I am encouraged by those of you who diligently seek to serve our Lord and desire to daily seek His face. Your faithfulness ensures that His name continues to be known throughout the world and that the fame of His renown continues throughout each generation. The testimony of so many of you, especially in the face of real and present evil, has encouraged and inspired my walk with the Lord.

At the same time, my heart breaks to hear of so many believers whose lives have taken an unfortunate, unnecessary, and undesirable turn. These believers have surrendered to the seduction of a fallen and temporal world instead of submitting to the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells inside them. Enticed by the world and its manipulative charms, the hearts and minds of many believers have been so captivated by the present rather than the eternal, they have let go of their first Love. Ensnared by the perceived need to achieve some worldly standard and held hostage by its weights and measures, some of God's servants have lost sight of their true home in Heaven. Others, beaten down by the difficulties and trials of this world, have wearily surrendered to the voices of destruction and disappointment. How discouraging that so many, saved by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, do not even recognize the power instilled into their very beings by His Holy Spirit!

My heart aches over the way the enemy wins the daily battle in the lives of so many followers of Jesus Christ when, in fact, our Lord has come and already won the war! Remember that Jesus said, "I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33). He knew we would face obstacles and endure difficulties in this world, and He personally came to tell us not to be afraid, for He is with us now and is coming back for us soon. Today, as He prepares our glorious and eternal home, He is also preparing His servants here on earth for their final resting place with Him. In the meantime, our gracious Lord left His children an incomparable instruction Book to help us as well as His very Spirit to guide and comfort us.

Although we have this God-given empowerment, so many believers live in defeat instead of victory! The secular world is steadily gaining ground in the lives of believers, and it is stealing precious turf. Why is this happening? I believe this: we have become distracted by the busyness of life, and we have reduced the One who makes us His personal pursuit and priority to a box that we check (or not!) on our weekly to-do list. Instead of making the Lord our priority, we hurriedly run to Him at the end of a long and difficult week seeking a quick word of encouragement to sustain us through the next long and difficult week.

Unfortunately, just showing up on Sunday mornings does not convey to the Lord (or to anyone else!) that you love Him and that He is the utmost priority in your life; it merely says that He is a rote part of your weekly routine. Routines can become mundane, and we can quickly find ourselves checking out instead of checking in.

Our Heavenly Father desires - and deserves - so much more from us. He looks not for a list of our service projects, not for a roster of those whom we've helped, not for a tally of our church building fund contributions. Simply put, He looks for us. He wants time with us! So often, we cry out in the midst of our difficulty, "Where are You, God?" If we would just open our ears, we would hear Him reply, "I've been here all the time. Where have you been?" God listens when we cry out to Him, but, oh, how He desires us to spend time with Him! Even more, He wants us to want Him! He doesn't want our begrudged time; He wants our best time. We could avoid so much trouble - or we could walk peacefully through it - if we reconciled our time with the One who walks before us, behind us, and right beside us.

We live in very troubled times, and Jesus knew that we would. He desires that we be prepared for the everyday battles, not so we can fight them, but so we can face them, and, most importantly, so we can face them with the peace and assurance that He has gone before us, and He will guide us through. How can we walk with peace in this world if we live in anguish and fear? We can't. Peace comes only by putting our trust in the Lord Jesus and by being obedient to Him. We must weigh every decision on the scale of His Truth and view every moment from His eternal perspective.

The only way we can accomplish this is to daily read and study the Bible and to constantly pray and converse with our Heavenly Father. The greatest thing we can achieve in our lifetime is to grow more intimately and deeply in our relationship with the Lord. We will spend an eternity with Him, and it should be our heart's desire to know the One who loves us so much that He created us, and then came back and died for us so that we could live with Him forever.

Our time on this earth is short. We are not meant to grow roots here. Instead, we are to be grafted into the Vine of our Lord Jesus Christ in order to spread His love during our lifetime. My prayer for you, fellow believer, is that you set aside the pursuits of this world and, instead, pursue the Love of your life. "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:33).

Today is the day to start scheduling your life around your Lord...instead of scheduling your Lord around your life. There are so many wonderful things to learn about your Savior as you read His Word, talk to Him, and spend time with Him. Your love for the Lord will grow exponentially as you begin to carve out precious time for Him throughout your day. He longs for fellowship with you; He is waiting for you! In the days and weeks ahead, I pray that you find your way back to your first Love, and, in turn, that you experience the love He has always desired you to know. You can find encouragement in the words of your Lord Jesus as He prayed for you in John 17.

Blessings and Peace,

Traci Alexander