I am consistently amazed at how easy it is for me to drift from intimacy with God, not because of sin or neglect or hardness of heart, but from sheer busyness. Sometime I get so focused on what I am supposed to be accomplishing that I simply forget to abide in Christ in the midst of it all. It gets crowded out of my mind because of everything else I am trying to get done. This even happens, ironically, in ministry! But of course, what am I really accomplishing if I’m not abiding in Christ? Jesus said, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me” (John 15:4).
A prayer I’ve been praying lately in the mornings: “Lord, let me be more focused on being today than doing.” In one sense, praying that prayer can make me less productive. But in the things that really matter, in what makes for true ministry, I think it makes for a far more productive day.
