Job CCXXXIV

 Anything that can be obtained in exchange for legal tender is as fleeting as the legal tender itself. Nothing of eternal weight can be purchased with temporal fiat, no matter how much certain televangelists might insist upon it. Giving money to a ministry, a church, or to the poor is not a substitute for spending time in God’s presence. You cannot do one in lieu of the other. This is why priorities matter. When we seek first the kingdom of God, our purpose is to grow in Him and in the knowledge of Him, first and foremost. Everything else takes second place to this all-encompassing, all-consuming purpose.

From the outside looking in, those who have never felt God’s presence, those who do not know the glory of Him, will think us fools, not understanding the fulfillment, peace, and unspeakable joy a relationship with Him brings. They perceive the time you spend in prayer as wasted effort, time you could have put toward career advancement or learning the lineup of your local football team. Little do they know that there is no greater pursuit in this life than the knowledge of the one true God, a sentiment echoed by every individual who has walked with Him throughout history.

Not all knowledge is the same. Not all knowledge is of equal worth or value. There is one knowledge that is superior: the knowledge of God. All other knowledge is inferior and pales in comparison to this, because the knowledge of God is the only knowledge that holds eternal weight and opens the way to fellowship with Him.

Philippians 3:8-11, “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

There is the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, then there is everything else. It stands alone, it stands apart, and for the children of God, it must be the ideal, overshadowing all else, because to be found in Him, to know Him, and to know the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, to be saved, sanctified, and born again is to lay hold of eternity itself.

No other knowledge can offer such a reward. No other pursuit can open the way to intimacy with God, fellowship with Christ, and the blessed assurance that He is ever present via His Spirit, as you journey toward eternity.

When we view this life through the prism of eternity, we soon realize how much of the time we’ve been given is wasted on trivial pursuits and how little of it is spent deepening our relationship with God. Realizing and acknowledging something, however, is not the same as taking steps to remedy the situation and shift our focus or acquire new pursuits. Some people know they are squandering the time they’ve been given, but never take the next step or make the necessary changes to become redeemers of time rather than squanderers.

If we are a new creation in Christ and the old things have passed away, why do we find ourselves bogged down with the old things so often? It’s not an accusation; it’s an honest question. I’ll be the first to admit I still catch myself sometimes, and I have to repent of it. I sit down to spend some quiet time reading the Word, in the middle of it, I get a notice that I have a new message, and thirty minutes later, I find myself engrossed in a story about a deep-sea diver finding a treasure trove of ancient relics sitting at the bottom of the sea, untouched by human hands for thousands of years.

It’s a good story, and it harkens back to what I wanted to pursue when I was younger, but I know that it did nothing to feed my spirit. All you can do when you catch yourself not pursuing the excellence of the knowledge of Christ is commit to making up the time you should have, whether that means waking up an hour earlier or going to bed an hour later.

I realize to some this may sound rigid and legalistic, but it’s not. It’s an issue of discipline, and if I allow myself to miss spending time in the Word today and think nothing of it, it will happen tomorrow, then the day after, becoming a pattern, then a habit, and I promise you, there will always be a new article about some sunken treasure or newly discovered remnants of a long forgotten civilization you’ll run across to distract and leech away the time.

Is having a hobby or enjoying articles on archeological endeavors inherently bad? No, not if viewed in isolation, but it becomes problematic when those things take time you otherwise would have spent in the Word.

Spending time with God is not a chore; it’s a gift and a grace. It’s not like eating your broccoli, doing your homework, or going to the gym because you know you have to. The spiritual man yearns to be in the presence of God, but what remains of the flesh will constantly try to keep you from it, knowing that the stronger you grow spiritually, the weaker its influence will become.

See the distractions for what they are: A means by which one is kept from pursuing that which they know they ought. We can either attempt to justify the lack of time spent in God’s presence and in His Word or acknowledge it for what it is and take steps to remedy it.

Absence does not make the heart grow fonder; it makes the heart grow colder. If we allow it, what once convicted us will become normalized to the point that it no longer convicts, and that is a slippery slope that leads further away from God with each passing day. It’s like those who allow themselves a cheat meal while on a diet, only to find themselves six months later having gained twenty pounds and never returning to the discipline they once had. It is always easier to cut off a weed than it is to cut down a tree. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!    

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.