I read a very interesting statement from Oswald Chambers in his daily devotional My Utmost For His Highest. In the January 6th devotion entitled Worship, he wrote, "Days set apart for quiet (time with God) can be a trap, detracting from the need to have daily quiet time with God. " There is nothing wrong with setting aside a day to worship the Lord and listen to what He has to say to you, but if that is, in essence, the entirety of your time with Him, it will never satisfy you or glorify Him the way it should.
We should never easy our "conscience" - the prompting of the Spirit - in calling for daily time with Him by promising to spend one whole day with Him later. First we will miss what He is calling for us to day today. It will do us no good to find out in two weeks that a fellow brother or sister needed encouragement or a helping hand now.
Another problem is that we can not truly fill ourselves up this way either. It's like starving yourself for a month and then trying to feast: Your stomach has shrunk and there is simply no way to get it all in. Why do we expect the bread of life to work any different?
There is nothing wrong with dedicating a whole day to the Lord. In fact we all should! Just never let that be a substitute for our daily relationship with Him. Coming to God once a month or so doesn't allow us to get our fill of the Spirit, just as going to a church to worship God only on Sundays doesn't make a slave to Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment