But...this is urgent

Surely you know that you become the slaves of whatever you give yourselves to. Anything or anyone you follow will be your master. You can follow sin, or you can obey God. Following sin brings spiritual death, but obeying God makes you right with him. (Romans 6:16)

If we were honest here, we might just cop to the plea of being just a little too close to some things in our lives that are actually taking our eyes off of Jesus at times. We aren't unique in that struggle, my friends. We find ourselves 'opening' ourselves to all manner of distraction when all God asks for is our attention. It is as though we have an 'attention deficit disorder' when it comes to him! We find ourselves tilting this way or that, all at the mere suggestion of ease, enjoyment, or even encouragement. We wonder why we are not hearing God's voice, but could it be we have just allowed it to be drowned out by all those distractions?

The thing we focus on the most is our master. There are so many today that find it hard to just sit and listen. We want things 'on' to distract us, like the TV or background music. It isn't that we shouldn't listen to good music that lifts our hearts toward Jesus, but if we use it as a replacement for actually taking time in his Word, it won't 'fill the tank' quite as well as that time in his Word would. We can use a lot of things as 'deterrents' to taking time with him even without knowing it. If we throw in that load of clothes, sit down to read the Bible, then hear the load knocking about off-balance, do we leave the washer doing the 'balance shuffle' in the laundry room, or do we rush to it to reorganize that load?

That may seem like a little bit of a stretch to use that example, since almost everyone who hears the washer jiggling across the floor will set out to correct the situation as soon as they become aware of it. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we would lay down our 'deterrents' to spending time with Christ just as eagerly? We rush to the unbalanced wash load, but do we rush to find 'balance' once again in our emotions, thoughts, and bodies by getting alone with him, listening to his still small voice, and just enjoying the peace of his presence? If we struggle a bit with the 'urgency' of time with him, maybe it is time to reevaluate our priorities. Just sayin!

Stilled and Ready

I’ve kept my feet on the ground, I’ve cultivated a quiet heart. Like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby content. (Psalm 131:2)

Quietness of heart comes as a bit of a hard thing because we are so used to "noise" in our lives. We are a little bit too inundated with all kinds of things adding background and foreground noise. Background noise is there, almost unnoticed, until it is gone. Foreground noise is evident, with it even getting our attention in the here and now. Yet noise is just that - noise everywhere. Noise is really something which just confuses the clarity of that which is really trying to come through! Think about the things that are "just there", but intently creating confusion in our lives - things when removed might just give us a little more clarity on what it is God may be trying to show us. Quietness is the opposite of noise - it is not the total absence of it, but it is the clarifying and eliminating of all which lends confusion. 

As this 'eliminating' and 'clarifying' process happens, the "disturbance" created by the noise settles and you are often free to begin to hear and see the reality of what is ahead of you. For most, we'd say the place of quietness was the total absence of noise, but I have to ask just how many of us actually can achieve a place of comfort in the total absence of noise? Most of us would say it kind of freaks us out. We have a hard time remaining absolutely still, no one talking, no earbuds plugged in, no fan creating some background noise, no TV drowning out other sounds. This is probably why so many people just cannot abide with silence when they are together with each other - silence makes us uncomfortable. Why? Maybe it is because we begin to imagine all the things that might be "wrong" when one is totally silent. Perhaps it is the intensity of focus it requires to be truly still. It really doesn't matter - silence is difficult.

God desires a purposefully quieted heart. Remembering the heart is made up of our mind, will, and emotions, it might just make sense why this is so important. When there is a clarifying and eliminating of thoughts that only create confusion, lend distraction, or impede our truly concentrating, God is pleased. When the desires of our heart are toward that which doesn't create more chaos in our lives, God is pleased. When our emotions are not in a tumultuous churning, God is pleased. How many of us actually achieve this place of "quietness" or "stillness" - I mean really? Here's something you need to keep in mind - it is not the absence of emotion, the absence of decisiveness, or the absence of thinking God desires, it is the centering of our emotions, thoughts, and desires on him! Some of us just need to slow down long enough to actually get quiet before God. 

We allow our minds to spin at hundreds of continuous revolutions per minute and wonder why we don't feel fulfilled, whole, and like we have made a difference today. The quietness God desires is not the total absence of activity, but the choice to engage in the "RIGHT" activity. What are you spending your time, talent, and resources on today which could be done by another? When you spend your resources like that, you are not pursuing what only you can do. We often spend our precious resources doing what someone else could very easily do - all the while neglecting the very thing NO ONE ELSE can do! It is God's intention for us to be quiet enough to get clarity on matters of the soul such as this. When we begin to ask the right questions, we might just get the right answers! Quietness is difficult, but it is necessary. If we aren't regularly "settling" our hearts long enough to actually begin to see the "confusion" around and within us settle as well, we are just "settling for" life in a confused, chaotic state. 

No self-help class or book will ever change things for us. No retreat to the mountain tops will ever make up for the lost times when we could have just settled down right there on our own couches and let God speak to us in the stillness of our time with him. Maybe this is why Christians have coined the phrase "Quiet Time" as the time we take each day to be alone with God, get perspective on his Word for us, and then share from our hearts with him. Let be and be still, and know (recognize and understand) that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth! (Psalm 46:10 AMP) God tells us to "LET BE" and "BE STILL". In other words, let things go and then be still. It isn't until we learn to let go that we come into the place of stillness. Just sayin!