Developing Routine in Your Life

For families with school aged children, this week marks the return to normality…or at least routine. Even though the thermometer says that it’s still summer, for all intents and purposes summer and its relaxed (?) schedule are over. Life will go back to its rhythm and schedule. Which isn’t to say that it won’t be busy or hectic. But vacation and leisure are put on hold for a while and our minds turn back to our work and responsibilities.

Routine has become my friend. In fact, without it, I would be less secure and more stressed. I would accomplish less. I would have less discretionary time. I would have more unfinished projects (than I already have!). Routine is a tool I use to help me order my life and fulfill the plan God has given me. Routine even allows me to see the Lord’s goodness. Ecclesiastes 3:1 NKJV To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: Since God designs and orders life with appropriate cycles and changes, it is desirable that I will imitate Him in bringing order to the cycles of my life.

Spiritual routines can significantly impact your life. But to have any kind of routine, you must first make a few considered judgments…decisions you’ve made ahead of time. First, decide that the Lord Jesus deserves the first and best part of everything you have: time, talent, treasure, intellect, and emotion. And give it to Him. Second, decide that the long term and the eternal will not be sacrificed on the altar of the immediate and the urgent. Third, decide that the Lord’s Day, Sunday, belongs to the Lord. Fourth, decide that since the Lord Jesus thought the church was important enough to die for, you will love it and make it one of the top priorities of your life. And fifth, decide that your family (your spouse and children if you’re married, your parents and siblings if you’re single) takes priority over every other earthly relationship.

With those considered judgments made, you can settle into helpful spiritual routines.
1. Spend time with the Lord at a certain time every day.
2. Spend time with your family every day.
3. Spend time with your family in God’s Word and prayer every day.
4. Spend Sundays in the Lord’s House.
5. Invest your life in the work of the Word.
6. Invest in being equipped for your ministry by your pastor and other spiritual leaders in your church.
7. Invest the Lord’s tithe and your offerings in the work of your church.
8. Invest your time in attending and serving in the ministries of your church.

Spiritual routine leads to steady progress in the spiritual life. As you expose yourself to the Lord’s Word and His Work on a regular basis, He will change you and grow you. And what could be better than becoming what God meant for you to be?

The Bigness of God

While catching up on my blog reading today, I ran across a post by Bill Bixby. He had an extended quote by Thabiti Anayabwile. Following the link, I read the entire article. What a blessing! What a comfort! What a challenge! For your convenience, here is an extended quote:

Right now, the Cayman Islands are preparing for what could be a category-5 hurricane, Dean. Men are at my house boarding up windows and securing the place.

It's clear to me that when moments like the Minneapolis bridge collapse happen, or category 5 hurricanes come your way, you need to have a rock-ribbed theology featuring the massive and awesome God of the Bible, the God who created the worlds with a word and His Son who rebuked the winds with a word. The same God who rules even over the evil causes of Satan and his minions, and the feeble efforts of men to thwart Him. The Bible's picture of God is that nothing is beyond his control, not even the places where we live (Acts 17:24-26). And "God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us" (Acts 17:27).

Seems to me that Piper's post is an elaborate statement of Acts 17:27.

Boyd asks, "Where are God's warnings?" I'm left wondering what Pastor Boyd is preaching Sunday to Sunday. Are we not to be watchmen signaling the dangers from the pulpits across the world? And has not the Lord written in the creation itself and on the conscience of all men indicators and warnings that He exists and He is to be worshipped? (Rom. 1:18-32, for example). "So that men are without excuse."

I have the task tomorrow morning, the privilege really, of telling people tomorrow morning how they should think about their lives right now. And it won't be much of a stretch, by God's grace, because we'll be meditating on what we've been meditating on for the entire year of my service here.

God is big, very big. God is glorious and awesome, far more powerful than hurricanes. Life is precious, preciously short. It's short because we are sinners and we sin. Against that sin and sinners, the big, glorious, and awesome God pledges eternal wrath. We won't escape that wrath to come unless we turn from sin to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is the exact representation of God's being and the radiance of His glory, who died to atone for the sins of His people, and through whom believers live eternally. Now, repent and believe and be saved. Flee the allurements of this world with its vain philosophy and purchase the Pearl of Great Price, the Prince of Peace, and set your affections on Christ who rules at the Father's right hand.

Tomorrow, I suspect my task will perhaps be easier than it has been to this point. Men who all their lives have been held in bondage to fear of death will be looking squarely at that fear and the reality of death. I can "protect" God's reputation by saying it's not really His fault; men and fallen angels messed up the world. That's true, but only partially true.

God still rules. I can tell the people that the way men messed the world up through sin provoked God to wrath; the disasters of the world are really only one aspect of the outworking of His holy judgment, and not even the infinite outworking. Though God is not in the hurricane, listen for His voice. Listen for His call to repent. And that's the good news to the lost among us tomorrow.

The even better news to the found is God has not purchased your life with the precious blood of His Son in order to waste it! Whether we perish or survive in this hurricane, God will eternally be glorified. Christ has conquered death and the grave, and He will raise us up victorious. Now let goods and kindred go, this moral life also. There is a far superior one awaiting.