how busy are you?

So...a while back I wrote about how important it is to give our first and best to God everyday. I mentioned the struggle I have with my devotions, and how I was determined to really start changing that part of my day, and to really focusing on God in everything I do. Well I've been working on it...and so far so good!

Its funny how God works though - and by funny I mean AWESOME! This last week, I had really been feeling on track. I was reading my bible, a devotional, spending time in prayer, and reading a book on the side every day! And just when I started to feel like I had it all figured out, I got it under control, and *dare I say* a little proud of myself, God comes in with a word that hits my heart - maybe more than I wanted at the time - but MOST effectively! Another serious reality check.

Not only did this put pride in check, but this was just His reminder to let me know that He's in control: that at all the RIGHT times, He will uproot anything unneeded, to continue bringing me to a deeper level of meaning and commitment in my relationship with Him.

So..Thursday morning, we're driving up to the cottage to open it up for the summer, and my mom pulls out this story and reads it to us...

In his opening address to the evil angels, he said, "We can't keep the believers from going to their places of worship. We can't keep them from reading their Holy Scriptures, and knowing the Truth. We can't even keep them from conservative values. But we can do something else. We can keep them from forming an intimate, binding experience in God.
So....let them go to their place of worship, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can't gain that experience in God. That is what I want you to do angels, distract them from gaining hold of their Lord and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"
"How shall we do this?" Shouted his angels "Keep them busy in non-essentials of life and invent unnumbered schemes to occupy their minds," he answered. "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, then borrow, borrow, borrow. Convince husbands and wives to go to work all hours of the day, all days of the week, so they can afford their lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work. Over stimulate their minds so they cannot hear that still small voice. Entice them to play the radio when they drive, to keep the TV, movies, and their CDs going constantly in their homes. And see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with God. Fill their coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail offering free products, services, and false hopes. Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted, disquieted, and unprepared for the coming week. Don't let them go out in nature. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts, and movies instead. Let them be involved in soul winning, but crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from God. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family unity for the good cause.
It was quite a convention in the end.

Courtesy of Aimee Zahora


Its amazing how easily we are distracted or pulled away from our true purpose. I just found this to speak such truth! Its not only how we spend our time, but what we fill our time with, literally.

After hearing this story, I looked at my own life, and realized that I have fallen for this scheme too! I can only count ONE TIME in the last LONG TIME that I have just been still and quiet before God. (even now, my music has been on since I turned on my computer)

I remember hearing a sermon once about the importance of having quiet (and TOTAL quiet) time with God. Not always to hear Him speak but just to enjoy His presence. We all want to have this intimacy with God, a real sense of His presence and a real ear for His voice, yet...How are we going to recognize Him or His voice, when He tries to do or say something if we don't know what He feels or sounds like?

I almost think its comparable (in a small sense) with life relationships. There is a level of comfort and knowingness that we have with people we really truly love and enjoy being around. The kind of feeling that you can drive for hours in a car together, not say a SINGLE word, but be content and completely satisfied with the silence. We need to get to that point with God. He wants to be there with us. But we need to enjoy Him in the quiet. He is the reason we HAVE life everyday so we can't let everyday life get in the way of Him!

I'm not saying that music, TV, movies, and all that stuff is ALL BAD and we should cut it out of our lives completely, but this story stresses the ease in which we allow ourselves to fall into a comfort zone that doesn't include God. This story is not saying to stop listening to music...but it is saying that even music can be a serious distraction.

The key to this is to stay focused. Focused on God. The Bible says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct you path." (Proverbs 3:5-6) I believe that in this context God is asking us to just stay focused on Him. Don't rely on anything else to fill our time. ACKNOWLEDGE His presence ALL the time, and He will make sure to guide us to a place where we can sit in silence with Him for hours and not just be content, but completely fulfilled and saturated with His presence.