What motivates you to pray? Why do you spend time in the Word? Do you desire to be a better friend? Do you feel weary? Do you want to be a better witness to those around you? Do you want to be able to encourage your spouse or children more effectively?
What roles compel you to spend time with the Almighty One?
We live in a culture obsessesed with labels. "What do you do?" is usually the first question you are asked when you meet someone, as if that is a tell-all for who you really are. Since June, I have struggled with the answer to that question. "Well, uh, I was a public school fourth, fifth, and sixth grade music teacher until this past summer when I resigned in order to be a better wife and to open a homeschool music program, but that hasn't quite started up yet, and in the mean time, I work part time as my church's co-director of Children's Ministries, and I am hoping to starting a cake business sometime down the road." I am fairly certain that the inquirer hadn't been fully prepared for all of.... That.
But what do your roles say about who you are? They describe what you DO- lawyer, teacher, mom, pharmacist, unemployed- but not who you truly are as a person. It's a convenient way to classify, but those roles change over time. It is so engrained in us- so defining- that it permeates everything we do. This includes how we approach the Holy One who is limitless in His person.
When we approach time with God in order to be a better _______________, we complicate the pure, simple, joy-filled relationship He desires to have with us. Remember Mary and Martha? Martha was so caught up in her role as hostess and friend that she missed the point that Jesus simply desired to spend time with her-- simply as Martha. No complex agenda or goal or outcome. Just because He loved her and wanted to express it. When you talk to the Father, is your primary motive to grow in certain areas or is it just to come, with simple, childlike faith and be in awe of who He is?
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