Tonight was a night that was set aside for me to get together with one of my guy friends and hang out. I love those nights. Two guys, talking about guy stuff, doing guy stuff, and eating. I don’t think you can really call anything a “guy night” if there is not food. I wasn’t expecting the quality and the amount of food provided when I arrived. I was figuring a drink and some chips or something; what I got was a drink, some chips, and a couple of delicious burgers. Let me tell you…this friend of mine makes some incredible burgers. He puts a secret ingredient in them that makes these things phenomenal. Being that this is a public blog, I won’t name the secret ingredient. But for the right price…
Anyway, we ate our burgers—I’m sorry, devoured our burgers—and ate our chips. Then we decided to bring the bag of chips to the room in which we were hanging out. Big mistake. There is something about having an open bag of chips in a room with a couple of guys. They are going to disappear at a rapid rate (these were Cheddar and Sour Cream, which always go quick when I’m around). And it doesn’t really matter how full you are either. You just continue to dig your hand into that bag until you have gotten them all. I think it’s just a subconscious habit when there’s an open bag of thinly-sliced, fried potatoes.
And that got me thinking…we don’t naturally have that subconscious habit when it comes to reading the Bible. It’s unfortunate how hard it is to crack open the Bible and read it. It becomes a task—a duty. We don’t read it because we want to; we read it because we feel we should, or we have to read it for a Bible Study or a class…if at all.
We need to continually pray for a hunger for the Word—it doesn’t come naturally. I wish it were. How great it would be to just naturally desire to be in the Bible and hunger for the Lord’s teaching through His Word. But, for most of us, we’d rather be filling our stomachs than filling our hearts and minds.
As you’ve probably noticed from my blogs, I like to eat. There’s nothing wrong with eating…most of us have to eat on a daily basis. But there is something wrong with eating if it gets in the way of your relationship with the Lord. I don’t think that it gets in the way for me, but I know that there are times that I don’t hunger and thirst for the Word as much as I do food. I know there are times that I enjoy eating more than I enjoy reading the Bible.
What is it in your life that you enjoy more than being with the Lord? Whatever it is…it’s an idol. You need to get rid of it to realign your priorities and values. If it’s television, unplug it; if it’s hanging out with friends, ground yourself; if it’s food, go on an extended fast (please contact me before going on an extended fast). The Lord should come first in your life.
Eliminating the idol—even for just a short time—can do wonders for your relationship with Christ. Not only are you removing something that is “more important” to you, allowing your relationship to move up in priority…but you are also freeing up time to be with the Lord.
Seek the Lord; find your idol…and eliminate it.
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