Do You Love Me?

Scripture:
"Simon son of John, do you truly love me" (John 21:15)

Every now and then too many activities creep into my life and I need to stop, and reassess what things are important to me that I need to keep on doing and what things are not as important that I need to let go of. This usually happens little by little without me knowing it and before I know it I have consumed every bit of spare time with some activity that even after the weekend is over and I head into work I am already exhausted before I get there. Do you know what I mean?

Now it is a good thing that I am married because I have an automatic, built-in "barometer" that warns me when I, or my wife, are too busy. That barometer is when one of us is feeling a little "left out" and we realize we need some "alone time" together. Then we usually look at our schedules and see that we have filled our calendars with all kinds of things we "need" to do and have left no time available for ourselves.

This is the way it is with our relationship with the Lord. What do you think happens with my time with the Lord if I am getting so busy that my wife and I realize we need time together. Now I really don't want to go down the road which is more important, God or my spouse. I know what I believe on that subject and I am sure you do to. But the truth of the matter is that time for both of these relationship is very important.

Have you ever heard anyone say, "I don't have any time"? Even though we know what they mean, that person has no less time then anyone else, that is 24 hours. It is just that they probably have so many things going on in their life they are frustrated because there are probably things that are not getting done or they want to do.

In John 21 Jesus asked Peter three times. "Do you love me?" and he answered saying "Yes Lord, You know that I do." I have asked myself many times in my Christian walk if I loved Jesus and if so, what do I do to demonstrate that love.

I know that my wife loves it when I say that I love her, but I also know that it is very important to her that, I talk to her during the day, that I help her around the house, that I take her out on a date, that I remember her birthday and similar such things. My guess is that Jesus, my Lord and Savior, the one who died on the Cross for me, would like to see me "do" things to demonstrate my love to him.

So what do I do? Well I do the same thing I do to keep things from creeping into my life so that it does not take time away from my wife and I. I let go of things that are "less important" so that I have time available for the Lord.

One verse that comes to mind is 1 John 2:15, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him". So how do I know if I "love" something in the world? The same way my wife knows that I love her. I spend time with her. Now I know that saying this rises the objection, "well I don't love it, I just like it." To me like is just a "lower" version of love. "Love" should get more time then "like" but they both demonstrate our interest in something. The rest of that verse is self explanitory, if we allow it to be.

If you are too busy to spend time in God's Word then you are "too busy". Eliminate something and put God and His Word back into your life. Now that does not mean that you just "drop" things out of your life. You might have to "plan" things a bit and "ease" off things with the goal of putting time with God back in your schedule. This is particularly hard for Christians who are doing all kinds of good things. It is said that "bad" is not the enemy of "best", "good" is. Why? because "good" works its way into our lives and takes up all our time so that the "best", which in this case is spending time with God and His Word, does not get any time.

Request:
That God would give me wisdom about things that I want in my life.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, you died for us and you love us so much. Thank you for loving us and help us Holy Spirit of God to have the discernment what to keep in our lives, like time with you and God's Word, and what to eliminate out of our lives, like things of the world. In Your Name, Amen