I sometimes find myself stuck, not progressing in my endless quest of growing in my relationship with Christ. When I find myself in this predicament, I often ask one important question: What in my life am I putting before Christ?
Christ Is My Priority
Saying that Christ is the priority in our lives is easy, but living out that proclamation can seem difficult at times. I have a rather lengthy list of things I’ve put before Christ in the past. Hours will go by, sometimes even a whole day, when I forget to spend time with him, to thank him, to praise him. But forgetting isn’t my worst offense. It’s willfully choosing to make time for far less important things that both burden and convict my heart. I purposefully make time to exercise, to check my e-mail 10 times a day, to waste countless hours randomly surfing the Internet. The list is extensive. I can allow so many mundane activities to fill my day, which in moderation is acceptable. But when these activities come at the expense of my time with Christ, my relationship with him suffers.
Confronting Your Priorities
When the rich man asked how he could inherit eternal life, Jesus told him not only to obey the commandments, but to sell everything he had and give to the poor (Mark 10:17-31). Abiding by the commandments was easy, comparatively speaking. It was giving up what he held so dearly, more dearly than his relationship with Christ, that was impossible to contemplate. Jesus knew the rich man’s heart. Despite proclaiming his love for Christ, the rich man’s actions betrayed his words. His actions spoke the truth. His love of money was greater than his love for Christ. What do your actions speak? If you forget to make time for Christ in your day, or purposefully choose to spend your time doing something else, does it really matter what you say? Christ knows my heart. When it’s just the two of us in a room, my words alone
mean nothing.
