Glory Seed Devotionals, 2015: Year of Promise
Alone with God in a noisy world…
We live in a noisy world. Every day we encounter noise from many sources some are audio and some visual. Some are wanted and anticipated. Some are unwanted and unexpected. At this moment I am listening to instrumental Christian music from Abiding Radio and at same time I can hear and see cars and trucks whizzing by a hundred feet (or so). In addition I am sitting in our living room with all its furniture pictures and other objects.
Every minute of every day we live our lives in a noisy world. For instance in front of me is my computer screen and when I look up I can see a small electronic picture frame changing pictures every few seconds. Out of the corner of my eye when the picture frame changes pictures I immediately look at the picture frame becoming temporarily distracted from what I was doing. Because the sources of both audio and visual noise are so competitive there are times when we find ourselves struggling to maintain our focus. It is out of a world filled with noise the Psalmist writes, “Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the LORD our maker, for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care. If only you would listen to his voice today!” (Psalm 95:6–7, NLT)
You already know God wants an intimate relationship with you, God wants to be NUMBER ONE in your life. No one needs to tell you because deep in your heart you want and need an intimate relationship with God, you want God to be NUMBER ONE in your life. When I first read If only you would listen to his voice today! I said to myself, “God, what do you mean if only I would listen? I try as best I can to listen but with all the distractions it’s sometimes hard.” I wasn’t really anticipating an answer but a few minutes later I received a one word (God sure can be brief and to the point), “Discipline”.
Because we live in a noisy world with hundreds maybe thousands of visual and audio noise such as television, the internet, the sounds of our fast paced world there will always be distractions yet amidst them all there is deep inside each one of us a place occupied only by the Holy Spirit. And in words of Jesus God beckons each of us, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28, NLT)
When we kneel before the LORD our maker and discipline ourselves to listen and focus on God the Holy Spirit draws us into his heart where we can in the right circumstances become temporarily oblivious to the world around us.
Anticipate! Experience! Believe! Be transformed!
Grace and PEACE, Amen!
Gary
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Glory Seed Devotionals: Encouraging Words of God’s Presence in our World!
Glory Seed Devotionals: Encouraging Words of God’s Presence in our World!
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“Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.”