I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who struggles with making God the utmost top priority in his life. I've been thinking lately how my job and the general busy-ness of life don't mesh well with what I percieve as the ideal spiritual existence.
I'm not unhappy with my job, in fact, I quite like it and it's how I provide for my family. The busy-ness tends to be things that have to or should happen: taking care of my son, cleaning the house, cooking, socializing with friends, etc. I enjoy those things as well, for the most part.
What I see as the challenge isn't so much "doing" things as making space in each of those things for God. Paul says to pray without ceasing, but I find that when I'm writing code, code is what fills up my mind. I don't know if it's physically possible to pray without ceasing - at least for me.
I'm almost certain that praying without ceasing is a mostly spiritual act. That is, the spirit remains in prayer while the flesh goes about doing its thing. I'm also certain, however, that such feats come with much work and discipline. And Perhaps that "spirit of power, love and self-discipline", no? (1 Timothy)
I suppose my idea of the ideal spiritual existence also needs examination. At this point it consists of praying more, reading the Bible more and spending more time with beleivers. I think it also encompasses the "works" that James talks about ("faith without works is dead".) Ultimately, it comes down to purpose and "completing the work [God] gave me to do." (John 17:4) I'm pretty sure that's near the top of the hierarchy of spiritual needs, but I think it must be striven for.
This leads to another long topic: discerning God's will for our lives. I'll leave that to another post. Until then, it's clear I need to actually try to pray more, read my Bible more and spend more time with fellow believers.
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