The Busiest Girl In the World

Have you ever felt empty or unfulfiiled?

Some weeks ago I was feeling unfulfilled, like there was something missing, yet I felt like the busiest girl in the world. I was doing alot of stuff and had alot of plans but still I felt like something was missing. I spoke to two people close to me about it and prayed about it and then being the faithful God He is God He gave me the answer and then even confirmed it. The answer and the lesson I learnt I want to share it with you today.

It stems from this scripture:

Sometimes being busy can fool us into thinking we are being productive. Quantity can fool us into thinking we are achieving quality.

 Notice the order of the commandments - it says your love should be geared towards Christ first and then towards your neighbour. Someone gave me the analogy of when you are given instructions about what is to happen in an emergency. When they talk about the air masks they say put yours on first before helping someone else. Similarly our position, our relationship, our devotion to Christ should be our priority. God told me that I felt empty because I was pouring out through 'activity' but not filling myself with His word and my devotion time. Does that mean stop helping people, stop ministering or being a blessing? Not at all, but where we are personally with Christ must come first or you can find yourself, like me, falling into dead works..faith and deeds must come as a pair (James 1:14-26) 

So what do you find yourself busy doing - work, uni, looking after brothers and sisters helping in church, charity work, giving to people, spending time encouraging and sharing with others, checking on people? Some weeks ago I found that I was getting so concerned in keeping busy that my devotional time with God became something to be ticked off as done. I found myself reading His Word for the sake of it, trying to fool myself that it was my time with God. How fooled was I? Imagine you say to your friend you want to meet up because you haven't seen eachother in a while and then they meet you and as soon as they sit down they're almost ready to start heading. You wouldn't count that as really spending time with them, but we at times do just that to God. Don't let religious activities be a substitute for your investment and time spent with God. Our time with God should be something to be excited about. As a child there may have been days when mum or dad would come home from work and you would be so excited. God being our father and us being His children it should be the same way.  It's so important and oh was I reminded. I read something about a Christian lady who was well known for her charity work; she really gave back. I went on to read that despite her achievements and the good work she had done, she still felt like there was a void, like she didn't know where she was at with God. I thought to myself wow you can have the biggest church, God can use you to do phenomenal miracles, you can famous for your good deeds yet still feel lost and fulfilled.

Paul spoke to the Corinthians about how gifts are nothing without love and the intention of edification. In 1 Corinthians 13:1 it says,

'Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.'

Similarly if your fellowship with God dwindles while the amount of 'things' you're doing is sky high it can sound just like that to God, clanging symbols.

May what we do for God and what we offer as a sacrifice to Him never be 'just noise.'

Sometimes even with the best intentions we can become the busiest people forgetting where we began  If you find that your relationship with God is taking a back seat to the things your doing for Him, just take a moment to reflect and go back to Him. Don't dwell on what you haven't done (Philippians 3:13-14) but take it to prayer with a repentful heart and start over.

I'll end with this, some weeks ago God asked me something. He said, "At the end of your day you ask yourself did you have a productive day. You check whether you've done uni work, placement stuff, housework, things of that sort and say yes it was, but if I am not in that day then can you really call it productive?"

Don't stop being a blessing, don't stop being there for people or helping others, don't stop doing things in His name but remember where you're at with God, making sure you're growing in Him.

If you're going to protect anything in your life, if you're going go hard at anything, if you're going to invest or hold onto anything in this world, make sure it's your relationship with Christ, don't forget your first love (Rev 2:1-7)

Be encouraged xx