busyness.

"Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." -James 4:8

I made a little butterfly garden - A 24 foot rectangle, it was quite small. I planted Bachelor's Buttons, Sweet William, Phlox, Morning Glories, Coneflowers, Snapdragons, and a Gladiola. With it being so small I decided that it was going to be extremely easy to keep it weed-free and pretty. And... A handful of days went by and my, I had a mess of weeds to clear out already. If I let it go longer than a week or two the weeds would get even bigger and harder to pull out.

I thrive on being busy! It makes me feel good to always have something to do and somewhere to go. It keeps away laziness and keeps my mind busy as well as my hands. I feel bad when I am not busy doing something. I think I partly get it from my Dad who is close to being a workaholic. If you rest, you rust. 

While being busy is good, sometimes it gets to be too much. A for sure sign of life being too busy is when I start to let my quiet time with the Lord slip out of each jam packed day. And when that starts to happen the stress sneaks in. Which means I've been spending too much time with the world and the busyness of it all and not enough time with my Lord. 

The weeds come in slowly but surely just like they did in my butterfly garden, wanting to take over. I'm not tending to the spiritual garden of my heart when I'm not making it a priority to spend time with the King of all kings. Christ is our lifeline and we must abide in Him in order to flourish spiritually!

"If Satan can't make you bad, he'll make you busy."

-Adrian Rogers

(This quote was one of those "wow" moments for me and was super convicting!)

I have loved studying John 15 recently! Jesus tells us, "Abide in me..." (John 15:4). 

The meaning of the word abide is to [continue, remain, persist]... We must be:

Persistent in our relationship with God by continuing in His Word each day and remaining in prayer! We need to have open communication with Him by talking to Him and hearing back from Him through reading His Word. 

I saw this used for the word "abide" and love it:

A dore His majesty in prayer 

B less Him through service 

I ncline your heart toward His Word 

D well deeply in His love 

E xalt Him with joy 

Truly the best gift we can give ourselves is time alone with Jesus; blocking out the busyness of this world we live in and seeking Him! I realize I tend to be more of a Martha instead of a Mary often! But when I seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness my days are so much better and I have more peace. It also gives me more excitement to keep studying different things and delve even deeper into His Word as well as pray more!