Spiritual To-Do Lists

“I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master’s business.  Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.  Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.  This is the command:  Love each other.” John 15:15-17.

I am the mother of three children and enjoy intimate fellowship with each in different ways.  While each relationship is vastly different they all have one anchoring characteristic – intimate fellowship shared between each one. 

As they were growing up, if my time spent with them had been primarily on the busy work of cooking, cleaning, chauffeuring and other domestic duties our relationships would have fallen flat.  I did not have children simply to share a to-do list with them.  I chose to have children to fellowship and enjoy time with them.  Through our fellowship I became aware of who we were together and how we uniquely love each other.  We exchanged the contents of our hearts and learned intimate details of each other’s life through time we spent together.

This is the type of relationship for which God has called each of us.  His primary desire for our lives was never to serve Him for He can speak things and make them happen.  He does not need us to accomplish anything.  His primary desire for each of us is fellowship, relationship and intimacy.  It is only when we invest intimate time with God that He considers us in relationship with Him, whereby His revelations are made known through this shared fellowship.  We were never created to be spectators of the divine nature of God, but rather partakers of His divine nature.

 
Our service to God must be an overflow of our relationship to God instead of it being a to do list in the name of God.