Do not tell someone that they are spending too much time focusing on God. At what point does someone decide that they have spent too much time with the Lord? How many hours a week or a day is too much? The answer is it is impossible to spend too much time with the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 says: Pray without ceasing. And Jesus prayed frequently when He was on earth. How much more do we need to pray and lean into God ourselves if even Jesus did?
Colossians 3:1-4: If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
I have a friend who suggested to me one time that some people “are too Heavenly-minded to be any Earthly good.” I thought about this and I wondered if it is possible for Christians to be too Heavenly minded to be any Earthly good? Incredibly, I did not need to ponder too long, because the next day I came across the editor‟s comment in my Bible in Isaiah which addressed this very issue. The commentary says that the exact opposite is true:
Matthew 6:19-21: Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Matthew 6:11: Give us this day our DAILY bread.
People think that what has been written in the Bible in the past does not have messages that hold true for our lives today. One such message repeated in the Bible is the message about living in the moment today and not beating yourself up over the past and not trying to plan and live in the future. The Bible says that Christ explains that it is arrogant and evil to say you are going somewhere in the future to make a profit when only God really knows what the next hour holds.
One of the reasons this is so wrong to God is that we have a tendency to want to idolize our careers, our 401Ks, our houses, our retirement plans, our plans for the future, and our possessions over our value for God. We put stock in things dangerously as our security when only God is truly our security. The danger of this is we ourselves are not God and we cannot know the future. When we try to plan and look to our own plans, then things fall apart because the economy fails us, our company fails us, or our position is eliminated, and that is when we meet failure head on. We have to come to the end of ourselves and then we finally are willing to humble ourselves before God, turn in our (future planning) weapons, and surrender to Him.
Once we drop our own plans and give them over to Christ and we say to Him that we want His plans for our life and not ours—then Jesus can put His plans for our life into action. Then the most amazing thing can happen. We step aside from our arrogance and our view that we know best and then we can stand back and let God move into action on our behalf. Then we can see God shape our lives into the plans He has for us which is always going to be much bigger and better than what we can plan for ourselves, if only we can let go and let God take over.
Another problem with not submitting our need to depend on ourselves and not God’s plans for us is that we do not know the future. In addition, the dilemma of not knowing the future can cause us to worry needlessly and to become obsessed about preparing for a future we cannot predict. This creates greed, workaholics, hording money and possessions, and unwarranted worry. This emphasis we place in our own plans and not God’s plans, causes us to spend time on things we think will bring us security instead of focusing on spending time with God. Sadly, we miss the prime directive for our very existence and that is to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength. How can we do this when we are trapped in generating security for ourselves for a future we know nothing about?
One of the greatest problems with the lukewarm church (run by religious spirits) is the downplaying of the supernatural side to God. People rule out the God of the Bible who is proven to be over and over supernatural–opening doors and closing them for people at every turn. Of course, Satan does not want the church to focus on such things, causing people to cling to their own will for fear that by pursuing God’s plans things might spiral out of control, when the opposite is true and without submitting to the Lord Jesus and the Will of the Father, the human life will spiral out of control.
Here are some verses that speak on the subject of living for today and not worrying about tomorrow:
Matthew 6:34: Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Luke 12:22-26: And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?
Luke 12:16-21: And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
