Every Friday morning I take a long walk and I talk with God about you. I ask His wisdom and blessing on your life. I share with God a desire to see you grow in spiritual things – to be drawn into the presence of God and live from that place. To live from the inside out. I also ask Him for a weekly word to share with you. He has never let me down.
The weekly emails are not trivial, they are not something that I whip out and give no thought to. No, I only want to write what God wants me to share with you.This morning on my walk, I was getting nothing from God except for a couple of words from a verse in James that I had been studying during the week.
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. James 4:8”
Father, I am trying to draw near to you, please draw back and show me what you want me to share with my readers.
My morning walk wasn’t turning out as normal. This might be the week that I don’t have anything to share because I can’t hear what God is saying AND my sock is really annoying me! I am not sure what is wrong but my right sock keeps slipping down inside my shoe making it really uncomfortable to walk fast. Every 4 minutes or so I stop, bend down and pull up the sock! It’s becoming quite frustrating.
Umm, maybe God has something for me in this sock saga? No, God doesn’t speak through a sock! So I keep walking and talking with God. All sorts of thoughts bounce around in my mind. Nothing that seems to be the one word to share with my readers. Then this stupid sock keeps interrupting my flow of conversation with God and I have to stop again and sort it out. I tried all sorts of ways to fix the problem. Taking the shoe completely off. Pulling it one way. Pulling it another way.
Okay, I give up God, do you have something to say about the sock? I am trying to draw near to you and hear your voice.
Then God spoke (not audibly but as an impression in my mind), He said, “the sock issue is distracting you from drawing near to Me on this walk. You are distracted by the problem. Every 4 minutes you focus back on the problem and you lose your focus on Me. Share that with your readers.”
It sounds so crazy, yet profound!
Don’t get Distracted by a Slipped Sock.
The more my mind was thinking about the slipped sock and how uncomfortable it was, the more my mind was thinking about it. Then my feelings were getting involved. Feelings come after our Thinkings. Then I was feeling uncomfortable. And the cycle continues.
So what’s the solution? – if you can’t fix it right then and there, just leave it in God’s hands and keep walking through life with your focus on Him. That is Drawing Near to God. 100% Drawing Near. No Distractions.
What issue or problem is distracting you from drawing near to God in each moment?
- fear of the future
- worry over a bill that needs to be paid
- an argument with a friend
- job related stress
- overcommitments
- health issue
- losing weight
- a decision that needs to be made
or it maybe a normal daily activity that is distracting your attention and you don’t even know it:
- TV programs – mindless watching for hours each day
- Social Media – this is a biggie for some people!
- food
- sleep (not much or not enough)
- mundaneness of life (sometimes the ordinariness of life sucks the life out of us – see resources below that address this)
- meaningless conversations
- music
Action Steps:
- Ask God to show you the distractions in your life that currently keeping you from drawing near and hearing Him speak into your life.
- Determine to deal with the distractions in God’s power.
Lean in to all God has for you this week…in order to finish 2018 well!
Rachel
This Week’s Resources for Drawing Near and Staying Focused…
Check out 31 Days of Seeing God in the Mess of Real Life -Do you catch yourself just going through the motions of living on a daily basis? We can end up in a rut can’t we? where we just follow our normal routines and leave our faith at the church door. I don’t want that. I want to see God show up in my daily routine – in the mess of real life. Stop the mundaneness in your life. Stop the distractions and pause to really see our lives through God’s eyes.
Also check out Simple Prayer –Grab your copy now. It’s a call for simple prayer. Are you desiring an exciting and fulfilling prayer life? – yet you feel distracted and disconnected from God? You are not alone. I understand the battle that you daily fight when you try to connect with God in prayer. I have discovered a simpler way to pray – a way that turns ordinary moments into extraordinary divine encounters.
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