When it comes to putting something before God, I'm always reminded about what Jesus says in his famous Sermon on the Mount:
"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."
-Matthew 6:24-25 (NIV)
In the context of this passage, not serving money is a similar to the idea of storing up treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21). It doesn't make sense that Jesus would only want us to not serve money (see Luke 14:33), so insert anything that could be idolized or anything that you would make a bigger priority in place of money. For me it looks something like this:
"Travis cannot serve both God and grades."
I'm not trying to change the scripture, I'm just doing my best to apply it to my life today. You might say, "well Travis. Just because I want good grades doesn't mean that I'm mastered by them." True, but let me ask you this. If God asked you to get bad grades to glorify him would you be willing to do it?
Now what I am NOT saying is that God wants you to get bad grades. Paul says otherwise in his letter to the Church in Colossi:
"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not men."
-Colossians 3:23 (NIV)
We are to glorify God with our lives, including our grades. We should strive to honor God with our grades, but that's the only thing we should do. Even if I say that I'm studying for God, it can very easily turn into "I'm studying so I can get a good grade and impress my parents, impress my friends, and feel good about myself." In and of themselves, none of those things are bad. But notice how all of those motivations are centered around me. That's when it gets dangerous. Whenever the focus turns from glorifying God to glorifying ourselves, you best check yourself before you wreck yourself.
So as we endure the finals this semester, let's make sure that our lives stay focused on God and not anything else. God bless and good luck on all of your finals!
Yeah bro. Great things to think about for sure. I have had many tough times at the beginning of the semester when I needed find a healthy balance between being devoted to my schoolwork and devoted to God. I think there are a couple things that are important: Discipline in studying, proper motivations (as you discussed), correct priorities, and trust and reliance on God. There are more too, but these are essential to me.
ReplyDeleteDiscipline in schoolwork is important because I can tell myself I don't have enough time to get with God, read my bible, pray, or w/e. The reality is that I waste a great amount of time in my day and proper disciple will help me to use my time in a way that truly glorifies God. I spend a lot of time managing my money and under the principle that my money is not my own, because I am not my own. Thus I must be a good steward of the money God has given me. In the same way, we must be good stewards of the time God has given us. So discipline is important in the use of our time. If we use our time effectively we find that we do have time to spend with God. We think, "Oh I need to do this and this first, then I'll spend time with God." But the reality is more and more stuff will come up in our day, and if we aren't willing to set that stuff aside in the beginning of our day, what's the chance that we will change our minds later in the day?
This is kinda where proper priorities comes in. If we have the right priorities, we will recognize that God needs to not only be first in our hearts, but first in our actions.
Your biblical perspective is great. I can't wait to see everyone (including you) again soon. Hopefully I'll come during the summer. I'll be at the internship in Atl in late May, we'll see after that.