It’s Time To Remove The Distractions
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10
How distracted we have become. There are so many things that take up our time and thoughts…phones, computers, radio, tv, movies, shopping, sports, family, work, ministries, etc. While family, work and ministry aren’t bad things, they can become distractions when we put all of our focus on them and neglect our quiet time with God. And that is the problem. We have come to the point where we put everything before God. We have come to the point where we may feel to sit and spend time with the Lord is impossible to do sometimes because of our schedule and we have to find the time to fit Him in. Fit Him in. Fit GOD in. That just doesn’t sound right.
I can’t say that I haven’t done this…trying to find the right time to spend with God. To fit Him in. Maybe the problem is that we all need to remove some of the other things in our lives so that time will be there. So there will be no “fitting in” because we have dropped a few distractions in order to make that time for Him. After all, He is THE CREATOR.
How hard it is for us to be still. I had to face this in my own life. I could be still when reading, watching a movie, surfing the net, etc, but to sit for a long period of time with with God became difficult though it used to be quite easy. The problem? I allowed distractions to pile up. I allowed work to pile up. I allowed other peoples needs to pile up to the point I was running to get things done and had maybe 20 min for God. 30 if I pushed it. By night time I was tired and just wanted to “relax” with reading or a movie. We’ve all done it. Yet to receive peace, we should spend at least the last half hour of our night with God.
James 1:5 states: 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
We need God’s wisdom and guidance to face each day. We can’t receive it if we aren’t able to be still in order to receive it. We want to be able to hear God, but are we really taking the time to listen? When you converse with friends and family, do you do all of the talking and then walk away, or do you give time for the other person to speak? We must remember to allow God to have His time to speak. That means we must be patient and sit silently for a bit or risk hearing something from another spirit that isn’t God. We must take the time to study and learn God’s Word or we will perish for a lack of knowledge. We want to advance spiritually and mature, but this only comes with studying the Word of God, applying what we learn and listening to what God has to say. We all want to heal from things we’ve been through, but this only comes through prayer, studying the Word and applying what it tells us to do. This means we must make the time to do these things. We must not become impatient and skip the studying and applying part and think we can go directly to spiritual maturity. No child can skip childhood and learning and advance directly to adulthood. They must go through the growing and learning process first. Yet how can they do this if they are constantly distracted with worldly things or have not been taught? How can we, as adults, become spiritually mature if we allow distractions and worldly things to take God’s place?
There is something we tend to forget. Distraction and busyness is a very effective tactic of the enemy to remove our time with God. The less time we have for God, the more we can be influenced by wordly things. And who does the influencing? The prince of the air…Satan and his army:
Ephesians 2:1-3: And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
When we fail to spend time with God and allow the distractions to take His place, we go back to our fleshly ways and think fleshly thoughts. We find it hard to heal, hard to overcome strongholds, hard to make the proper decisions. We allow peoples words and actions to harm us and therefore we remain chained to the past, unable to move forward in healing. Paul warns us in Galatians 5:1:
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”
If we allow distractions to take the place of our time with God, we will be entangled again with a yoke of bondage that may be even more difficult to break free from the next time around.
Finally, let us remember and fix our eyes on the best example for spending time with God…our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ:
Luke 6:12 – In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.
Luke 5:16 – But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
Mark 6:46 – And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray.
Jesus knew this was the most important part of His day in order to obtain peace, strength, guidance, wisdom, healing and comfort to do the work God had called Him to do. He was God yet He submitted to His heavenly Father. He made time for God. It wasn’t an after thought. It was THE most important thought. Sometimes He spent all night praying to God and we find it hard to spend one hour. Jesus didn’t allow distractions to take God’s place. He was the ultimate time manager. He didn’t waste time because He knew He didn’t have a lot of time to waste. He had a mission to complete by a certain amount of time. He also knew there was time for rest and for celebrations. He attended weddings, He spent time with His friends and family and allowed Himself time to rest even if it meant sleeping in a boat during a storm (Matthew 8:24).
Friends, it’s time to be still. It’s time to remove distractions from your life so there will be no trying to find the time to spend with God because there WILL be time to spend with Him. He always has time for you 24/7. Time is of the essence. He has something to say but are you able to listen? Decide what things in your life you can cut loose in order to spend time with God. I guarantee you won’t regret it!