How To Sustain Our Growth In This Era Of Busyness.

How To Sustain Our Growth In This Era Of Busyness.

Today, everyone is busy. We have almost lost the essence of our creation. It now looks as if we were created just to eat and drink. We must reverse this and return fully to God’s purpose. What is taking our time today? We hardly have time for God again.

So let’s begin by exploring the strategies the devil uses to keep us busy today. Over the years, the devil has always worked on three key things to keep man under the bondage of busyness with consequent loss of fellowship. These are the pride of life, the lust of the eyes, and the lust of the flesh. 1Cointhians 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. He uses various avenues to perpetuate his agendas such as the daily news and global happenings, Government and politics, Social media, aspirations to amass wealth, etc.

The Pride of Life

Our quest is to get the best out of life, get the best career, ride the best car, attend the best school, etc. All these may look good, but they can ensnare us. We continue to pursue ceaselessly after life, but, when not pursued within the premise of the will of God, it can take up so much time and keep us so busy that we lose God.

There’s a thin line between success and the pride of life. We should not pursue anything as a “do or die affair”. We must subject all aspirations to the will of God. Another area that the pride of life leads us is when we want to be like others, we pursue so much and take God out of it. You can be encouraged by others but never try to be like them at the detriment of the will of God for your life. Matthew. 4: 1-11 Here Jesus was confronted with all these 3 things which are the origin of the pursuit of life. So the question is: what is leading you in all your life’s pursuits? Is it God that is leading? Is the reason for all you do for his purpose?

      The Lust of the Eyes

We don’t need to get anything we see, we need to guide our eyes not dictate our pursuit. We would see big cars, Luxurious homes, etc. but why can’t you just move at the pace of God’s leading. If not, you will overwork yourself in your pursuit of life. Social media usage as stated, is one of the lust of the eyes

      The Lust of the Flesh

This has to do with anything our flesh desires. Most people keep giving in to what their flesh desire regardless of its implications. For instance, in clothing, once you have clothes that are good and cover your nakedness, be content, if you don’t have an Italian suit please don’t kill yourself just move at the pace of God.

We have several things to manage and we keep adding more responsibilities; thereby taking away our time for devotion. Life will not leave you without giving you things to pursue and it will never reduce. You are the one that will define what should be. The Bible says the disciples gave themselves to prayer. They forced themselves, they mandate themselves to pray.

So we look at the key things that take our time with God:

The condition of our heart determines how we set time for God. When we do not have the love of God in our hearts it reflects in our lack of devotion to Him. Even if such a person has all the time in this world, such will use it on Africa Magic. You cannot desire God whom you never love. So one of the greatest things the devil does is to take our love for God away which makes our fellowship with God become a disdain. So when you realize that you find the things of God not exciting and your fellowship with God difficult, it is because your love for God has been tampered with.

The second thing that makes us not create time for God is that God is not a priority these days. We have everything planned out for the day except fellowship. Remember, anything you do not plan you may never achieve it. If God is important, plan your fellowship, prayer, etc. as a key activity for the day. If you won’t sleep until you finish that project or send that email, also make it a duty never to sleep until you have that devotion or pray that prayer. When the flesh knows you have your fellowship planned, he gives up on you. So when you go three weeks without devotion, the flesh believes he has gained some ground and will want to continue that way. Let your flesh knows that your life depends on God and so you have no option. Is your prayer planned? Is your devotion planned? Why will you not plan it? If you don’t plan, the daily chores will take it away. Christians do not just backslide, it results from a continuous accumulation of failure in devotion and fellowship.

Another thing that makes us look like we are really busy is that we have filled our free time with what excites the flesh and not the spirit. For instance, it is not that we are really busy all the time but we filled all our free time with social media and all sorts and when we should pray and be in fellowship with God, we complain that we have an engagement. We need to regulate our social media presence if we would last with God. It consumes time and extreme resources. Many years back, we didn’t have any challenges with all these issues because we had fewer stuff to be busy with. Website and internet CAN NEVER replace fellowship with God. No matter how good any technology may be, it can never replace our fellowship with God. Our generation is getting it with technology but losing it with God. We are much with men but less with God. We are celebrities with men through social media but we are visitors or strangers to God.

You see how many popular ministers easily deny Christ, and fall from grace. What happened is that many just want to keep pace with men but have lost touch with God in the closet. May we not be celebrities with men and visitors or strangers with God. Please let’s answer this question: If you are praying and someone knocks on your door to inform you to go to your uncle’s house who wants to give you money. One might be tempted that this is the answer from God to bless our finances. What will you do? Your answer defines how much you value and cherish God.

Another reason why it seems we are busy is that we take the goodness of God for granted. Many of the time, one million naira is more important to many than God, why do I say so? If God asks you to pray at a time and your uncle asks you to come and collect one Million Naira which one will you go for? While it is not a bad thing to get money, many times we value even our Pastors, GO, etc. than God because we can see them. This in practical terms needs the Grace of God. It takes a man who has been staying in God’s presence to discern, to understand when Mammon is taking him or her away from God. But one thing is paramount: when God takes the first position in our life, he will guide us right. The spirit of God in us and full surrender to God’s will is what we need to rely on in times like this. Many times we are like Pharaoh: we want God’s powerful hand to touch us before we take Him very important. We should not wait to see God in another form before we acknowledge and worship Him. Our greatest art of worship is in spending time with Him. How beautiful our life would have been if we can keep in step with God, even many things that keep us busy will not keep us busy. We always think the more struggle, the more breakthrough, but several times that is not the case. The more of God the more in God.

Question? What other things keep us busy and how can we avoid them?

I discovered recently that fellowshipping in spirit that Jesus talked about is fellowshipping in spirit indeed. What I mean is that, while on the bus, you can fellowship, while at work one can be in the Spirit. There are some tasks you may be doing that are repetitive and demand less attention. For those, put in songs, hymns, or sermons and listen along. Listening to sermons, hymns, and Psalms on the phone while doing other things help keep your heart awake. But at the same time, we must create time for personal devotion as earlier said.

A woman academic, who is a PhD holder said she has her Bible with her always. After working several hours, she would read her Bible. We must find a way to keep God in our days always. You must know that for each day we lose fellowship, we have moved away from feeding the life of God in us. So stop being busy than God. Remember when God calls you, all those busyness will not go with you. Keep your fellowship intact and keep the world and the flesh away.