Get All You Can
The pull of the world is so powerful! As each day begins, we already have in our minds, on our smart phones, on a wall calendar, or even in a voice reminder everything that we need to do that day. We have places to go, people to see, and things to do. We are busy!
We have all spent our adult lives being busy building and pursuing the lives we are currently living. Just think of all the things that we had to pursue to build these lives! And, we gladly did it, for the most part, because it allowed us to be the people we are and have the lives we have.
However, we can also think of all the things that we could have pursued to make an even better life but did not! Maybe we could have done better in school giving us a better education. Maybe we could have invested better financially or been smarter in what we purchased. Maybe we could have made more connections with people and situations that could have given us even more toward the lives we wanted.
I think I can summarize this in this way. I know in my life that there were far more opportunities available to me to pursue than I have taken advantage of. At times, I think I settled for what was easier. I have settled for what was quicker. I have settled for what I needed at the time without thinking about what I could use for the future. Therefore, my life could have been better if I had pursued more. These are part of the physical blessings that God has provided in my life. I could have had more!
It is even more apparent that I have missed opportunities and blessings provided by God for my spiritual life. Consider these words from Paul to Timothy. “Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.” (I Timothy 4:13). These words alone (not to mention the rest of Scripture!) address the need to get all you can from God!
To “give attention” comes from a word that translates literally as, “towards have.” It means, “attend to, beware, devote myself to”. It was Paul’s way of telling Timothy to go and get everything he can from God, pursue so that he could have it. Pursuing the things of God does not always seem to be what I have done. You?
Notice the three areas that Paul addressed: reading, exhortation, and doctrine. He instructed Timothy and through it has instructed us to get all we can from reading God’s word. This is spending time in the word. He has instructed us to get all we can from encouraging people with the word. He has instructed us to get all we can from teaching and understanding the word.
God has blessed us with “every spiritual blessing…in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). All of those blessings are to be found in the word of God and among the people of God. Go get all you can!
— Mike Johnson
