Where Does Your Energy Go?
READ
Over the past two days, we've looked at what has your mind and what moves your heart. Today, we come to the most concrete question of all: what has your energy?
Attention and affection can remain hidden. But activity is visible. It shows up in your calendar, your bank account, your habits. You can tell yourself something matters—but if it never receives your time, focus, or effort, the truth is it doesn't matter that much. Not yet, anyway.
Toward the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gets very practical:
Matthew 6:24
"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."
He doesn't say it's hard to serve two masters. He says it's impossible. Why? Because devotion—real devotion—requires the whole person. You can't fully give yourself to two competing things. Sooner or later, one wins. And the one that wins will become visible in what you actually do with your days.
REFLECT
Your calendar doesn't lie. Your bank statement doesn't lie. The people who observe your daily habits don't lie. These are external witnesses to an internal reality: what you have given yourself to.
We often think devotion requires something extra—more time, more energy, a bigger spiritual effort on top of an already full life. But that's not quite right. Devotion doesn't require anything extra from you. It requires a reorientation of what you already have. It's not about doing more; it's about doing what you do from a different center. A better yes that makes certain no's not just easier but obvious.
Jesus puts it this way a few verses later: "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:33). Seek first. This is a matter of order, not addition. The question isn't whether God gets some of your time—it's whether He gets the first and best of it, the part that shapes everything else.
Think about what gets your best. Your freshest energy, your clearest focus, your most generous presence. And then think about what gets your leftovers—the tired, distracted, half-hearted version of you. The gap between those two categories is revealing.
This isn't meant to produce shame about what you discover. It's meant to help you see the story your life is telling. Because once you can see the story clearly, you can begin to ask: is this the story I want to be living?
RESPOND
When I look at my calendar, bank statements, and daily rhythms over the past month, what story do they tell about my priorities? What am I actually organizing my life around?
What gets my best—my focus, presence, and effort? What consistently gets my leftovers? What does the gap between those two reveal?
If someone observed my life from the outside—watching how I spend my days, what I say yes to, what I make excuses to avoid—what would they say I'm truly devoted to?
REST
God, I confess that my energy doesn't always go where I intend it to. I say I want to seek You first, but my days often tell a different story. Show me what I am actually building my life around—not so I feel shame, but so I can see clearly. Teach me what it looks like to seek Your Kingdom first in the way I spend my ordinary days. I don't want to live by accident. I want to live with intention. Help me arrange my life around what actually matters. Amen.