CHRISTIAN LIFE, SERVICE IN

A recently married man loved his young bride intensely. He wanted to provide her with the best home, nicest clothes, and everything else she might want. Though he had to hold down two jobs to do so, he did not mind, because they enabled him to provide for her many good things. Time together was hard to schedule, but he figured that later on, once they were set financially, there would be plenty. Yet, as so often happens, within a few years his wife left him, not for more money or material things, but for a man who would spend time with her.

We often serve God and obey him, expending much time and energy in doing things that we believe will please him. But this is not enough. God wants us to know him intimately, to develop a relationship through the time we spend with him.152