My wife, Vickie, bought a small, green, plastic box for me at the pharmacy. It is divided into seven smaller sections, each with its own lid and a letter indicating the day of the week. Its purpose is to hold the vitamins and nutritional supplements that I am supposed to take each day. We simply refer to it as my vitamin box.

Before I pack my luggage and leave home for my next trip for revival services, Vickie reloads the vitamin box with a new supply. Some days I forget to take them. No, I never deliberately refuse to take them, I just get rushed or distracted and give my attention to other priorities.

Whenever that happens I lose the potential benefit of those pills. No good excuses exist. A better choice is to make a conscientious effort to be disciplined daily.

In a similar way our daily time with the Lord through prayer and reading the Word can be crowded out of the schedule. Running late, too busy, unexpected demands, misarranged priorities, do any of these sound familiar? I see no real advantage in any manipulative guilt trip. But there is benefit in a kind reminder that there is a better choice.

Those of us who serve in the various areas of ministry are frequently pressed with urgent demands. I still need help in discerning the difference between the urgent and the important, when unexpectedly life starts honking its horn. Would you agree that focused prayer and intentional effort would be beneficial in sorting out priorities?

I must admit that all too frequently my devotional time has been ministry focused rather than relationship focused. There is a huge difference between sermon and relationship development. How does a person learn balance? Where's the balance between wordy prayers and quiet listening? And where is the balance between doing and being?

I have discovered the advantage in specific times of candid transparency in the Lord's presence. These are moments soaked in sincere and heart-felt seeking, untainted by performance-oriented perfection.

Often, I am refreshed with a new taste of Paul's nourishing words: "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God" (Romans 8:26-27).

We can be relaxed without being passive. We can be trusting without being complacent. We can enjoy a growing relationship with the Lord that is flavored with love and trust rather that with fear and guilt. We can make better choices.

"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness, and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control, and to self-control, perseverance, and to perseverance, godliness, and to godliness, mutual affection, and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:5-8).

As I reread these verses the loudest three words I hear in my heart are "make every effort." A close, current relationship with the Lord and its resulting spiritual growth and maturity require effort on our part. I have never even come close to the level of a pious, saintly scholar, or contemplative.

But I have learned this: I have a choice. Just as I lose the potential benefit when I neglect to take my nutritional supplements from my little green vitamin box, I also lose the potential benefit from an intentional, daily disciplined time with the Lord.

Available in God's presence is a peaceful immersion into His warm, loving embrace. Also available is advancing in our knowledge of God and the Word. This growing relationship with God is not legalistic, nor perfectionistic, nor rigid. But it is deliberate and disciplined, requiring us to "make every effort."

We can avoid a missed opportunity by making a better choice.

Norman Moore

Please note: All facts, figures, and titles were accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of original publication but may have since changed.