It's about Time....

November Reading Plan: The book of James
November Memory Verse: James 3:10
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"Submit yourselves, then, to God" James 4:7

This will be my last post on the book of James. I could write a year's worth of posts on this book, but we will stop here for now. 

The Greek word for the word "submit" is  hupotassó. Yeah, try to pronounce that. 

[Side note: The reason many bible studies tell you the Greek word or meaning is because the original New Testament was written in Greek. I did not know this for many years.]

"Submit" or hupotassó  means "to place under subject to, to subject, to obey". 

So, James is telling us to place ourselves under God. Not only to be under Him, but to obey Him. 

Sounds like an easy enough thing to do, right?

Well, not exactly. 

The verses preceding this verse tell us this: "Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God." James 4:4

Wow, that's some pretty straight forward language. It sounds kind of harsh, doesn't it? However, God knows our hearts the best and He knows that friendship with the world will take us slap out of His Gracious Covering Hands. 

Friendship with the world means putting things of this world, above God. 

A big thing that we can put above God is our time. We seem to have time to do lots of things in our day. We work, we eat, we sleep [even if minimal], we check in on social media, we run errands, we cook, we clean......

However, are we submitting ourselves to God with our time? If we were to look back on the sum of this past week, how much time have we alloted in our days to be with God?

This is not to make us feel guilty. This is to wake us up, and make us aware of what may be taking first place over our relationship with the Lord.

Life is busy. Life is chaotic. However, if we do not have time to be with the Lord, we have too much on our plate. We have things on our plate that He never desired to be on our plates. Meanwhile, we are left tired, haggard, spent, irritated, stretched, stressed....need I say more?

Been there? Me too. 

We all have 24 hours in a day. It's what we do with those hours that either draw us close to God or pull us away from Him. 

There is always going to be "something to do". Always. This will not end until we are called Home to Heaven. The world will pull, beckon, and lure us away from our Father's Arms. You can bet your sweet little pink lip gloss on that.  

Listen, we can be busy as beavers and still make time for God in our thoughts, in our minds, and in our hearts. We can be wiping baby bottoms, cleaning toilets, grading papers, and still have Him first place in our hearts and minds. 

Just because we are not physically curled up in a blanket on our couch with our bibles in our hands praying, does not mean we are not "with Him". 

I remember when Lem and I first started dating. Even when we were not together I was thinking about him all day long. I would go over conversations that we had, laughs that we shared, things that he did that made me melt. He was "always on my mind"--just like Elvis' song says. ;)

When we have God first place, when we are under submission to Him, He is always on our mind. No matter what we are doing, we are thinking of His faithfulness, His goodness, His blessings.

This is what God desires of us. Why? Because this is how He feels about us.  We are His beloved children for Heaven's sake. We are always on His mind. 

"How precious are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You. Psalm 139: 17, 18"

As I go throughout my day I often ask Him to help me make Him my one true desire. I tell Him that He is IT for me, and to please help me to show Him this and honor Him in this way. Several times a day I pray this verse from Isaiah 26:8, Your Name and Renown are the desires of my heart. And if it's not, Lord make it be so!

One of my favorite scriptures is "my times are in Your Hands" Psalm 31:5. I want to not just say this verse, but live it. I want to put my time in His Hands and not steal it back from Him. When I steal time back from Him it leaves me exhausted, frazzled, and worn slap out. 

How about you? Are you struggling with putting your time in His Hands? My prayer today is that we will surrender to Him, submit to Him, and place ourselves under Him. Let's put our time in the safest place it can be, in His Hands. 

submitting, 

jill