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Wanting

There is a young man I know who wanted to get better at basketball. Because he was not a very good player, he was rejected from every school and little league team available to him. But he wanted to get better. So in the evenings after school, he would hurriedly finish his homework and walk about a mile to the community park and practice the shooting and rebounding, dribbling and passing.

Soon he found that he was getting better...but still he wanted to be even better. He eventually began to wake up very early in the morning, sneak out of his house and go to the community park and practice for an hour and return him before his parents arose to find him missing.

All of his practice paid off...but that is not the point of this story.

The point is: his desire.

I often hear Christians (including myself) say, I want to study the Word more or I want to be closer to God. But those same Christians (including myself) make no attempt to study the Word more or to be closer to God. It occurred to me that in saying, "I want to spend more time in the Word" what we are really saying is "I see the value of spending more time in the Word" or "It would be beneficial for me to spend more time in the Word."

Why do I say that? For one simple reason. The things we want to do, we do. Oh, trust me, I know that there are family, work and even church obligations that take up our time and energy, but just like the little boy that I referenced in the beginning, when we truly want something, we will go out of our way to get it.

The Gospels are full of instances in which Christ would remove Himself from His disciples and go into the wilderness, often in the early morning, to pray. Why? Because not only did He see the need for it, but He wanted to do it....even though many times it was inconvenient for Him.

Excuses for not doing what we say we want to do are unacceptable. Especially, in this day and age when just about everything we need in order to study the Scriptures is at our fingertips. Many of us walk around with all 66 books of the Bible in several translations, safely stored on our mobile phones, yet we would sooner send a text or play a game than take a few moments to read a passage.

When we truly want to do something, we will do it....even if it means inconveniencing ourselves in order to get it done.  Ultimately, the things we say we want to do as Christians, we ought to be doing. And if we are not, we should be taking the time to figure out why. Could it be that we really don't want the things we say we do?

More about Jesus; in His Word,
Holding communion with my Lord;
Hearing His voice in every line,
Making each faithful saying mine.


Amen.

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