I Googled the definition of familiar, and it said:
1. well known from long or close association and
2. in close friendship: intimate
I made a list of my top 3 things I like to be familiar with:
- God
- My wife
- It was a tie between extra-large pepperoni pizza from Big Joe’s Pizza, and my kids.
If you read my other blog “Member of the Dad Bod Squad” you already know how important food is to me. I know what you are thinking. Is the pizza from Big Joe’s actually that good? Yes…yes it is. But before you judge me, my kids are doing great. They are on the fast track to having the number 3 space all locked up by themselves. They are 11 and 10 years old at the moment. While I love them very much, they tend to annoy me from time to time. Like I hate it when they pour me a glass of water. They don’t know how much I want. They don’t know my life. They don’t know what I have been through.
But seriously, God is number one on my list because I took the time to get familiar with him. Even when I didn’t want to. You know how sometimes you don’t consult with God on some decisions because you know what he is going to say. And you want him to say something else because something else is what you really want to do. That was me from the ages of 12-27. He knows my life. He knows what I have been through. I work hard at hearing his still small voice (1 Kings 19:12). It took years for me to get to a point where I can see and hear God in the things that I do and/or say. To do that I had to get familiar with how he talks to me.
A quick tangent for some marriage/dating advice. I know, I know, you didn’t ask me, but I have seen The Notebook, Gone With the Wind, Titanic, and at least 7 other famous romantic movies. So trust me I am a marriage/dating expert. Anyway, my expert advice: Before you seriously date or marry someone you should make them use a computer with slow internet so you can see who they really are as a person. Get familiar with them.
Okay back to getting familiar with God. Hebrews 4:7 says today if you hear his voice, do not harden our hearts. God wants to grab a cup of coffee with you. He wants to binge watch Netflix with you. He wants to run 5 miles with you (in my case walk 0.25 miles; Dad bod remember). Learn as much as you can from him. God loves you so much and wants to be number one in your life. He doesn’t just want you to be familiar with him when you are struggling to pay bills. Or when you get sick. Or if you are this close to losing your family. He wants you all the time, in all situations, no matter what.
All God wants is all you got.
People claim God is number one in their life, but rarely put it into practice. Before I made a conscious effort to put first things first, as soon as I woke up I would check my phone for any notifications that I missed last night. Old text messages, game scores, people liking my Facebook statuses. Then I would remember after a little bit to maybe read the Bible if I wasn’t too late getting to work after doing all that other stuff.
After years of trying and failing and trying again, I finally got into the habit of starting my day with God. I would start with a devotional, a prayer, and quiet meditation. I decided to put God first. I decided to get familiar with the greatest friend I know…Jesus Christ. I am still working on it because sometimes I slip up and forget or get busy. God still loves me anyway.
Now all I have to do is translate that into a relationship with everyday people. I am a loner, and I am working on getting familiar with others. I like to keep to myself. The less I know about other people’s affairs the happier I seem to be. I once worked with a guy for 5 years and never learned his name. The best friend I ever had. We still never talk sometimes. I think we treat God like that from time to time and wonder why we cannot hear that still small voice from 1 Kings.
This week let’s make an effort to get familiar with God and see how much better our day goes when we put first things first. I did and it was the best decision I have ever made.
But don’t take my word for it. Try him for yourself.
Prescott Williamson is a Bible-believing Christian. He is a husband, a father, and someone who believes that there is a little humor to be found in whatever situation God sends your way. He was born in the small islands of the Bahamas but now lives in the Suburbs of Fort Worth Texas, which is basically the same thing. He enjoys TV, reading, blogging and serving in his church (especially on the days they serve donuts). You can see what I have been thinking about lately on my blog www.prescottascoolbreeze.com.
I love your humour and honesty. It’s really refreshing. Thanks for this encouragement – I’ve been in the process of trying to put God first and have failed miserably pretty frequently. Regardless, we know He’s worth it, so I press on. One of my continuous prayer topics is “Lord, make me disciplined”. Hopefully with my persistent asking and my multiple attempts, I’ll get to a place where I put him first a lot more frequently than I currently do. God bless you!
Discipline was my worst. I would try and fail like you several times. It was hard work but it paid off for me in a big way. Thanks for reading
Thank you for the nudge here. I will look up I Kings 19:12 and Kebrews 4:7 as a way to rein in stray thoughts.
Thanks for the encouraging post. It is a challenge to put God first and to keep him at the centre of our lives. Too often he gets pushed to the side in our busy lives even if we don’t intend it.
You are right. A lot of times we prioritize things that are “important” when in the grand scheme of things they really aren’t as important as what we are ignoring. Thanks for reading
You hit the nail on the head. Knowing God, and not just knowing about him is so important or as I like to put it , we need to stop riding on the wave of some scripture we read from when we first became a Christian and be in relationship with God now.
Thanks for sharing, I needed this. At the moment I am practicing putting phone aside and just being still. Sheesh that is hard work, easy to get distracted. But its a spiritual discipline I really want to get good at so I can get more and more familiar.
It was harder than I thought but with the strength of God I made it. I still struggle cause I’m not perfect but his grace and mercy are enough. Thanks for reading