Congregation Shema Yisrael

When do you feel close to God? For a lot of people, it’s in active worship, usually on Sundays for traditional Christians and on Saturdays for traditional Jews and Messianics. Particularly for Sabbath keepers, this is the day when we put aside all of the cares of the secular week to the best of our ability, and focus on our relationship with God.

Shabbat is more than just a particular day of the week; it’s a model. The “Shabbat model” of worship means the entire 24 hours (and a few minutes on either side usually) is designed to be used as a day of renewal, in relationship with the Almighty and with Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus). It takes some planning, particularly if you don’t want to spend part of that time cooking, doing chores, or even driving, but it can be done. In the Messianic community, we still need to work on our dedication, but part of our difficulties in keeping Shabbat is living in a fallen world that doesn’t honor the Seventh Day. Since most of us don’t live within walking distance of where we worship, we are unable to honor our relationship by staying from behind the wheel.

That said, I always look forward to the Shabbat. As God says in Exodus 20:9-10, “For six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the LORD your God. You shall do no work. You, your son or daughter, your manservant or maidservant, your animal, and the stranger who is in your gates”. It is a day when I can put aside my job, my errands, my yard work, and everything that I have to do as part of my day-to-day life, and focus on Him. It’s a day that, in some small way, mirrors the final rest we will experience in Messiah when he finally returns. It is a day of relationship with my brothers and sisters in the faith and with God. It is a day of closeness and renewal. But what about the rest of the week?

I’m not writing so much about the benefits of Shabbat-keeping (though I could) but the benefits of connecting to and maintaining a connection with God. Christians use the phrase “on fire for the Lord” to describe zealousness in living out a relationship with God. Last Shabbat (speaking of Shabbat), I taught from the Torah portion Pinchas (Numbers 25:10-30:1 ), who was and is a key example of “zealousness for Hashem”:

The LORD said to Moses, “Pinchas, son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Children of Israel; for he was as zealous as I am for my honor among them, so that in my zeal I did not put an end to them. Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him. He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites.” -Numbers 25:10-13

We see examples of such zealousness in the Apostolic scriptures as well:

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. -Acts 4:13-14

“You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him – you who have received the Torah that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it.” When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. -Acts 7:51-54

We read these passages and many others like them, and can feel a stirring within us to also do great things for God with our lives, no matter what the cost. Then the phone rings, or you get an email, or your wife reminds you that you promised to clean the garage this afternoon, or some other reminder of your routine life happens, and you’re pulled away from that desire to be “zealous” for God.

It isn’t that people can’t maintain a closeness with God all seven days of the week, but it’s all too easy to “let it slide”, especially Monday through Friday. The kids have soccer practice, the car needs an oil change, the lawn needs mowing, dinner needs to be made, and the list goes on. I’m certainly not suggesting that you abandon your day-to-day existence and your day-to-day responsibilities, to spend all your waking moments in exclusive contemplation of God. You are expected by God to take care of your responsibilities to your spouse, your children, your job, and whatever other duties you may have. Paul wrote:

For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” -2 Thessalonians 3:10

If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. -1 Timothy 5:8

Paul believes and the Word of God establishes, that we are supposed to work to support ourselves and our families. But it seems as if our work is one of the major culprits in pulling our attention away from God, especially in an economy where many people have to work long hours or even more than one job, just to make ends meet. With work, plus all of the other responsibilities I’ve mentioned (and the long, long list of those I haven’t), when do we find the time to devote our attention to God each day, let alone being zealous or “on fire”?

In traditional Judaism, an observant Jew prays twice a day. These two times of prayer occur at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.; the times when, during the days of the Temple in Jerusalem, the priests set forth the continual burnt offering. I’ve heard these times of prayer referred to as having an “appointment” with God. Imagine that for a moment. Say that, in addition to all of the other events on your calendar, you have an appointment to spend time with God twice a day. This isn’t an appointment you’ve created yourself, these appointments were set by God and you’re expected to show up. If your boss created an appointment in your calendar, would you tell him or her that you’re just too busy to attend? Probably not. If God, the Creator of the Universe, sets an appointment in your calendar, how much less should you tell Him that you’re too busy to attend?

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what many of us do, at least some of the time. We let the “busyness” of the rest of our lives crowd God out. Most Christians don’t subscribe to a model of fixed prayer times twice daily (especially at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. when we are all typically at work). We depend on our own resources and our own decision making to decide when we can and can’t pray and spend time with God. When we depend on finding time to “squeeze God in”, how often do we actually pray?

I’m not talking about “casually” praying. There are plenty of times during my day when, while driving, walking, or working at the computer, I “think” at God, or cry out to God, or sometimes grumble at God. I consider this somewhat like Tevye’s running dialogue with God as seen in the film Fiddler on the Roof. On the other hand, is it really prayer? Imagine that the only conversations you have with your spouse are like these little “sound bytes” we send up to God. Some marital communications are actually like this and usually the marriage suffers as a result. Intimacy is lost, and at best, the married couple maintain a “roommate” kind of relationship. If physical intimacy is included at all, it’s at the end of the day, right before sleep, and pretty much happens in a lifeless, loveless, and passionless way. Can intimacy be inspired if we maintain our relationship the way we maintain our lawn? Can you “maintain” your relationship with God this way?

Sometimes having fixed, daily prayers is criticized as lacking spontaneity or passion, but it’s our complacency that causes this, not having a prayer time in and of itself. I’m also not saying that you must pray at 9 and 3, but if God schedules an appointment with you before you leave each morning for work, and after the dinner dishes are done each evening, shouldn’t you keep it? Even if you don’t always “feel” like it (terrible as that may be to say), at least you showed up. A Pastor I once knew when I was a new believer, told me (in relation to attending worship services regularly) that showing up is half the battle. If you select a regular time twice a day to enter into private prayer, “showing up” on those times, at least puts you in His presence. Once there, you can put aside your other obligations for a little while and spend time exclusively with Him. If you make a commitment to maintaining your relationship with God this way, within a few weeks or a month, you’ll probably find yourself actually looking forward to your prayer times, and not seeing them as an interruption or burden on your schedule.

How often do you read the Bible? When you read the Bible? What parts of the Bible do you choose to read? Do you have your favorite passages? The Bible is one of the ways God reveals Himself and His intentions to us, yet a lot of people never read it at all, read it very irregularly, or read only those portions that make them “feel good”. There’s nothing wrong with having favorite passages, but the entire Word of God is His Word. If it’s between the first page of Genesis and the last page of Revelation, it’s important.

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness…” -2 Timothy 3:16

The All in “All Scripture…” means each and every page in the Bible. The Bible in Paul’s day, when he wrote those words, consisted of the Tanakh (Jewish Bible) or what Christians think of as the Old Testament. And yet, Paul said that all of scripture was …”profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness…” not just the parts you like. If you’re like me (and maybe you’re not), you like to read a little before going to bed (I don’t watch very much television). Instead of a murder mystery, newspaper, or magazine, why not pick up your Bible and open it to page one, read for awhile, slip a bookmark in where you stopped, then go to bed. The next night, start at the bookmark and keep going for a few pages…and so on and so on. Don’t worry about having to rush through the pages, or to read the whole Bible in a year or some other goal. Just read.

Much of the time, we don’t really read the Bible, we study it. While I highly approve of Bible study, it’s also “profitable” to just read the Word, letting it become increasingly part of us. Get to know Adam, Abraham, Jacob, and Moses. Become familiar with Samuel, David, Jonathan, and Isaiah. They’re not Bible characters, they’re real human beings. Getting to know them is a way to get to know God and how God and people relate to each other. Maybe reading about those relationships will help you in your relationship with God.

What do you think would happen if you practiced these two basic activities for the next six weeks? What would happen if you prayed twice a day, and read just a little bit of the Bible before bedtime for the next six weeks? Do you think it would change your relationship with God? Do you think it might even change you? What would happen if you had two exclusive conversations with your spouse each day and spent a few minutes before bedtime reading a letter he or she wrote to you at some point in the past? Do you think your relationship with your spouse might change? Do you think the two of you might become closer and perhaps more passionate with each other?

What about that passion; that zeal for God? Pinchas had it. John had it. Peter had it. Stephen had it. What about you? If you’ve followed my “marital” analogy, it may have occurred to you that, even in the best of marriages, a man and woman aren’t passionate towards each other 24/7. There are times and circumstances when passion is important and appropriate, but it isn’t called for all the time. What makes a relationship last over the years and decades, isn’t “wall-to-wall” passion, but a long track record of steadfastness, discussion, compassion, and companionship. This is the same in your relationship with God. While you won’t be jumping up and down, screaming at the top of your lungs, spinning round and round passionate and zealous for God all day, everyday, you will be sometimes. But much of the time and maybe most of the time, your relationship with Him will be spent in steadfastness, discussion, compassion, and companionship. This doesn’t mean the flame isn’t there, but you don’t cook a fine meal by setting the oven to “blow torch” or “blast furnace”. Those heat settings have their uses, but what burns hot, burns fast, and then burns out. Kindling the flame in your relationship with God will sometimes mean going into “thermonuclear mode”, but most of the time it will mean a steady fire that gives light and warmth to your soul and shines light to the rest of the world, giving God’s warmth to those around you.

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. -Matthew 5:14-16

If you feel as if your relationship with God has become a little cool, it’s not because He’s not there, but because you’ve been neglecting Him. He’s always waiting for you to come back. If you spend each Shabbat with Him and in fellowship with other worshippers, you are off to a good start. Now include Him in your life every day and every night. Spend time with Him twice a day and with His Word just once each night. Create a spark, then rekindle the flame.