremiah‬ ‭29:11‬ ‭NIV‬‬)

You may feel like you’re all alone in that field right now. You might feel like the next breath you take will be your last. The vultures may be circling over your relationship right now. You may feel like there is no hope for your finances. You might feel like a grim future awaits you.

Today, meditate on the promises of God. He has a plan for your life - a purpose that is to be fulfilled. He knows the plan He has for your life - He has not and will not forget it - He has not and will not forget you. His plan is one that will see you prosper - a plan that will bring you success. His plan is one that will bring hope to your darkest days and a future that you think is impossible. 

I encourage you - right now - to call out to the Lord. It may seem difficult to form the words. It may seem impossible from where you are laying right now. The simplest words are enough. He is waiting to hear you call. “Father God, help me.”

I urge you - right away - to get up. The vultures may be circling but this does not have to be the end. There may be signs of death but God can make all things new. 

There I was, lying in an open field, and I remembered God’s promise; “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you hope and a future.” 

And I called out to the Lord. He met me where I was, helped me up, fought off the vultures of death, and revealed His plan for my life.

When You Ask

 

What are you asking God for? 

God invites us to ask Him for what we need, when we need it. He will give us what we need. 

What are your motives when you ask? 

When we ask God to give us what we need it is important that our reason for asking is pure. 

How will you use what God gives you? 

God will give us what we need. When He does we must use it to bless others and glorify God. 

Rejoice - Pray - Peace

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4-7)

This is a Scripture passage that I often struggle with. While I find it easy to be joyful in many of the circumstances of my life, I find it very difficult to be without anxiety. Often times I feel like this is just the way that I am, this is the way that God has made me. If you are struggling with anxiety this morning, if you have moments of your life that you are fearful of what is going to happen next or how you are going to find your way through a certain situation, this morning’s message is for you!

There are two commandments that we will look at this morning as we walk through this passage together, two requirements of a Christian that Paul writes of. The first commandment given to all Christians can be found in verse 4.

REJOICE ALWAYS!

Rejoice in the Lord always. This means that regardless of the day, whether it is dark or bright, whether it is difficult or easy, whether it brings problems and temptations or a clear path to success. We are commanded to rejoice. He repeats it, in case we missed it the first time: “again I say, Rejoice.” 

Joy is something that we cannot produce ourselves; it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, sometimes we forget this! Many of us are familiar with the fruit of the Spirit, we rattle it off and go on with our lives, Galatians 5:22-33; “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This same chapter in Galatians gives a list of the characteristics that oppose the fruits of the Spirit and goes on to warn that “those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God”. I would urge you to read Galatians chapter 5 this next week and gauge where you stand with the fruits of the Spirit. Gauge where you stand in your joyfulness.

You see, you can’t be a Christian with power if you lack joy, that’s what gets up the steam. Joy in the Lord is the source of power.  A successful salesman is a happy one. None of us have ever gone into a store to buy something and had some sad salesman begin to cry on our shoulder when we asked about something in the store! Of course not. He begins to smile and tell us how wonderful hisproduct is. On the same hand, how can we be good witnesses of what Christ is if we are not joyful, if the world cannot see the joy within our lives of the power that is Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior? 

“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.” Paul believed that the Lord would soon return and he wanted to remind others of this truth. We should be willing and eager to do the same with joyful hearts.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Philippians 4:6)

In his inaugural address Franklin Roosevelt said: “let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance”. Perhaps this is where you are today. We have no lack of things to be fearful of and to be anxious about. But, you see, Paul took a different approach, which is where we find our second commandment of the passage. 

WORRY ABOUT NOTHING, PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING!

Paul says that we are to worry about nothing because we are to pray about everything. This means that we are to talk to the Lord about everything in our lives. Nothing should be left out.  If joy in the Lord is the source of power, prayer is the secret of the power.

The word “petition” caught my eye as I read this verse, by prayer and petition, other versions use the word “supplication” but I like the word petition. If we have a request, a need, God says bring it to me, I want to know what you desire, I want to know what needs you have so that I can meet them. Hebrews 4:16 tells us to “approach the throne of grace, the throne of God, with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” When we think of a petition we think of a list of names brought before a person or a committee to show support or displeasure over something. When I think of praying by petition I think of bringing my request before God day after day, I think of sharing my requests with others and asking them to pray for me and with me over this request until I am clear on the Lord’s answer. ”. And God answers every request that we bring before Him, sometimes the answer is not yet, sometimes it’s just no. Often times the best answers that we receive for our requests is no. A prayer by petition lets the Lord know that this need is important enough to you to talk to Him about, that you believe that He is your source of hope, that you believe He is able to meet this need and you are trusting in Him to do so.

As believers we need to get in the habit of bringing everything to Him in prayer, nothing excluded. And Paul says that when we go to God with a request, thank Him. Thank Him right then and there. Paul never lets prayer become a leap in the dark. It rests on a foundation. 

Romans 10:17 says that faith comes through hearing and hearing comes from the Word of God. Prayer rests on faith and faith rests on the word of God. Romans 5 says “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ , through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” 

REJOICE ALWAYS!

WORRY ABOUT NOTHING, PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING!

Given these two commandments, what is the outcome? What will follow? Paul tells us in verse 7. 

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

(Philippians 4:7)

The Scripture speaks of other kinds of peace which we can understand. There is world peace. We have the assurance that someday peace will cover the earth as waters cover the sea. And it will come through Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. Jesus said in John 14:27; “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

As we close this morning allow me to summarize by saying, prayer does change things. But that is not the primary purpose of prayer. We entered this passage in anxiety, with worry, and we come out of the passage with peace. Between the two was prayer. Have things changed? Not really. The storm may still be raging, the waves still rolling high, the thunder still resounding. In our anxiety we want God to change everything around us. “Give us this.” “Don’t let this happen.” “Open up this door.” We should be praying, “Oh God, change me.” Prayer is the secret of power. We enter with worry, we can come out with peace. Joy is the source of power, prayer is the secret of power.

Complaints

Everyone else in the family is asleep at this hour. I just flipped through some channels and found nothing good on television this evening. And so, I scanned through my phone and landed on Facebook. 

Looking through my Facebook timeline I found a common theme. So, I decided to spend a few minutes complaining about the amount of complaining that people participate in. 

The Greek word for “complainer” means “one who is discontent with our lot in life". Complaining steals our joy and our peace, and it rarely productive. Perhaps we find one or two others that agree with us yet they are rarely ones that can bring results and answers to our complaints. 

Often we complain to one person, which leads to complaining to another, and then several more. I've thought before that if we call it "venting" then it is still acceptable. Yet our "venting must stop before we are "steaming" lest we "boil over". 

And I wonder if complaining on Facebook doesn't do more harm than anything else. Does the occasional "like" mean that much to us? Does it bring with it a feeling of worth or acceptance? For ever comment of support, keep in mind, that dozens are reading and disagreeing with your argument - and your attitude. Keep in mind that, with each complaint you broadcast, you are building on to the culture of discontent, impatience, and hatred. 

We have been complaining since the very beginning. The very first complainer was Adam who, after he and Eve disobeyed God, he complained to God that “the woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it”. 

So, what does God think of complaining? What are we - as Christians to do when we are "disconnect with our lot in life"? Two passages come to mind, the first is a command, the second is a teaching. 

(Philippians 2:14-15) Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.

(James 4:1-3) What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

What are we to do? Stop grumbling! Stop complaining! Start praying! Seek God's heart! Ask God for our desires! And be content in Him! 

Morning Prayer

This morning, as I walked through the church building, and into the Sanctuary - considering all of the planning, praying, and preparing that has gone into our celebration - I began to pray;

"God, I just want everything to be perfect..."

At that moment I was reminded that this may have been the very prayer of the Jewish religious leaders on the weekend that Jesus was crucified. 

The Jewish religious leaders had planned, prayed, and prepared for the celebration of Passover. Knowing that large crowds were entering the city, they watched as Jesus entered Jerusalem upon the back of a donkey, and a colt. As He entered the city they told Him to quiet the people - to quiet His followers - who were crying out "Hosanna". 

The next day Jesus entered the Synagogue and drove out money changers and those who were making a spectacle out of God's House - some of which were these Jewish religious leaders.

Now angry at Jesus and jealous of the attention that He was receiving, the Jewish religious leaders gave one of Jesus' followers a bride - 30 pieces of silver - for the knowledge of His whereabouts. Not only did they detain Jesus, they flogged Him, stripped Him naked, and hung Him on a Roman cross - hurling insults at Him as He hung suffocating to death. 

All the while they prayed;

"God, I just want everything to be perfect..."

And so, this morning, as I prepare to worship the Lord - who was not overcome by man - who did not stay dead in a tomb - who cannot have His plan thwarted - my prayer is;

"God, may Your will be done. If I have failed to prepare in any way for Your presence, make that aware to me. Then, after I have done everything that You have called me to do this morning, give me the wisdom and the ability to step out of the way and point to You, Jesus. God, may Your will be done."

Pray Together

This weekend I have the honor of officiating a good friend's wedding (whether she considers me a good friend or simply a friend by association, it doesn't much matter). And in a couple of weeks I have the blessing of officiating my brither's wedding. 

As I prepare for the wedding ceremony and reflect on marriage, my thoughts went back to a statistic reported by Cheryl Sacks in her book "Prayer-Saturated Kids".

A 1993 Gallup poll revealed that among married couples who attend church together regularly, the divorce rate is one out of two. That’s the same statistic as for marriages outside the church. However, among married couples who pray together daily, the divorce rate is one out of 1,153.

As a Pastor, of course I believe Prayer works and that it draws us closer to Christ, who helps build our marriages around His will and His way. Likewise, as a husband, I have seen that prayer brings my wife and I together. We communicate better and resolve conflict quicker when our shared prayer life is strong. 

Sacks writes, Prayer builds unity and intimacy. We become intimate to whom we pray, for whom we pray, and with whom we pray.

Randy Willis adds that this statistic highlights that couples who pray together are intentional (praying together requires intentionality). And couples who are intentional about praying together are likely to be intentional in other areas of their relationship as well. 

So, whether you are soon-to-be married, you are early in your marriage, or you have been married for a long time, let me encourage you to be intentional in your prayer life with your spouse. Begin today!

 

Bible Study: The Word Became Flesh

It's cold - really cold - outside! If you are not able to get out in the cold and experience the community of our Wednesday morning Bible Study, here are texts we will be reading, studying, and praying through today. 

Enjoy these in the comfort of your home, with a warm cup of coffee in the presence of The Lord. 

Psalm 144:3-4; O Lord, what is man that You care for him, the son of man that You think of Him? Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow.

·     John 1:1-4

·     Matthew 10:16-31

·     Luke 13:31-35

·     Mark 6:31-44

·     Philippians 2:12-15

·     John 3:1-13, 7-12

·     Hebrews 5:7-10

Devoted To Devotions

From our daily devotional "The Word For You Today"; The word "devotion" implies total commitment to someone - giving them your time and attention, enjoying their company, seeking to please them, and making them priority in your life.

I often struggle to understand how so many followers of Jesus Christ are not actually devoted to Him. There is no daily time spent with Him, no time spent communicating with Him or allowing Him to communicate with them. This would never work with our friends or our family members. This definitely would not work with a spouse! Over time the relationship begins to corrode until Christ becomes only an acquaintance that we see from afar for an hour on Sunday morning. 

One of the first questions I ask an individual or couple that comes to talk with me about their struggles is "how do you daily devote yourself to God". I have found that many followers of Jesus Christ are not following Him, they are just hoping that He is following them. I have found that many followers of Jesus Christ have no real relationship with Him, they are just hoping that He continues to relate to them. Notice that I wrote "hoping" not praying. 

I have found that many followers of Jesus Christ are not following Him, they are just hoping that He is following them.

This is a new day, at the start of a new year. Let this be a year that you become devoted to The One that is totally devoted to you. Let this be the year that you worship Christ Jesus with passion and devotion.

Restore and Revive Us Again

The following is from a message that I gave on October 5th, the audio can be found here. 

Isaiah 64:1; That You would come down from heaven and dwell among us.

Have you ever wanted to see God?

• To meet with Him and know His thoughts?
• To talk with Him and ask Him about His ways?
• To gaze upon His face and see His beauty?
• To stand in His presence and feel His power?

Just as the prophet Isaiah wrote (700 BC), We beg and we plead; God come down from heaven and dwell among us.

And He did. God came down from His thrown in heaven. He spent 30 years living among us as a common man - born of a humble birth, living a humble, ordinary life. He then spent the final three years of His life teaching, mentoring, healing, training, and ministering to those who are desperate in need. 

But we were not satisfied. We wanted a King, not a servant. We asked God  to come down from heaven and do what He had done in the past – to stand against our enemies – to establish a Kingdom.

Our response was to hand Him over to the highest power we could find so that He could be nailed to a cross, suffocate, and die. 

And because He is God in the flesh, He does something amazing, something that we never expected God to do – He died.

He said that He was dying for us and for our sins. He said that He was dying so that all of humanity can be reconciled to Him. But He died!?

And maybe He did die for my sin. But a dead man can't save me, and a dead man can't save you! 

Three days later this dead man is not a dead man anymore - He is alive – and He is God. He has taken away the curse – the sin of mankind and He has proven that He has power over sin, over Satan, and over death. 

We beg and we plead; God come down from heaven and dwell among us.

He did for a while, but then He left. God ascended back to heaven with the promise of a future gift. 

Ten days later – with sound of a mighty wind and the appearance of tongues of flames – God came down from heaven in the form of His Holy Spirit. 

But this time He does not simply dwell among us – as we have begged Him to – Now He also dwells within us. 

God came down from heaven and gave us help, comfort, understanding, and power. 

But, again, we were not satisfied. We wanted a God that we could see – a God that we could understand, a God that we could control. 

Our response was fear. We began to shut down and close God's Spirit out. We continued to live our lives without this gift – who is God. We continued to live our lives without this help, this comfort, this power. We continued to live our lives without God!

We beg and we plead; God come down from heaven and dwell among us.  And sometimes we wonder why He hasn't.

• Where is God in our world?
• Where is God in our churches?
• Where is God in our lives?

We beg and we plead; God come down from heaven

One day God will come down from heaven and He will make all things right.

• On this day, every knee will bow before Jesus – our King
• On this day every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord
• On this day God will establish His Kingdom

Now is the time to make sure that we are right with God,

• That we have a right relationship with Jesus Christ
• That we have a right relationship with His Holy Spirit

Let me invite you to consider these questions:

·        Do you have a right relationship with Jesus Christ?

• Jesus wants to be more than your Savior - to save you from the penalty of sin.
• Jesus wants to be more than your source of eternal life. 
• Jesus wants to be your everything - and to provide you with everything.
• Do you have unconfessed sin in your life that you need to seek repentance for?
• God cannot be in the presence of sin
• God cannot bless you if you have sin in your life
• Have you dishonored God’s Holy Spirit?
• We cannot fully embrace God until we accept all of Him
• God has more in store for you and for your life.

Let us go beyond the plea of Isaiah 64. Let us make Psalm 85 our prayer:

• Now restore us again, O God of our salvation. Put aside your anger against us once more. Won’t you revive us again, so your people can rejoice in you? Show us your unfailing love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. (4, 6-7)

Our Father's Name

This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." (Matthew 6:9-13)

As we work our way through The Lord's Prayer the first petition is that God's Name would be hallowed - that it be made holy and made much of. God as three primary Names in the Old Testament.

God's first name is Elohim - God, the Mighty Creator. By using this name of God we say; "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1).

God's second name is Yeweh, which means, "The Lord who is the covenant-keeping One".

God's third name is Adonai, which means "Master" or "Lord". As our Master, God is the one who rules our lives.

Why Should We Pray?

This Sunday we will begin a new teaching series at the church. In this series we will be walking through "The Lord's Prayer" - a powerful model of a prayer given by Jesus, first to His disciples, and passed on to us through the Gospel message.

Yesterday, as we were concluding our worship service I gave a brief promotion about this series and closed with the question; "why should we pray?"

Last night as I struggled to drift of to sleep and then this morning, as soon as I woke up this question flooded my mind like a scrolling marquee


WHY SHOULD WE PRAY?   WHY SHOULD WE PRAY?   WHY SHOULD WE PRAY?

This Sunday morning I plan to take off from this exact point - from this question. It is not that I struggle to answer this question - the Bible is flooded with reasons why we should pray - it is that I struggle to come to a brief and concise list of why we should pray.

Perhaps then, the question should be asked; "Why do YOU pray?"

What is the number one reason that YOU pray?

School Starts

School starts this week with our daughter headed into the second grade, our oldest son headed to preschool. As we prepare to send the kids off to begin another year of school many thoughts - even fears - fill my mind; what will they be taught, will they have good friendships, are they safe, etc.

And, in the midst of these thoughts - and fears - we find comfort as parents. We take comfort in the fact that we can't protect them from everything and we have to let them live their lives. 

The bottom line is that we pray for our children, we teach our children, and we trust our children. 

How To Do Ministry

I have read an awful lot of how-to  ministry books over the years - some of them were flat out awful. 

I read them not because I am looking for the one secret answer to how to "evangelize your community" how "grow the church", how to "preach the best sermons", how to "disciple  new believers", or any other how to we could add on here. I read them to get new insight and opinions on how other churches and church leaders are doing all of these things and finding success in their geographical areas and ministry areas.

Yet, as I read many of these books, it occurs to me that many of the authors fully believe they have the secret for how ministry should be carried out. For some of these leaders it is as if they have the secret recipe that the rest of us have never considered, but if the rest of us would simply take on their approach we would see the lost won, the hurting cured, and The Church would be what Jesus had always desired it would be.

The bottom line is that we need to research and consider what other churches and ministry leaders are doing - considering what is working and what is failing in these churches, and considering what could work and what might fail in our geographic and ministry areas. And, we need to be reading The Scriptures, and praying for God's guidance in the ministry areas that He has called us to and praying for His guidance in His ministry through us.

Then, given all of this we need to do ministry in a way that is practical and reaches those that we are called to reach. Simple as that.

What are you called to speak? How are you called to speak it?

What are you called to do? How are you called to do it?

The Ants Go Marching...

My daughter is seven years old and often has trouble going to sleep - rather she does not go to sleep easily. One of her favorite things is to have her mother or I sing to her at night as she drifts off to sleep. Often it is a pleasure to sing to her as she goes to sleep but sometimes it becomes a chore or yet another task on top of a pile of others that need to be completed late into the evening. 

Not only does our daughter request (sometimes petition) that we sing to her at night, she also asks for a specific number of songs - usually three - and specific songs to be sung. One of her favorite songs at night is "The Ants Go Marching", and I am convinced that it is one of her favorites because it is such a long song. I'm sure you know the song...

The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrahThe ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrahThe ants go marching one by one,The little one stops to suck his thumbAnd they all go marching down to the ground to get out of the rainBOOM! BOOM! BOOM! 

The ants go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrahThe ants go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrahThe ants go marching two by two,The little one stops to tie his shoeAnd they all go marching down to the ground to get out of the rain
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! 

The ants go marching three by three, hurrah, hurrahThe ants go marching three by three, hurrah, hurrahThe ants go marching three by three,The little one stops to climb a treeAnd they all go marching down to the ground to get out of the rain
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

And on, and on, and on it goes.  But see, it is on the evenings that singing to my daughter seems like more of a chore - as though it is only another task - that I begin to sing this particular song in super-fast, speed-singing version in order to get to the tenth and final verse quicker. 

Last night was one of these nights. In fact I think I made it through this song faster than ever before - start to finish in less than two minutes. And, although I am quite proud of this speed-sung rendition, it struck me soon after finishing it how wrong it was that I had raced through singing to my one and only daughter rather than cherishing this moment and the time I got to spend with her at night. 

And it struck my how I often fall into this same mode whenever I read God's Word, study my morning devotions, and have my prayer and quiet time in the morning. Often I seem to race through these individual and intimate moments with The Lord rather than cherishing the time I have the privilege and opportunity to spend with Him. 

It is not something that I realize, not something that I intend to do, it just seems that everything else that needs to be done comes to my mind and I begin to rush, I begin to hurry, I begin to make my time with God less of a joy and more of a task.  Perhaps you have experienced the same thing in regard to your time with God. Essentially what we do is tell God that He is not quite as important as everything else that might come our way throughout the day.

Now that I have recognized this in my life I aim to spend more time cherishing the things I claim to be a priority - my time with God, my time with my wife, and my time with my children. I aim to pray and seek God's assistance in this as well. What about you, what will you do?