Going Doing and Me

     Busy, busy, busy, don’t we always have to be doing something?  We are always trying to accomplish something, a project, a task or just trying to look busy.  You can’t get ahead unless you accomplish your goals.  How often do we hear that or even say it?  If I wanted to pick three words that describe our culture, they would be the three in my title.  Doesn’t it seem like we always have to go someplace to do something that will benefit us.  We are going to work, going to play, going to the store, taking our kids to a play date.  When did the words play date become part of our vocabulary?  Whatever happened to just relaxing, or even just playing?  Nope, we have to be doing something constructive even if we have no time.  With all of this I must benefit from all the activity, after all am I not the center of the universe?  Doesn’t life revolve around me?  Didn’t God create all of this because he loves me?  Does that mean I don’t have to care for my neighbor?  After all isn’t my neighbor supposed to care for me?  Does this sound familiar?  Isn’t this the way our lives are lived?

     If I had my way, I would just as soon sit in a comfortable chair with a good book, or maybe a movie to watch, but what does God say?  In Psalms 46:10 He said “Be still and know that I am God:  I will be exalted among nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”  Who is the important one?  Will I be exalted or will God?  Am I willing to be still and listen to God?  When He commands I have to go, but I have to make sure I am going where he says, doing His Will, not mine. 

      So the question I have to ask is, in this busy life who am I serving?  Who does my world revolve around?  Have I studied His Word, have I listen to Him?  Who is actually first in my life?   The minute I start living my life for me I am not serving God.  Jesus was sent to restore our relationship with God, and only making God first will we keep that relationship.  We are not equals in this relationship, God is first.

     As Christians we need to reach out to this fallen world.  But before we start all the going and doing we need to be still.  If God is our first priority we need to listen to Him.  We need to spend time in His word and in fellowship with other believers.  Then we need to follow the command given to us in Matthew 28:18-20.  These verses tell us to reach out and spread the gospel, not stay in our comfortable church.   What I am saying is not easy, I would much rather stay at home with that good book and satisfy my wants, but that is not what Jesus is telling me to do.  Be still and know that I am God, listen to his voice and do His will.

     So, yes I have to be going, but for His purpose, not mine.  I have to be doing but to serve Him, not me.  Finally, I definitely am not first, I am last.