“Do you love me more than these?” John 21:15
I heard a wonderful testimony recently that I would like to share with you. So many times we can think that God is a stern judge just looking for any opportunity to point out the sin in our lives, to shame us or blame us for the bad habits, sins and addictions we have. The world, the flesh and the devil all try to paint a picture of a disapproving God who wants to condemn us, rather than the wonderful Heavenly Father who wants to bless us and spend time with us.
The man in this story was addicted to several substances, but he came to know how much God really loved him and he became a Christian. He overcame every addiction, except one – cigarettes. Nothing could shift this addiction. He knew it was very bad for his health, that it was an enormous waste of money that he couldn’t afford, and he knew that many Christians considered it to be sinful, but no matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t break the habit.
His favourite smoke of the day, was his early morning one. He would stand at his back door, looking out over the garden enjoying his smoke. One morning as he was smoking, he felt the Holy Spirit speak to his heart. He heard something like this – “at this moment you love and enjoy your cigarettes more than you love and enjoy me”. He was pierced to the heart as he realised that this was true. He stubbed out his cigarette and knew that he would never smoke again, and he hasn’t.
We are loved with a passionate and all-consuming love, by the God who has saved us from the penalty of our sins and has made a way for us to have a deep and intimate relationship with Himself that will last for all eternity. God is totally devoted to us, and wants the same devotion from us.
When a young couple are deeply in love and get married, they are completely devoted to one another. They will send texts with love heart emojis, leave tender voice messages and little love notes for the other to find. They will find ways to complete their work as soon as possible so that they will have more time at home with their beloved, and look forward to and plan for days out, romantic breaks and holidays together. But over time that devotion can wane. Some men and women become so devoted to their work that they end up spending less and less time with their spouse and children. Others can put their social life, time with friends, sports activities etc., first, and it eventually leads to the family feeling that the person loves and enjoys these activities more than them.
There is nothing wrong with enjoying our job and working hard at it. There is nothing wrong with socialising and keeping fit either. But there is something wrong when we get more pleasure out of these things than we do out of time spent with our family and loved ones.
It is the same with our relationship with God. We all have work, family, and social responsibilities that we must attend to and can enjoy, but if that fills up our time and our energy to the extent that there is no time left for loving fellowship and enjoyment of God then we need to reconsider our priorities.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism tells us that,
Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.
If time with God is just another item on our to-do list, another responsibility that we have to attend to, then we’ve misunderstood our Christian calling and the reason for our salvation. God saved us because He’s devoted to us. He loves us to the uttermost and He wants relationship with us. When we set ourselves to glorify Him in our lives, then we will truly enjoy Him, and the more we enjoy Him the more time we will want to spend with Him and the more glory we will give to Him.
Time is precious. It slips through our fingers so quickly and we can never get any of it back again. We can waste it on unhealthy habits, personal ambition, and self-indulgence, or we can spend those precious free moments of our day taking the time to glorify and enjoy time with the lover of our souls.
