At the End of the Day

Pressure's on. Time is short, and learning to manage time and use free time wisely is one of the most important tasks one could ever master.

I always feel, before my head hits the pillow at night, a tiny twinge of hunger. With that comes a train of thoughts: "I need to do more." ......."I need to start upping my workouts to an hour or maybe an hour and a half. I need to go to bed on time. I need to figure out my finances. I need to really read up on the presidential candidates and do some real research. I need to read the news and find out what's going on in the world. I need to really know what's happening. I need to call this person. I need to catch up with so-and-so. I need to work on my relationships with people and really invest in them. I need to send so-and-so a letter/card/email/gift. I need to sit down with so-and-so and share my heart with them. I need to make sure I'm prioritizing what's most important to me. I need to.........." on and on and on.

And what ends up happening, is I just think of what I need to do, and I don't ever actually do it. And I just keep knowing that I really need to do it. That's not getting anywhere.

There is one thing above all else that must take first place. This must be the one absolutely necessary thing, that if nothing else gets done, this does. I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT IT.

See, this ONE thing, will make all of that other stuff fall into place.

INTIMACY. Intimacy with Jesus. I must have intimacy. I must keep my secret place alive. I must guard the flame within.

One thing I have learned over the past 6 years is that you must have daily bread. You can't keep going on what God gave to you yesterday. It's just like the manna in the wilderness. The Israelites could only have that day's portion that the Lord provided, and if they tried to save any in order to "stock up", the manna would go bad overnight and they would wake up to find it.

What has God spoken to me TODAY?
What did I learn today?
What did my heart grow in today?
What did the Lord and I talk about today?

Sometimes I feel like I have this temptation to ask myself those questions and then answer them with "Well the past few weeks I've been feeling this .....or this...." and I have a feeling that's not what the Lord is after. At all.

I want my relationship with God to be THRIVING. I want it to show in my face, in my eyes, in my smile, in my vibrant joy, that I KNOW GOD. I want the world to see so evidently that I know the LORD. And we talk, and we're tight.

Intimacy is the one thing. And truly, everything else, FALLS into place. If you get the first things first, everything else follows in its proper place.

- GLORY FOLLOWS ORDER -

When the sun is setting, I want to feel so close to the Lord. When I lay my head on my pillow at night, I want to be full from my portion. I want to be satisfied from my daily bread.

At the end of the day this is all that matters.