And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. Mark 12:30
When my delight and desire for the Lord is not as great as my desire for someone or something else, I need revival.
Have you ever been to a basketball game that came down to the final few seconds? There is a tremendous energy in the gym, and people are yelling at the top of their lungs for their team. I’ve been to games where I lost my voice from cheering so loudly, and perhaps you have, too. It is easy to get excited about sports because it is something we are interested in; it is something that moves us to action. The sad thing is that many Christians get more excited about sports than they do about the things of God. They come into church on Sunday half awake and very unenthused about being dragged there. When you can get louder and more energized at a sporting event than you can when singing the hymns about Jesus Christ, then something is out of line. That basketball game did not die to save your soul. That basketball game does not give you breath. That basketball game has nothing to do with the good life that you live. Jesus Christ has everything to do with those things, and He deserves our praise and excitement.
Nothing – not sports, not sleep, not a girlfriend, not even food – is so important that it should cut into our devotional time with our Lord. Often we get so busy trying to please those around us that we neglect to please God in the process. He gets ignored because our delight for Him and our desire for a relationship with Him is not as strong as it ought to be. Ask yourself the questions, “Do I love God more than I did yesterday, and is my relationship with Him better than it ever has been?” If you cannot answer “yes” to those questions then you are backslidden and you need revival. You see, your life cannot just rest in a neutral zone. You are either moving forward for God, or you are moving backward.
To the young people, perhaps you don’t know exactly what God’s will is for your life. Do you desire to be called into the ministry? God certainly does not call everyone into the ministry, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a doctor, lawyer, plumber, electrician, or anything else if that is what God calls you to be. But, though a heart that is warm toward the things of God may not be called into the ministry, it wants to be. We must realize that in the end, God could take away all the things that excite us more than His things because He gave them to us in the first place. Make sure your desire is toward the things of God.
Read also: Mark 12:28-34
Quote of the day: "If you want to have a heart for God, you must let God have your heart.”