A few years ago I was calling through a list of people we hadn’t seen at church for a while. A young mother answered the phone and told me, “We’re just taking a break from God right now. Our life is really busy with the kids in sports and our careers. My parents have been sick and then there’s the remodel. I like to think of it as putting Him on the shelf.”
She’s not the first to try “putting God on the shelf,” an entire nation tried to take a break from God—Judah, during the days of Josiah (2 Chronicles 34-35).
The Lord sent His indifferent people a message through His prophet, Zephaniah. The message was simple, and it had two parts: Judah, you belong to Me and no, you’re not taking a break from Me!
Indifferent Christians think that God will leave them alone, but they are wrong. Like the people of Josiah’s time, they are living a fantasy life. The flip side of belonging to God is accountability to Him. You can’t have one without the other. When you asked Jesus to enter your life, He did…and He never leaves…even when you want Him to!
You may want to take a break from Him, but He never takes a break from you. He’s always there—guiding, encouraging, and blessing or probing, warning, pursuing, and disciplining.
The choice is ours. We can either respond to His love and receive blessing, or we can try to run from His love and receive discipline.
What we can’t do is put Him on the shelf.
Our world is full of distractions away from God. Don’t let your heart become indifferent to His presence and power in your life. He will not stand for it and you can’t get away from Him.
Jesus died to give you the life you could never have apart from Him—eternal life. And He will never, never leave you alone to settle for less than all He had in mind when He rescued you from your sin.
Whatever your life is busy with today…kids, sports, work, church, don’t lose sight of the one thing your life should be about—it’s the one thing you should not put on the shelf—God.
“I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
