First God...

It's so easy to let anything and everything come before God in life. "I want to spend more time reading the Bible, but I'm so busy. First, I need to take care of...." "I'd like to pray more; I need to pray more, but I've just got so much going on right now. First let me...." And the list goes on. Spending time in God's presence, and on disciplines like Scripture reading, too frequently fall to the wayside of the freeways of our lives.

Our spirits are so hungry. I feel it in myself and see it everyday in the lives of others. We constantly try to fill the space inside of us, the place of our need for love, acceptance, fulfillment, and rest. We try to fill it with work and"purpose," relationships of love or family, activity after activity after activity, and on and on it goes. The time of our lives passes while we march on a treadmill - constantly walking, constantly seeking, but never going anywhere, or getting anywhere. The destination we seek, the fulfillment of these most basic needs, is found in only one place: the presence of God. He gives us this invitation in Isaiah 55:1-3a:

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.

He alone is our portion. He alone is our path. He is the one we long for, but most of the time we don't realize it. Walking in the conscious presence of God, faithful to His ways, fulfills our desires. He wasn't kidding when He said, "I have come to give you life, and give it to the full." (John 10:10, NIV). In reality, He is our destination. In him, we step off the treadmill to walk on an actual path that gives our lives meaning. Out of His filling, we have a full stock of love to give to others, and find our true purpose in life:

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? (Luke 9:23-25)

Accepting His invitation, we then prove true "...the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" (Acts 20:35) Let's stop this endless search for meaning. We find our lives in Him. Cast everything else aside to open a wide space for Him in life. First, before all else, let Him fill you. Then go, and really live!