When God designed me He didn’t make mistakes. I know He very intentionally chose for me to lack the ability to reach things sitting on the top shelf of the kitchen, I know he instilled in me a love for all things coffee-related, and I especially know he gave me a heart for being a servant of his. If you would’ve asked me a year ago what God required of me to be the woman he designed me to be, I’d list things like how I plan to serve in the church, how I’d build my marriage upon a Christian foundation, and how I’d engage in more consistent prayer. It wasn’t until recently that I realized becoming the woman God designed me to be would cost me relationships, plans, and material items in my life.
This concept, one that directly upsets the people-pleaser nature in me, is not one that the world often agrees with. This notion is further crystallized for us in 1 John.
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
1 John 2:15-17
God does not desire for me to be worldly. When approaching that idea, it doesn’t seem to be all that difficult. It becomes more difficult after I remind myself that God desires the best part of my day to be spent with him. It becomes more difficult after I remind myself that God wants me to exemplify the fruits of the spirit regardless of who I’m talking to, where I’m at, or even if I’m not being treated with kindness in return. It becomes more difficult when I remember that God wants me to prioritize His work over what I’ve managed to fill my schedule with, whether that is home improvement projects, studying for a Spanish exam, or having dinner with my friends.
Recently, I’ve been leading a youth group book study and teaching from the book Grow Down: How to Build a Jesus-Centered Faith by Ken Castor. In the second chapter of this book, Castor discusses being independent, self-dependent, and codependent. Through the reading of this chapter, I realized how easy it was to become codependent on good things. Indulging in too many good things leads to leaving out time for God things. It’s in this that I realized the intentionality that is required of me to let go of things that may be leading me toward a more worldly (in my case, busy) lifestyle instead of a well-focused godly one, fully embracing the person God wants me to be.
My prayer for you today is that you can join me in realizing what people, activities, or physical things may be taking more of your time and attention than they should, leading to the destruction of your individual time with your Heavenly Father. Becoming who God created you to be requires dependence on him and the ability to see when you’ve become too distracted by worldly accomplishments, desires, and trends around you.
