Sometimes You Have To Be Selfish..

Recently I was reminded by a good friend of mind, a prayer I prayed over him at Summer Camp...
Sometimes during the moment of prayer the holy spirit begins to speak with you and as a Pastor
you can sometimes forget the things you say.

I believe that happens because the bible says that the holy spirit is interceding for us, that he helps us
know what to pray for and how to do it. Anways, going back to what was said during this prayer I
mentioned how we as people in and of the church can get caught up in doing everything, working,
being prepared, talking to people, working at various tasks and we can overlook ourselves.

So, during this prayer I said something along the lines of "Sometimes you just have to get selfish..."
I honestly don't even remember what else I said as I mentioned, my friend reminded me of this, but
what I was speaking was the simple fact as Christians, as Pastors and as Individuals sometimes we
have to become selfish in our own walk, in our needs and in our own spirituality.

You see for me this really begin to hit home after my friend reminded me of this. Because as a youth pastor, husband, graphic designer, worship leader and all the other things and titles that fall under my name, I
sometimes find myself too busy! Too busy to take the extra time to talk to God during the day for me, for
my family, for my wife, for my personal walk.

It's something I believe the church world really deals with and is very relevant, so therefore I am tossing around the idea of writing a book about it. It may never happen but I know for a fact that we as Christians and those who are Pastors, don't really take the time that we need to, for our selves.

Don't get me wrong, every morning I wake up, throw some Praise & Worship on, I begin to pray, but I don't pray for my stuff. I pray for the church, our pastors, I pray for services, staff, people who are in the hospital, but so many times I can honestly say that I don't get selfish!

In fact its rare for me to get selfish... Can anyone else relate with that?

Maybe it's because normally at church, I'm on the stage, leading in some manner...
Maybe it's because I'm praying for someone else or I'm doing some important task for the service...
Maybe it's because I want people to know that we love them and I'm out in the crowd welcoming people
to the church...

Whatever my excuse is, whatever your excuse is, it's time that we get selfish...
It's time that we fill ourselves backup, so we can continue to pour out into others lives!
God has really spoken to me this wekk and reminded me that it's okay to get selfish, it's okay to get what
I need from him, I'm still going to be a youth pastor afterwards, i'm still going to fufill his will in my life...

So, today as I share these thoughts with you and as my good friend Monroe reminded me this past weekend, that it's okay for us to get selfish...

So, take some time for yourself, get alone with God, get alone and worship, pray and medidate on God,
Get Selfish!

Matthew 11:28-30 in the Message translation says “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”