“The accent in the church today is not on devotion, but on commotion” one writer said a generation ago.
The temptation in the church (and most of life) is to fill schedules with activities, to let expectations of others become personal demands, and to base a sense worthiness on the extent of busyness.
So Matt Rehrer said more recently, “We are in perpetual hurry, in a constant fluctuation; our life is like the tide; sometimes ebbing, sometimes flowing; here is not rest; and the reason is because we are out of center. Everything is in motion till it comes at the center. Christ is the center of the soul; the needle of the compass trembles till it comes to the North Pole.”
How can one stay active for Christ, pursuing Him with diligence, and using His gifts in faithfulness — while staying out of the trap of busyness?
Come to Christ, as Rehrer says, and consider the example of Christ.
He regularly was pressed (literally, at times, e.g., Luke 5:1) by the demands of the people. They were curious to hear Him teach; they begged His for His healing ministry. And some days He arose early and went to bed late (Mk. 1:29ff).
Yet He would not be dissuaded from His primary mission: to preach the gospel and to be in fellowship with the Father.
As the incarnate Son of Man, He fulfilled His divine calling and completed all the demands of the Law by the same means all God’s people fulfill their responsibilities: by the filling (controlling) power of the Spirit (Lk. 4:1, 14, 18; 5:17). That meant that when pressures crowded His schedule, He pulled aside to pray and fellowship with His Father (Luke 4:42; 5:17).
Prayer and fellowship with the Father was more important to the Son than the pressure and press-clippings of the crowd. No matter how pressured by opportunities, people, expectations, and demands, He kept close to the Father.
As we face similar kinds of pressures and demands, are we partaking of communion with the Father in prayer as if we need it? Jesus needed fellowship with the Father. How much more are we in need of that fellowship? Yet as schedules become more filled, our tendency is to minimize the priority of fellowship with the Father. We let increasing daily activities crowd out Christ.
Jesus gives us a subtle lesson. In the press of life, He secluded Himself with His Father. And that was His power for ministry. As we face increased demands, our strength and endurance will increase as we likewise sequester ourselves away for fellowship with the Triune Godhead.
We do well to ask ourselves the questions J.C. Ryle asked:
There are few professing Christians, it may be feared, who strive to imitate Christ in this matter of private devotion. There is an abundance of hearing, and reading, and talking, and profession, and visiting, and almsgiving, and subscribing to societies, and teaching at schools [and—might we add?—attending conferences and writing blogs and posting on Facebook and tweeting and texting]. But is there, together with all this, a due proportion of private prayer? Are believing men and women sufficiently careful to be frequently alone with God?
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Words of Grace 