I finished another trip to Kroger and was returning to my car when this pickup truck pulled in and I noticed the Alabama tag on the front (not the state, but that football team).
This driver got out and it happened to be a church member and we greeted each other and started talking football. I noticed this crimson elephant decal with the #16 on it, and I innocently asked, “Who’s number 16?” thinking it was his favorite player.
He looked at me kind of funny, sort of like I was from Milledgeville. (Actually, I am from Milledgeville – the town, not the asylum) and said, “That’s how many national championships we’ve won! How many have y’all won?”
I said, “One, in 1980!” These Alabama people like to rub it in, don’t they?
We know now, after watching the most exciting national championship game played to date, that the crimson elephant magnet on the back of his truck still reads “16!”
Just before the SEC championship game, the national media was writing and talking about the fact that Alabama could still make the playoffs for the national championship even if they lost the SEC championship game. A reporter asked Nick Saban if the Alabama players would be fired up enough about this game to be competitive, or was this game not that significant to them.
Saban ranted and said, “It’s never OK to lose a game.”
Apply that idea to our spiritual life. It’s never OK to let up, to become complacent or grow slack spiritually. We must strive every day to grow closer to Jesus and deeper in our faith.
Too often, we coast, or run on empty. I talked to a car salesman one time who boasted that he drove a Honda all the way from Atlanta to Columbus with the gas light on. Theoretically, we can run about 65 miles when the gas light comes on in a Honda Civic, but I don’t want to test that calculation.
How many of us try running on near empty in our spiritual lives? How is that working for us?
Spiritual growth starts with Bible intake and prayer in a time of daily personal worship. One of the greatest commitments we could make is giving God the first part of our day and spending time in prayer and Bible reading.
One Business to Business Lunch speaker called this the “Daily Tune in Time” (TNT). We often refer to it as our quiet time.
Sit down with God and ask Him to help you hear from Him. Then read God’s Word. I usually start with Proverbs, reading the chapter that corresponds with that day. Today I read Proverbs 25. Then I read a passage from the Old Testament and another from the New Testament.
Taking in God’s Word every day is critical to our spiritual health.
Donald Whitney wrote, “No spiritual discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word. Nothing can substitute for it.” (Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, pp. 28-29).
Then I read a couple of inspirational devotionals, such as My Upmost for His Highest and Joe Stowell’s devotional for the day from www.getmorestrength.com.
Then I pray and pause to listen. For some people this “quiet time” is 15 minutes. For others it’s an hour. It may be different every day, but we should be careful not to rush through it.
Praying is hard work, but it’s worth the effort. Some people write out their prayers in a journal so they can keep up with God’s blessings and answered prayer. Writing also keeps them focused.
God loves to meet us in the morning. John Waters told about a man who was battling dementia. He couldn’t remember what day it was, or his grandchildren’s names, or a host of other details. Yet, every Saturday, when his family drove up to spend time with him, he was sitting on the front porch waiting for their arrival.
One day, his son asked, “Dad, you can’t remember many things. How do you know that today is the day we’re coming? How do you remember to come out here and wait on us?”
The dad replied, “I come out here and wait every morning.”
Every morning, God is waiting for us to join Him. Do we leave God hanging or do we consistently start our day with Him?
David L. Chancey is pastor, McDonough Road Baptist Church, Fayetteville, Georgia. The church family gathers at 352 McDonough Road and invites you to join them for Bible study at 9:45 and worship at 10:55 a.m. each Sunday. Visit them online at www.mcdonoughroad.or and like them on Facebook.
