If you're new to the blog and/or this series, Undistracted Devotion, I recommend you begin with the series introduction by going HERE. This will help frame the context of the material to come and set the foundation for moving forward with the intended background thoughts and scriptures in mind.
As the final installment in this series, we're going to take on a challenging topic and that is how our family and other close relationships can be a hindrance to our devotion to Christ if we're not very careful and intentional about how much influence we allow them to have upon us. Most of us would emphasize the importance in everyday life of family and people we care about, but I wonder if we truly give conscious thought to whether or not we've allowed these relationships to somewhat usurp the preeminence of Christ in our lives and placed them on the throne of our heart. This may sound rough and uncomfortable, but let's begin by considering some of Jesus' own words recorded in scripture.
Matthew 10:37-39 “The one who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and the one who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And the one who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. The one who has found his life will lose it, and the one who has lost his life on My account will find it."
Matthew 19:29 “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms on account of My name, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.”
Luke 14:26-27 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”
It seem's pretty clear that THE LORD WILL ACCEPT SECOND PLACE TO NO ONE AND NOTHING. As Christ works in our lives, He continues to call us out of and away from all things that would keep us distracted and divided from Him.
In his book "The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer writes “There can be no doubt that this possessive clinging to things is one of the most harmful habits in the life. Because it is so natural, it is rarely recognized for the evil that it is; but its out workings are tragic. We are often hindered from giving up our treasures to the Lord out of fear for their safety; this is especially true when those treasures are loved relatives and friends. But we need have no such fears. Our Lord came not to destroy but to save. Everything is safe which we commit to Him, and nothing is really safe which is not so committed. Our gifts and talents should also be turned over to Him. They should be recognized for what they are, God’s loan to us, and should never be considered in any sense our own. We have no more right to claim credit for special abilities than for blue eyes or strong muscles. For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive?”
Perhaps one of the earliest examples we see in scripture is God's interaction with Abraham with regards to the child of promise, Isaac. In the book of James we are presented with this statement: “Was our father Abraham not justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, 'And Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,' and he was called a friend of God.” (2:21-23 ). God's challenge to Abraham is to be willing to sacrifice his son, the one promised by God and the one on whom Abraham's favor rested. Did Abraham wrestle with this decision? Did he struggle to come to the point where he would willingly and actively take part in the death of his son in order to be obedient to God? Perhaps there was a breaking that God needed to do in Abraham's heart so that his devotion to God would be unchallenged by anything else in his life. Again, the words of A.W. Tozer put this into an understandable perspective. Tozer writes:
"Abraham was old when Isaac was born, old enough indeed to have been his grandfather, and the child became at once the delight of his heart. From that moment when he first stooped to take the tiny form in his arms, he was an eager love slave of his son. God went out of His way to comment on the strength of this affection. And it is not hard to understand. The baby represented everything sacred to his father’s heart: the promises of God, the covenants, the hopes of the years, and the long messianic dream. As he watched him grow from babyhood to young manhood, the heart of the old man was knit closer and closer with the life of his son, until at last the relationship bordered upon the perilous. It was then that God stepped in to save both father and son from the consequences of an uncleansed love. Take now your son, said God to Abraham, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you. The sacred writer spares us a closeup of the agony that night on the slopes near Beersheba when the aged man had it out with his God, but respectful imagination may view in awe the bent form and convulsive wrestling alone under the stars…..How could he slay the lad? Even if he could get the consent of his wounded and protesting heart, how could he reconcile the act with the promise: For through Isaac your descendants shall be named?... God let the suffering old man go through with it up to the point where He knew there would be no retreat, and then forbade him to lay a hand upon the boy. To the wondering patriarch He now says in effect, “It’s all right, Abraham. I never intended that you should actually slay the lad. I only wanted to remove him from the temple of your heart that I might reign unchallenged there. I wanted to correct the perversion that existed in your love. Now you may have the boy, sound and well. Take him and go back to your tent. Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me.”……. Now he was a man wholly surrendered, a man utterly obedient, a man who possessed nothing. He had concentrated his all in the person of his dear son, and God had taken it from him.” (from The Pursuit of God, emphasis mine)
So we must consider these questions:
1) Who or what sits on the throne of our heart?
2) Who or what is the driving focus of our day-to-day activities?
3) Who or what do we cling to for security and purpose? And dies it distract us from being about the Lord's business?
Tozer writes elsewhere in The Pursuit of God that “The way to deeper knowledge of God is through the lonely valleys of soul poverty and giving up of all things. The blessed ones who possess the kingdom are they who have repudiated every external thing and have rooted from their hearts all sense of possessing….These blessed poor are no longer slaves to the tyranny of things. They have broken the yoke of the oppressor; and this they have done not by fighting but by surrendering. Though free from all sense of possessing, they yet possess all things. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Let's just think about this for a moment - the tyranny of things. What are things or people/relationships that are actually the controlling and motivating factors for how we live? Are these things crowding out Christ from His supremacy in our life so that we push Him to the margins and the influence from the indwelling Holy Spirit becomes more of an afterthought vs. our first thought?
As we conclude this series, here are some closing words.
The disciple and apostle Peter writes “The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the multifaceted grace of God. Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking actual words of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
When we are mindful of our life in the shared community of being part of a local church fellowship or ekklesia, we should continually ask ourselves this question: Is Jesus Christ first in the way that we live in fellowship with one another?
Jesus will draw men and women to Himself as He is appropriately manifested by a unified body of believers. We may recognize that in our fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ that we have a need and desire for greater and deeper unity. It's vital to understand that we can only offer to one another that which we have surrendered to the Lord.
Are we free from the concerns of this world?
Are our interests divided or are we centered on Christ?
Are we devoted to the Lord without distraction from external influences?
We must continually live according to the reality of having severed our allegiance to the fallen world system so that Jesus Christ has first place in our lives, in order that He may build us together into an authentic and visible expression of Himself and thereby continue His work of manifesting the reality of the kingdom of God.
Jesus says ‘follow me”. He paves the way and all we must do is what we see Him do. It’s simple but not easy.
May Jesus Christ never give us rest from the penetrating illumination of His gaze upon our souls. May it be that we are always willing to give our Lord more and more territory to go deeper into our lives so that the throne of our heart is reserved for Him and Him alone. May it be that almighty God never ceases to form us more into the image of His Son. May we live undistracted lives that keep Jesus Christ first, above all other things.
*If you'd like to listen to the original message delivered that this blog series is based on, please feel free to do so below. The message is just under an hour long.
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