Managing spirituality with busy schedule either at work, business place or school is a challenge faced by many Christians. At one side, there is the desire to fellowship with God at all times. They are thirsty for God’s word and for prayers. At the other hand, there is a huge demand that life placed on us. In as much as we have this spiritual hunger, we also have obligation to sustain our existence on earth because life is designed in such a way that the resources you have will determines what you will get out of it.
The scripture admonishes that we should pray without ceasing. We should give thanks at all times; we should seek God with all our might, soul and spirit. We are to acknowledge God in all we do. Yet are we saying we shouldn’t go to work because we want to sustain our spirituality? If that is the case then many Christians will have a miserable life; poverty will be a companion (even the bible says he that do not work should not eat).
Are we saying we shouldn’t pursue the highest achievement in our career because we want to pursue after God? NO, God also want us to excel in all we do. He’s mind towards us is to be the head and not the tail. As a matter of fact, God has pleasure in our achievement because it will bring Him glory. Failure to neglect your pursuit of excellence and achievement in your career will open door to mediocre.
Pastor, are you now saying we should neglect our spiritual life because of career pursuit? NO, I am saying you must learn to balance your spiritual life with your career. As a matter of fact, your spiritual life must come forst before your physical life because life itself is spiritual. The spiritual realm controls the physical realm. The invisible world has much influence on the physical. You must understand that whtever will happen in the physical realm must have taking place and settled in the spiritual. Therefore, you must be spiritually balanced. When you are making your tight schedule as excuse for not attending church services and not spending time with God in prayer, your colleagues still find time to see their spiritualist. Yet you are there lamenting things are not working well.
Secondly, as important is your body to you, your soul is much more important than that. All the strategies of the devil, all his attacks, harassment and molestation are targeted mainly at your soul. He may attack your physical bodies with sick, your business and family but his main aim is to get you to lose the faith in the faithfulness of God and deny Him and ensures you soul rot in hell (this is the main purpose of devil’s attack on your life, don’t be deceived). As you can see, you need to guard and guide your soul and the quality of your spirituality can determine how well you do that.
Therefore, you must balance the two because if care is not taking, life will demand more from you and it will suck out your spiritual life. You need to learn and master how to balance the two; where you will be up and doing at work/school yet you are still a fire brand Christian.
Five things to do
1. Make God your priority:
let this be settled in your mind, until you see God as the all in all, you won’t go extra miles to create time for Him. As a Christian, your spirituality depends solely on God. Without God, we are as useless spiritual as being dead physically. Settle your mind to make God the most valuable person in your life (not by lip service but by action). Make him your no.1 lover, seek Him, the way you seek the attention of your lover. If majority of us are asked to choose between God and our life, family and career; we will all chorus God. But our choice in the face of circumstance will be different. Although you may not directly choose your life or family over God but your actions and what you are able to compromise or stand for will determine your choice. But like Joshua, as for me and my family we will serve the Lord.
2. Be determined to create time for God:
no matter how busy we are at work or school, we all know how to keep tab with our loved ones. I think the best way to bring out the beauty of our relationship with God is to see Him as a lover. Treat and behold Him as your lover. Create time to fellowship and commune with Him, you may have meeting/lecture stated for 12 hours yet there will be breaks in between. Instead of wasting the 15 minutes by walking up and down, gisting and sitting without doing nothing, you can maximize the time to fellowship with your lover. You can do this even as you take launch or tea break.
3. Go extra mile:
have you ever notice how busy the politician are? Yet all of them create time to consult their ‘spiritualist’ (mostly at night). Even if you are as busy as the politician, you should also create time to meet with God (The head of all spirits). If you really want to balance your spiritual life and career you must learn to go the extra mile to fellowship with God. As a matter of fact, you need to keep night prayers (you can start once a week and it can even be for like 20 minutes). Bear in mind it’s not necessary for you to start by 12 am, you can sleep till 2 or 3 am and prayer, just be consistent.
4. Take God with you to work/school:
God is not our dog that we left at home, god is the reason we live. Wherever you go, take God with you. Have the consciousness of God in your mind. While you work, play worship songs, audio messages or audio bible. I personally make use of this and I also have a habit of saying words of prayer at intervals as I work. Prayer as little as ‘thank You Jesus’ , ‘glory to God’ or ‘God have mercy on me’ as busy as I may be. This will help create God’s consciousness in us as we work.
5. Always attribute the achievement in your career to God:
Let this be in you, no matter what you are able to achieve, no matter the height you reach in your career, it is not solely by your power. You are assisted spiritually. You are not the only diligent worker nor you are the only one who is fit for the promotion but there is a supernatural force behind your upliftment above your mate. You may be smart and intelligent but that doesn’t guarantee success in life. Many intelligent people don’t even have the grace to go to school. Many smart people are on the street looking for jobs. Always give God the glory for any achievement, doing this will help you to be conscious of the fact that God is the one directing your life. And it will drive you to seek Him more in order to get more result.
6. Turn your weekends to personal retreat:
You may be busy doing the week but some weekends will surely be free for you. Turn that Friday night, turn the Saturday to a day with your Maker. Be in your room or go to a quiet place and spend with Him. Spending 3 hours with Him every weekend is not too much (don’t forget you can start small).
Thanks for reading…please share with friends.
culled from Hearts on Fire By Oladimeji Olayinka Joseph