I have a love-hate relationship with my computer. I love it in that it is a large part of this stay at home mom’s means of communication and connectedness with the outside world. However, I also hate it in that it pulls me in at times, sucking my time and focus away from those that matter most. I’m hearing His call to draw me closer to Himself, calling me to deliberately choose to go to Him and His Word -instead of to my computer so frequently. Yes, this probably sounds familiar because I’ve blogged about it before. God has a way of subtly, and sometimes not so subtly, getting my attention and reminding me of things I thought I had already learned.
Philippians 3:7-14
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
When I read these Words (above) and hear this song (below), my heart longs to truly know my Savior more….
from Casting Crowns ‘Until the Whole World Hears’ album
To know You is to never worry for my life
To know You is to never give into compromise and
To know You is to want to tell the world about You
Cause I can’t live without You
To know You is to hear Your voice when You are calling
To know You is to catch my brother when he is falling
To know You is to feel the pain of the broken hearted
Cause they can’t live with out You.
More than my next breath
More than life or death
All I’m reaching for, I live my life to know You more
I leave it all behind, You’re all that satisfies
To know You is to want to know You more
To know You is to want to know You more
To know You is to ache for more than ordinary
To know You is to look beyond the temporary
To know You is believing that You’ll be enough
Cause there’s no life without You
All this life could offer me, could not compare to You , compare to You
And I count it all as lost, compared to knowing you , knowing You
I hear You Lord and I want to know You more…..
Michelle, I feel like I wrote this blog post myself. I, too, get caught up in building my website and doing stuff online (which I consider part of my ministry, since I use it to further the kingdom like you do). But, that’s not a substitute for spending time with God.
The Lord showed me that awhile back, too, and I thought I’d learned the lesson. Then a few weeks ago, I felt myself getting out of balance and He brought it to my attention again. He spoke first through that exact Casting Crowns song you mention! I love love love that song and it never fails to rearrange my priorities just from a single listen. And after a few mornings of listening to it while making my coffee before my quiet time, God led me to…you guessed it…Phillipians, where I saw the inspiration for the lyrics in print. The same day, two people on Facebook posted that scripture. It’s like God is saying, hello, Angela, are you getting it yet? And now your perfect, perfect post. Yes, that’s it exactly.
Thanks so much for sharing. I think it’s so cool that God was teaching us the same thing at the same time. And you know what He’s been showing me most recently? That I can’t expect to just give things over to Him and expect it to stay that way. I’ve got to continually, day-by-day, make the choice to put God first. He spoke to me through Exodus, where every time Moses put his arms down during the battle with the Amalekites, they started losing. Moses grew weary, but he sat upon a rock (our Foundation) and relied on other believers to help him keep his arms outstretched to God. It was a continual, moment-by-moment choice to lift the Lord’s banner of victory.
For me, I’m learning that I don’t need to make some big drastic change with my internet habits. I just need to daily look to the Lord first and see what He wants me to accomplish. It’s really that simple. I got caught up in overly-spiritualizing it and thinking I needed to give up all social networking, limit my blogging time, etc. But no. I just need to look to Jesus everyday and see what He’s got planned.
By the way, Michelle, I am a literacy and math coach. I used to teach PreK many years ago and used your site then. Now I use it with the teachers I coach. I’ve shared many of your ideas and they have been such a blessing. I don’t think I’ve written to you before (possibly so, a few years ago, when my website was still called Ms. Powell’s Management Ideas for Teachers). Now it’s called The Cornerstone. I share free resources with teachers just like you do, but my greatest mission is to turn people’s hearts and minds toward the Lord. :-)
I’ve always loved your site but now that I’ve read this post I feel like I have a true sister in Christ. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of God teaching someone the same lesson as me at the same time with the same song and the same scripture. WOW. Isn’t our God awesome? Everyday is an adventure with Him.
Angela,
We do serve an awesome God! I am so thankful that He lovingly pursues us and calls us to Himself. Like you, I can easily get out of balance in my priorities. It is a daily choice to look to Christ first, turn our eyes upon Him, and look intently into His Word for direction – to know how He wants us to live and to spend the time He has given us for His glory.
Thank you for taking the time to share!