Overwhelmed with Life?

Overwhelmed with Life?

"You were enriched in everything by Him." 1 Corinthians 1:5

I have heard this statement from at least a dozen people today (Wednesday) both on the phone and in emails. I am not throwing anyone under the bus by name, but I think it is the cry of so many of us right now ... "I am overwhelmed with life ..."

Overwhelmed with the news. Just listening to the news wears me out. Think of all the shootings in just the past several weeks. We have heard now of at least 15 suicides in the Keswick circle of friends and acquaintances. This morning I read about the four people shot at a Catholic Retreat Center in California.

Overwhelmed with too much to do. I don't know about you, but I feel like my "to do" list gets longer and I get less done each day. There are phone calls, emails, meetings, letters, faxes. There are people who demand answers to questions, advice on all sorts of issues, people seeking help. Add to that the tugs and pulls we all face with dealing with stuff outside of the job/ministry. Vacation seems like a great solution -- until preparing to leave and then facing the pile upon your return.

Overwhelmed by what we want to accomplish and can't. At least five of my closest friends shared today that they are struggling with having a consistent daily time with the Lord. The urgent seems to take precedent over the important. Fatigue is constant. And then there is the guilt associated with not doing the important.

Sound like your life? How do we correct this epidemic problem? I think it is time to step back and think about what is most important. We have talked about this over and over -- our relationship with Jesus needs to be a number one priority. I remember one of Oswald Chambers devotionals reading this: "My priority needs to be Jesus first, Jesus second, Jesus third."

If we are going to survive this thing called life, we have to be intentional about our personal quiet time. The purpose of this daily time is not to check it off your to-do list. It isn't intended to be done legalistically with the fear that God will punish us for not having it. It is not intended to appease God so that He won't test and try us.

The purpose of this daily time is for fellowship, for intimacy, for refreshment. It is a time for you and I to be "enriched in everything by Him!"

Hey -- do you make a dental appointment and miss it? Do you make an appointment to play racquet ball and miss it? Think about the important meetings you schedule on your calendar. Do you miss the things you really want to do?

Then maybe you need to rethink, retool, recommit -- put Jesus on your calendar first thing each day. Make him your FIRST appointment of the day. Don't block out an hour if you are only able to do 15 minutes. For some of us 15 minutes consistently is better than saying we are going to give him one hour and never doing it.

By the way ... if Jesus thought it was important enough for Him to spend time each day with His Father -- should it not be a number one priority for us? Hmmmmmm .... Maybe we would be less overwhelmed if we allowed HIM to enrich us vs. all the other stuff that has done the job! Think about it. -- Bill Welte is President and CEO of America's KESWICK

God's WORD for YOU: Proverbs 9; 1 Samuel 13-14; Luke 10:1-24

Great Quote: The tragedy is that many of us are living...desperate Christian life. Sunday comes and we get some strength, and then we lose some on Monday; a good deal is gone by Tuesday and we wonder whether we have anything left. On Wednesday it has all gone and then we exist. Or perhaps refreshment comes in some other way, some meeting we attend, some friends we meet...Now that is the old order of things, that is not the new. So our Lord goes on to put it like this: 'Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life' (verses 13-14). He puts a well within us. We are not always drawing from somewhere outside. The well, the spring, goes on springing up from within into everlasting life. Martyn Lloyd-Jones