Read: 1 Samuel
12:6-16
Now
therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the LORD of all the
righteous acts of the LORD, which he did to you and to your fathers.
1 Samuel 12:7
Every summer, our church does a teen camp
in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. It is a beautiful place surrounded by
trees, mountains, and wildlife. The one part of the wildlife that I’m sure
every person there would love to get rid of is the gnats. They will not leave
us alone. They feel the need to get in your eyes, your nose, your ears, and
just about every other place they feel they can be the most annoying. It is
hard to just stand still and enjoy the beauty around us because if we try to
stand there for more than a second, a cloud of gnats will come and try to carry
us away to an undisclosed location. One solution we have actually found quite
effective is to tuck a dryer sheet into the collar of our shirts. It sounds
crazy, but it works to help ward off the droves of angry pests who won’t leave
us alone.
There are many petty annoyances in life
that do the same thing to us spiritually. The devil will do everything he can
to keep us from just being still so we can hear the voice of God speaking to
us. When we can stop, let the world stop around us, and be calm, then God can
use that time to really deal with us as His children. That is why the devil
tries to flood us with so many things to keep us busy. Most of those things are
not even bad things, but they are enough to keep us from having the
relationship with God that we need to have with Him if we are going to be
spiritually successful. David said in Psalm 4:4, “commune with your
own heart upon your bed, and be still.”
To get rid of those annoyances, we need to
come up with solutions to help us set aside the distractions that come between
us and God. The most important thing is a fresh anointing of the power of God.
If we can renew our commitment to serve God, then it gives us a goal to aim at
and the motivation to make it work. On the practical side, we must purposefully
set aside a time that cannot be moved when we meet with God. Early in the
morning generally works best because the business of the day has not had time
to crowd out that time we must spend with God. The morning is usually still and
allows us the quiet time where we can hear the voice of God. Also, think about
turning off the radio while driving, putting down the headphones while working,
and turning off the television and internet in the evenings. Allow God to use
that time to speak to you and you to Him instead of having so much noise that
communication becomes impossible. Be still, and listen for God’s leading in
your life.
Quote of the day: “Never get so busy doing the work of the kingdom that
you forget who the King is.”
No comments:
Post a Comment