Busyness

[0:00] So, last week, we talked about developing a morning routine that prioritizes communion with God.

[0:12] And I considered coming back to that this week because there's plenty more I could say about prayer and Bible reading specifically. But as I said, morning is not the only time we should be praying and reading.

[0:25] So, for now, we'll move on, and God willing, we'll come back to these subjects later. However, I do want to briefly mention a few more practical suggestions for your morning devotional time.

[0:40] These are things I meant to include last time, but never did. So, first of all, you and your family or you and your spouse may find it most expedient to pray and read the Bible together in the mornings.

[1:00] If you're short on time, struggling to get everything done in the morning, you might consider doing it around the breakfast table, for instance. There are certainly times you will want to pray and you'll want to read alone.

[1:14] But corporate worship within a family is a very, very good thing. So, you might consider doing some of that in the morning. Second, I failed to say anything about memorizing the Bible.

[1:31] John Piper has said, I have never met a mature, fruitful, strong, spiritually discerning Christian who is not full of Scripture, devoted to regular meditation on Scripture, and given to storing it in the heart through Bible memorization.

[1:51] And that's not a coincidence. Perhaps it goes without saying, but if we're making an effort to memorize the Bible, mornings are a very good time to read and recite any verse or passage that we're attempting to memorize.

[2:07] It helps to put that passage in our minds at the start of the day. And third, I didn't say anything before about singing, which is one of those things we tend to neglect when we're away from corporate worship with the church.

[2:25] In Colossians chapter 3, Paul seems to make a connection between the Word of Christ and singing. That is, singing hymns and songs and psalms.

[2:38] In verse 16 of that chapter, he writes, Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

[2:57] So you'll notice the encouragement for us to sing is sandwiched between two of our primary goals in developing a morning routine, right? First, we're letting God speak to us through His Word.

[3:12] We're told to try to absorb as much as what God says to us as possible, as early in the day as possible. Paul says, Let the Word of Christ dwell in you, and not only that, but dwell in you richly.

[3:26] Second, we hope to foster a spirit of gratitude in ourselves as we start the day. Paul says, With thanksgiving in your hearts to God.

[3:38] That's, of course, a far better way to start the day than with grumbling and dread. And then right between those two things is Paul's exhortation to sing.

[3:49] Why does the Bible instruct God's people to sing? Well, Paul seems to suggest here anyway that singing can be instrumental in the Word of Christ dwelling in us and dwelling in us richly.

[4:04] And that makes sense when you think about it. I can very easily forget something I heard or read just an hour ago. But a song that I haven't listened to in 20 years, it comes on the radio and I can sing every word of it.

[4:20] When we speak the truths of God's Word through psalms and hymns and songs, it has staying power. We find ourselves singing those words and being reminded of those words over and over again throughout the day.

[4:38] Plus, music and melodies have a profound ability to affect our moods. Paul says, Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thanksgiving in your hearts to God.

[4:52] So I say try it for yourself if you don't already. Grab a hymn book. Start your days with singing. See what happens. It's hard to be in a foul or even a neutral mood when you're singing, Count Your Blessings, or It Is Well With My Soul.

[5:10] Right? Okay. Okay. So, I spent the first half of this week preparing to talk about the work day. Obviously, there's more that could be said about mornings in general, but I thought we would move on to the work day, whether that's going to a job or working from home or being a stay-at-home mom or even being retired, whatever we have to do.

[5:37] But I was reading the creation story in Genesis 1, and something stood out to me that I don't know that I've ever really noticed before or paid much attention to. Now, you're likely familiar with the pattern in Genesis 1.

[5:51] In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Then we're told there was evening and there was morning, the first day. And as the six days of creation progress, we see this pattern of God speaking something new into existence.

[6:09] He evaluates it. He calls it good. And then that refrain repeats throughout creation. There was evening and there was morning, the third day and the fourth day and so on.

[6:20] Now, what we typically notice in that pattern is that God worked on His creation for six days, and then He rested on the seventh.

[6:34] And I think most of us know that this pattern continues throughout the Bible and throughout human history, really. God codified the pattern, if you will, in the Ten Commandments.

[6:45] The fourth commandment says, Remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord.

[6:56] Of course, we are explicitly told elsewhere that this commandment is based on the example God set during creation. So, we readily understand that part.

[7:07] Work six days, rest one. But what struck me as I was reading Genesis earlier in the week was how God frequently paused, if you will, during creation.

[7:22] For example, here's day three of creation. And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.

[7:35] And it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the waters that were gathered together He called seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind on the earth.

[7:56] And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind.

[8:08] And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning the third day. Now, there are several potential lessons here, and I hope that I'm not making more out of this than I should.

[8:21] But what I notice is that God doesn't create everything at once. Obviously, He could have. But instead, He slowly builds creation one piece at a time over six days.

[8:37] He creates one thing, or at least one part of creation, and then He stops. He examines what He's created. He takes satisfaction in it.

[8:49] Then He moves on to the next thing, if not the next day. It's very deliberate. It's slow. It's unhurried. It's systematic. There's no multitasking.

[9:01] There's no sense of pressure as though God has to get this done before the deadline. And again, this creation account is given to us, in part, to be an example for us.

[9:14] God worked six days. He tells Adam to work and keep the garden. God rested the seventh day. He commands His people to rest one day of the week. So it seems at least possible that we could learn something from the creation story regarding how God worked during those six days.

[9:35] And this led me to think, maybe before we talk about our work for the day, maybe we need to think about the typical work day or the typical week day in more broad terms.

[9:48] So, we often ask one another, how was your day? How was your week? And one of the ways we often answer that question is, busy.

[10:02] Or we might say, it was good, but busy. And we usually say that with a smile on our face. You know, we wear it like it's a badge of honor.

[10:13] And even if we don't like being so busy, that's how life is for many of us. We're incredibly busy, which is kind of strange when you think about it.

[10:25] In 21st century America, with modern technology and caps on a 40-hour work week, we should be some of the least busy people in all of history. But somehow, despite all of the advantages we've had, we've managed to pile on more and more, essentially negating all of those advantages.

[10:47] I mean, how many of you, you don't have to admit this, but how many of you quietly sighed last week when I recommended spending at least 30 minutes in prayer and Bible reading in the morning?

[10:58] Maybe you thought, how can I possibly squeeze 30 more minutes into my already crazy schedule? And I'll be the first to admit, there are times when I leave the house in the morning that my thoughts are just scattered all over the place, and I haven't even been awake for that long.

[11:17] There have been times when I've walked out to the car, and I probably shouldn't, but I'll blame my kids for a lot of this, but I'll walk out to the car, I'll get in, I'll close the door, and I'll just sit there for a minute.

[11:28] And just have a moment to pause in the quiet and pray and reorient my mind, and that's really before the day has even begun. Busyness is like a heavy blanket over us.

[11:44] It just suffocates us. It steals our joy often. I know one thing I've always struggled with is saying no. I want to say yes to everything.

[11:58] I'll have 10 people come to me at work and ask me to do something, and I'll say yes to all of them, and then another person comes along, and even after I've said to myself, I can't handle it anymore, they'll come to me and ask me for a favor, and here I go again.

[12:12] Sure, I can do that. And then I've got family members who need me for one thing or another. I have clients who want to meet with me during the day, in the evenings, over the weekends.

[12:25] Of course, like you, I have church obligations. I get text messages, I get phone calls, I get emails all week long, and I want to serve people for the glory of God, but what happens sometimes?

[12:39] There have been times when I have found myself in life rarely sleeping, rarely praying, just wearing myself out.

[12:50] And I don't just mean physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. I exhaust myself. And I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you can probably relate to that, or you have been able to relate to that at some point in your life.

[13:09] Well, that's not the example God sets in Genesis 1, is it? Or we could consider Jesus in the Gospels. Think of Him escaping early in the mornings to pray.

[13:21] Think of Him asleep on the boat in the middle of a terrible storm. Not only does He take the time to sleep, but He's so much at peace that a storm doesn't even bother Him.

[13:33] Or think of the time Lazarus was sick. When Jesus heard about it, He didn't rush to Bethany. He stayed where He was another two days.

[13:46] Now, obviously, Jesus was operating on a divine timeline, and He had a distinct purpose in letting Lazarus die, but it reminds me of something that I wrote in one of my Bibles years ago.

[13:57] I wrote, Jesus was never in a hurry. Now, you might say, of course, He was never in a hurry. He's God.

[14:09] He's the creator of time. He sovereignly rules over times and events. He doesn't have to be in a hurry. But you and I, we're not God. And that's true.

[14:20] At the same time, we are called to trust in the sovereign God. We are called to rest in Christ. Why?

[14:31] Because we don't control time. We don't control the events around us. But we have a God and Savior who is in control. We rest in a God who says, I am God, and there is no other.

[14:48] I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish my purpose.

[15:02] Isaiah 46, 9. We trust in a Savior who says, do not be anxious about your life, but seek first the kingdom of God and righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

[15:20] We're not going to find a lot of biblical merit for exhausting ourselves with commitment after commitment after commitment. On the one hand, we shouldn't be a lazy people.

[15:34] On the other hand, we should do everything we can to avoid being an overcommitted, overworked, overtired, overanxious people. We want to avoid having our minds on a million different things, having ourselves stretched in a million different places all at once.

[15:54] So as I thought about this problem of busyness, I pivoted my study halfway through the week. Instead of talking about work specifically, let's think about our approach to life in general.

[16:10] Let's talk about the kind of schedules we keep. Let's think about how busy we are. Well, I return to a book I read a few years ago by Pastor Kevin DeYoung.

[16:23] This is a book called Crazy Busy, a mercifully short book about a really big problem. So DeYoung observes that technology has changed how people all over the world live.

[16:40] You can visit places pretty much anywhere, Asia, Europe, Africa, and see the same smartphone culture and the same hustle as what you see here in the United States.

[16:56] We're consumed by our chores and our responsibilities, and the cost is often our communion with God and meaningful relationships with the people around us.

[17:08] Many of us, we want to slow down. We don't want to live in a constant, frantic state. But it's become so normal for us.

[17:19] We don't know how to break free. Well, DeYoung offers seven diagnoses to help us identify the roots of busyness and then provides a remarkably simple solution.

[17:33] And I'd like to summarize the primary lessons I gleaned from his book when I read it again this week. And I have to mention the irony here. I was reading his book at home on Wednesday when I got a call from a client who wanted to meet with me that evening.

[17:49] So I quickly put down the book, and I started doing the math in my head. Okay, it'll take me 35 minutes to drive to work. My appointment will last one to two hours.

[18:00] It'll take me 40 minutes to drive from work to church. The church meets at seven. Let's just say I need to hear this lesson as much as anyone. Well, let's begin by establishing why busyness is a problem.

[18:17] And this is necessary because our culture doesn't typically think of busyness as a problem. Again, we wear it like a badge of honor. We think of it as a measurement of how important or how devoted we are.

[18:33] Perhaps we mistake busyness for diligence or hard work, and there is a difference. And we might ask ourselves some diagnostic questions.

[18:46] For example, do we get restless or anxious after a few minutes of boredom when there's nothing going on? Or, you know, how quickly do we grab our phones in those moments just to give ourselves something to do?

[19:03] Or what happens when you see someone approaching the checkout line at the grocery store at the same time as you? Do you try to rush and beat them to it?

[19:15] Do you feel compelled to always be in a hurry or always doing something?

[19:27] Obviously, these are relatively simple examples, but they may very well reveal something more serious about our hearts. DeYoung names three primary dangers of busyness.

[19:43] First, busyness can ruin our joy. Busyness can ruin our joy. How so? Well, if we're constantly rushed, if our minds are always on a thousand different things, if we don't have sufficient breathing room in our schedules, if our attention is pulled in a million different directions, hour after hour, day after day, we will find it difficult, if not impossible, to savor all of the little blessings God has given us.

[20:20] We won't have the time or the attention to pause long enough to relish the beauty of His creation, or the wonderful things He has done for us, or those promises He has guaranteed will come to pass.

[20:34] Hurried hearts have the capacity to lose the ability to meditate, or to even be grateful for things.

[20:47] The blessings, they just go by unnoticed. After all, we have, you know, one more notification on our phone to look at. Who has time to stop and really ponder?

[20:58] Second, busyness can rob our hearts. Busyness can rob our hearts.

[21:11] In Mark 4.19, Jesus warns how the cares of this world enter in and choke out the Word. When our calendars are packed full, what gets neglected?

[21:28] I'm sure we still go to work. I'm sure we still pay the bills. I'm sure we still get the kids to soccer practice and baseball games and whatever else, six or seven days a week. So, what gets neglected?

[21:42] Chances are, it's prayer. It's Bible reading. It's meditation. It's family worship and discipleship. Now, we may still get to the church for our corporate gatherings.

[21:54] We may still, you know, do a lot for God. Without even noticing, we're actually drifting from Him. Our souls, our spiritual lives are drying out.

[22:10] Third, busyness can hide deeper issues. Busyness can hide deeper issues. Think of spinning a top.

[22:23] I don't know if kids play with tops anymore, but you probably remember them. Spin a top. As long as it's moving, it stays upright. Sometimes we have sins, or we have conflicts, or we have heartaches.

[22:37] We have something unresolved, some unresolved issue that we're not dealing with, and we're pretty good at being able to ignore them as long as we keep moving, as long as we stay busy.

[22:51] Well, God calls us to be still and know that I am God. Endless activity can be a type of avoidance, and it's not until we stop that we see the spiritual decay that has set in over time.

[23:13] Well, with that, let's talk about why we allow ourselves to be overcommitted. Why do we let ourselves become so busy?

[23:25] Why do we let ourselves be so consumed by so many things, especially unnecessary things? Well, the young gives us a list of seven potential reasons.

[23:40] Number one, pride. Pride. Now, it may not seem obvious at first, but pride often drives us to busyness.

[23:54] We fear saying no to anyone because we want others to think highly of us. We want them to know just how capable we are of doing anything and everything.

[24:07] We might be addicted to the praise and the recognition we get from doing these things. We might be so proud as to think that everything would just fall apart without my involvement.

[24:22] Pride might manifest itself as perfectionism. We don't want to say no and we don't want to delegate because no one else could possibly do it as well as me.

[24:35] Now, to be clear, not all busyness is rooted in pride. We all have genuine responsibilities at home or at work or in ministry, so here's how to discern whether or not it's an issue of pride.

[24:49] We should ask ourselves, am I doing good or am I trying to look good? Now, from the outside, the activity may look identical.

[25:03] It may look exactly the same, but we're trying to diagnose the heart. We're trying to search our hearts for the motive. Here's another way we might test ourselves.

[25:16] Ask yourself, would I still do this if no one ever thanked me or gave me the slightest hint of affirmation? Would it still be that important?

[25:30] You see, if we find ourselves driven by a need for applause or by fear of disappointing others, we may have more pride in our hearts than we think. Number two, total obligation.

[25:48] Total obligation. DeYoung calls this the terror of total obligation. It's this idea that we should and must care about every need, every cause, every ministry, but it's not just that we should care.

[26:09] We should also feel compelled to do something. If we learn about it, if we hear about it, we've got to do something. It's as though we worry that if we're not personally involved, we have failed in our duty to God.

[26:26] Yes, we are called by God to do good works, but please understand we are not called by God to do every possible good work. We are finite creatures with a limited amount of time, a limited amount of energy and resources.

[26:44] We have to remember that number one, the world does not rest on our shoulders, and number two, the body of Christ has many members, and this is for good reason.

[26:58] Think of Paul. He labored night and day with tears when he was working to establish new churches and new cities, but eventually, he had to leave those people.

[27:10] He had to leave those people with other elders and pastors. He realized that he could not do everything himself. He planted.

[27:21] Others watered, and ultimately, and this is perhaps most important, it would be God who made it grow. Now, I'm not trying to discourage anyone from being involved in ministries or helping or doing good when you can, where you can.

[27:39] I'm just saying there are times when it is wise to say no. In fact, learning to say no or maybe not right now can be a very humble act of dependence on God, not to mention others.

[27:51] If we move at an unsustainable pace for too long, we won't have anything left to help others. Well, number three, mission creep.

[28:08] Mission creep. Now, mission creep is actually a military term for when an operation broadens beyond its scope. So this is what happens when we lose sight of our primary calling.

[28:23] It's when we add more to our plates than what is realistic, or we clutter our schedules and our minds with things that are really outside the scope of our calling. think about how busy Jesus was during His earthly ministry.

[28:42] But He had a mission, right? And He was very clear on His mission. He had a purpose, and He never lost sight of that. On several occasions, when the crowds were pressing in and they were demanding His attention, we would read about Him escaping to be alone for a while and to pray.

[29:02] He's not neglecting anyone. He just understands I have a purpose. And right now, right here, what's being demanded of me does not fit that purpose. In Matthew 14, after He had dismissed the crowds, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray.

[29:19] When evening came, He was there alone. After He healed a leper and Luke 5, we're told, He would withdraw to desolate places and pray. In John 6, we see Him refusing a particular demand that did not align with His mission.

[29:39] Not exactly. We're told, perceiving then that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, a literal earthly king, that is, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by Himself.

[29:55] Several years ago, I read a book called Essentialism. The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, which I actually found very helpful. It's a secular book, by the way. The basic idea was that you only have so much time, so much attention, and so much energy, so you can divide your time, attention, and energy among a lot of things or maybe just a few primary things.

[30:22] things. And the author provided an illustration. First, he showed a circle with a lot of short little arrows coming out of it. And then he showed another circle with one long arrow coming out of it.

[30:36] And the point was that you'll get a lot farther with something if you're focused on that something, that one thing, rather than many things at the same time. In short, not everything in life is equally important.

[30:54] And we have to keep the main things the main things, which I have often found in my own experience is a very serious problem for me when I become distracted by the things that really aren't that important.

[31:11] Well, number four, fear and worry about our kids. Now, I realize this is most applicable to a lot of families that are in another class right now, but DeYoung mentions it and I'd like to as well.

[31:28] We all want our kids to have every possible advantage, right? And in our day, that often leads families having something on their calendar every single night.

[31:41] soccer practice, piano lessons, youth activities on top of homework and other responsibilities. It creates an exhausting atmosphere that easily breeds stress and anxiety.

[31:55] And I've seen this in a lot of families. And I dread the day when it might crouch into my own household. I think it was Votie Bauckham who told the story of his kids in the realm of academics.

[32:09] Education was really, really important to him and his wife. And then one day, he just realized how stressed everyone was. So he said, guys, no one's going to school today.

[32:22] We're going to have a family outing. We're going to go have some fun. And during the day, they sat down and they had a family discussion about it. And they worked to reorient their priorities.

[32:33] Education was still very important for them, but not at the cost of their mental or spiritual or even physical health. They had to learn how to slow down.

[32:45] They had to learn how to put academics as important as it was in its proper place according to a biblical worldview. I think we as parents overestimate our power to control our children's future.

[33:01] I think about this a lot. If I say this in this moment, how is that going to shape my child? If I do this or don't do this, how is that going?

[33:16] Yes, we should do everything we can to bring up our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, but ultimately, we have to trust God with our children.

[33:28] The most important thing, namely their salvation, certainly isn't going to happen through tedious micromanagement of our children.

[33:41] It can only come from God and the work of His Spirit. Number five, technology. Now, the promise of technology is that it's supposed to make our lives easier, and in many ways it does.

[34:00] But it's a double-edged sword. It makes many things much more convenient, much easier, but it's also managed to consume our time and severely fragment our attention.

[34:14] It's robbed many of us of the ability to think deeply. I saw a recent study that said the vast, vast majority of college students have never read a book from cover to cover.

[34:27] It takes too long. It's too boring. They're too accustomed to an endless stream of bite-sized entertainment.

[34:39] Technology is diminishing our ability to sit still and to think deeply and simply meditate or pray or read for more than a few seconds at a time.

[34:54] And then we get constant notifications which suck us back into this digital world where everyone is shouting for our attention.

[35:06] And if we don't get very deliberate about the way we use technology, we will never find that quiet space we need to nourish our souls.

[35:17] it will hinder our relationship with God and it will hinder our relationship with the people around us. Nothing sadder than sitting around a family gathering and everybody staring at a phone.

[35:35] Number six, lack of rest. I talked about this a little last time and I'll have more to say about it in the future but we cannot ignore God's design for us and for our minds and for our bodies.

[35:51] We need rest. We need physical rest. We need mental rest and we need spiritual rest. And I would argue this means we need to get enough sleep. We need to pull back the reins on our hectic schedules when possible.

[36:09] And we need to move a bit slower and a bit more intentional. devotional. And we need to spend ample time seeking spiritual rest through worship and through devotional time with our Lord.

[36:30] As I've said, we see this pattern in creation. We see this pattern throughout the Lord's earthly ministry. I think it was D.A. Carson who said, exhaustion distorts our view of reality.

[36:42] When we're overtired, have you noticed that the smallest problems become much bigger and the easiest tasks become much harder? We need rest.

[36:55] Number seven, unrealistic expectations about suffering. Or we might say unrealistic expectations about life in general.

[37:09] Kevin DeYoung makes the point that we should not confuse the weariness that comes from honest, positive work or forms of loving sacrifice for others with the kind of weariness that comes from proud or fearful frenzy.

[37:26] You know what I mean? There is a biblical category for what I'll call righteous fatigue. You know, Paul talked about the daily pressure that came from laboring with all the churches.

[37:39] I think that's in 2 Corinthians 11. We live in a fallen world. We might do everything right with our schedules and with our commitments and we will still find a degree of weariness at the end.

[37:54] It may be a soul-satisfying kind of weariness but weariness nonetheless. We should be realistic about things. There is a form of healthy busyness if it includes a steady rhythm of prayer and certainly trusting in God's strength.

[38:14] But there's also a dangerous form of busyness when we aren't finding any rest and perhaps we aren't relying on God's sovereignty thinking the entire world rests on our shoulders.

[38:26] We've just got to keep going. So what's the solution? what's the one thing DeYoung says we can do to resist these temptations of busyness?

[38:41] I'll read it from Luke chapter 10. Luke 10 this is verses 38 through 42. Now as they went on their way Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house and she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching.

[39:06] But Martha was distracted with much serving and she went up to him and said Lord do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.

[39:18] But the Lord answered her Martha, Martha you are anxious and troubled about many things but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her.

[39:34] Now I don't have a great deal of time to expound on this but I've occasionally heard people mistakenly describe Martha's problem as though she were doing unimportant things.

[39:47] But if you notice that's not what Jesus says. Not exactly. He says she was distracted with much serving. She was anxious and troubled about many things.

[40:00] In other words the problem wasn't that she was serving. That wasn't the issue. She wasn't doing something unimportant. She was being a good hostess. She was tending to the needs and the comforts of this one all important guest in her home.

[40:16] No, the issue was that these other things namely serving had her anxious. They had her distracted. Now we might sympathize with Martha.

[40:28] I mean someone has to handle logistics, right? But again Jesus doesn't condemn her service. The problem is her distracted heart.

[40:42] Mary on the other hand realized that listening to the Lord mattered even more. And Jesus says that is the one thing that is absolutely necessary.

[40:56] More than anything else or at least before anything else we must sit at the feet of Christ. We must learn from Him. We must spend time communing with Him.

[41:09] One thing is necessary. And that one thing should never be an afterthought for us. It should not be something that we do if only we can find the time.

[41:21] If only we can find a spare minute in our day. No, it should be the thing we plan our days around. Communion with Christ should not be seen as an optional thing for us.

[41:34] It should be our first priority. Feeding our souls with the bread of life will always take precedent, even over eating food that we need for our physical bodies.

[41:47] Didn't Jesus say as much when he was tempted by the devil in the wilderness? Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. If we neglect spiritual nourishment, we can't be surprised when we begin to feel spiritually anemic.

[42:10] And if we commit ourselves to spending this desperately needed time with Christ, it will change our approach to business. We won't want to drown our days in so many activities that we struggle to draw near to him.

[42:26] In fact, we may find that we have even more energy, more clarity for other things because we've been nourished by this close and frequent communion with our Lord.

[42:40] When we cultivate this habit, all of life has a way of aligning itself. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. But when we ignore it, chaos ensues.

[42:57] In Mark chapter 6, when the disciples returned from a fairly demanding mission trip, what did Jesus tell them to do? Get back out there, there's more work to be done.

[43:09] Well, there was more work to be done, but that's not what he said. No, he said to them, come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while. For many were coming and going and they had no leisure even to eat, and they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.

[43:28] That's the pattern. Service followed by renewal, followed by service, followed by renewal, and so on. If we're always active and we're never resting, we will burn out.

[43:42] And on the flip side of that coin, if we're always resting and never serving, we'll become idle and worthless. We don't want that either. God's design is for us to draw near to him frequently and consistently and then go and fulfill our callings.

[44:02] Communion with Christ must be our priority from the time we wake up to the time we go to sleep. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word and for the lessons that you teach us through it.

[44:17] You are our creator, our sustainer, and the source of all wisdom. Please forgive us for the times we have allowed busyness to rob us of the joy and peace that come from resting in you.

[44:32] Help us to prioritize communion with you, making really the foundation of our days. Guide our hearts and minds in this way. Teach us to trust in your sovereignty, to seek your kingdom first, and to work with purpose, not to mention rest in your grace.

[44:51] And it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. We're dismissed.