Intimacy with God

Go with me to Matthew 25. I’ve found something that’s so easy, and yet we’ve complicated the gospel. We’ve made it hard, and it’s not hard. You don’t have to be an evangelist, you just have to be a Christian. It’s true; you don’t have to be an evangelist—you don’t have to have my office. All you have to do is be saved, but you need to be saved from you, because if you’re not saved from you, you’re not truly saved. The gospel sets you free from you. Honestly, if you have a problem with people, it’s not them—it’s you. People are like, “Wow, that’s not true, you don’t know what they did to me.” See? It’s a “me” thing.

This whole chapter in Matthew is on stewardship. It’s beautiful and it’s glorious. God is very concerned with stewardship. He’s very concerned with us doing something with what we have. He’s concerned with us not being passive but being very aggressive in love to further His Kingdom—not ours. Jesus shares a couple of parables here, and in the first parable, it’s about the Ten Virgins, and He says,

“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”

MATTHEW 25:1–13 (NKJV)

You have been made a steward over your prayer life, over your intimacy with God, over your finances, and over all aspects of your relationship with God. If you don’t cultivate intimacy with God, you don’t have any oil in your lamp. We can’t afford to be people without oil because people without oil are people without a flame.

Now, being a steward of oil is being a steward of intimacy, but being a steward of intimacy is being a steward of time. So you have 24 hours in your day. You have a lot of things that need to be done—we have jobs, careers, kids, cleaning—so much stuff. There’s no oil from cleaning unless you’re praying and cleaning with Jesus. He’s not asking you to quit what you're doing. He’s just asking you to consider Him first while you’re doing it.

Challenge for Today: Have your alone time with God, but also be aware of His presence as you go about your day. Intentionally invite Jesus to do things with you. Pump gas with Jesus. Clean with Jesus. Pick up the kids from school with Jesus. Trust me, you’ll notice a huge shift in your day as you let even the mundane tasks of your day become worship.

-Todd