Wait! I am not ready for the demands of the fall schedule. So much is going on, and I am still two months behind in my "TO DO" list. I feel like some whom I have heard say with a smile, "I'm so busy, if a crisis comes along today, I won't have time to worry about it until next week." Today that is the way our lives pass. We are too busy. It is easy to get lost in activity, and to let our relationship with the Lord slip.
Often I have to evaluate my own relationship with the Lord, as well as my ministry for Him. Nothing that I do as your Pastor is as necessary for your own spiritual health, and that of the entire church, as my own spiritual health. Having a message from God depends upon me being in touch with God. Long ago I discovered that being is far more important than doing.
Dear friend, what is true for me is also true for you. If my relationship with Christ is the most important aspect of my life for service, then your relationship with Christ is important for service. If it is significant for me, as your Pastor, to keep my heart in tune with Him, it is significant for you to keep your heart in tune with Him. If prayer is vital for me, it is vital for you. If Bible reading is crucial for me, it is crucial for you. Do you meet with Him daily in prayer and in Bible reading? If these are not habits in your life, I implore you to make them priorities in your daily routine at once.
I invite you to form a pattern of Biblical priority by joining with me in reading the entire New Testament in October. You will need to read eight to ten chapters of the Bible daily for the month. That will take 30 to 45 minutes. You may judge this to be a sizeable amount of time, but if you trade it for that same amount of television viewing it is small. By the end of the month you will have formed a pattern that will help you focus on the important matters in life. That emphasis of meeting with the Lord in His word will help you keep life's rush of activities from crowding out your walk with God.