Redeem the Time
I receive a “Today’s Word” e-mail from Joel Osteen every morning and this particular e-mail was titled Redeem the Time.
Afterwards, I thought about a few questions, how do we begin our day? Do we really put God first?
I’m currently reading this book “100 Days of Prayer for a Righteous Man” and one section asked the question “Are you really putting God first in our lives, or are we putting other things – things like possessions, pleasures, or personal status – ahead of our relationship with God.”
A scripture that was referenced to this section; Exodus 20:3 – You shall have no other gods before Me.
I have a Life Application Study Bible and it takes scriptures and provides explanatory notes to help understand passages. For this particular scripture, the following was annotated:
Today we can allow many things to become gods to us. Money, fame, work or pleasure can become gods when we concentrate too much on them for personal identity, meaning, and security. No one sets out with the intention of worshiping these things. But by the amount of time we devote to them, they can grow into gods that ultimately control our thoughts and energies. Letting God hold the central place in our lives keeps these things from turning into gods.
I thought about it and my morning routine. I’d wake up, turn on the TV and watch the news for a few minutes, then grab my cell phone and look on Facebook, send a few tweets. Then I’d get up, eat, shower, get dressed and head into work. In my mind I’d say I’ll pray after the news, or I’d pray after my shower, after I eat, when I get to work and all of a sudden I don’t pray at all. It just amazed me how that quickly I got distracted.
With God’s help, I’m working on a prayer routine. I tried something new this morning. I grabbed my phone and just started listen to songs of praise and worship and afterwards I began to pray. Then I started to proceed with my routine. Just as we have routines for our daily duties, we can make a routine of prayer. Someone told me after a while it will just become second nature to us. We’re not perfect at all and some days it just won’t happen. Don’t beat yourself up over it.
Redeem our time, make the best of our time and most importantly seek God first. Make him our priority and he’ll direct our paths. Take advantage of our gift called today!
