Me? Distracted?
I have enjoyed two solid days of just basically hanging around our house doing catch ups on cleaning and laundry while taking much needed time to work through thoughts and articles and devotions I got behind on with our travels last weekend.
And if there is anything I love more than reading from the writings of A.W. Tozer each morning, it’s reading a whole bunch of them at one time and really absorbing what he has to say.
Since he died in 1963, his writings obviously cover a time that we have rapidly zoomed past. As in, anything that happened before I started kindergarten at the ripe age of five years old.
Sometimes we wax poetic with rose colored glasses about those times as if troubles didn’t exist, but the ugly we see today was there just the same.
Not as intense. Not as prevalent maybe.
But very much there.
Quieter, hidden, accepted as the norm sometimes and just not talked about if it didn’t fit in with the general atmosphere of the times.
Racial hatred, violations of children, sick relationships, broken families, addictions, idolatry and immorality; all manner of sin conditions have been a part of this world since Adam and Eve made the first choice to take the bait that hisses….
“Did God really say you couldn’t do that? Oh, you can…He was holding out on you….go ahead…do it your way. He knows if you do, you will be just like Him and know everything He knows. You’re smarter than that, right? Just do it….”
And so all creation is marred and each one of us steps into that mess with our own prone-to-wander feet.
So Tozer may have written these words before I was born, but they apply today because they are truth….
“Among the enemies to devotion none is so harmful as distractions. Whatever excites the curiosity, scatters the thoughts, disquiets the heart, absorbs the interests or shifts our focus from the Kingdom of God within us to the world around us – that is a distraction; and the world is full of them.” A. W. Tozer from The Set of the Sail
Or as I journaled it…
Because A. W. may have been distracted by less high tech gadgets, but this is what pulls my eyes off of God and His Kingdom.
And no, I can’t bury my head in the sand and expect to be relevant.
Tozer and others who have followed hard after the teachings of Jesus know that we are IN the world but not OF the world.
We have to live out there and live visible, viable Christ-centered lives so we must be aware of the times we live in, but his point is valid.
I can’t spend the majority of my time checking up on what everyone is posting on Facebook and meditating on the lovely photoshoots of Fall clothes and decor and recipes offered on Pinterest, checking my phone every two minutes to see what people are saying about the latest political gaff and binge watching some television series off Hulu and be a Spirit-filled influence in the sphere in which God has placed me.
And believe me, I am not criticizing you…I can waste HOURS googling nonsense…so my toes were stepped on before I ever started writing you this morning.
As we look at what Tozer writes is the answer to all of this, it is the same answer we have had since the first family on earth hid behind a tree.
God is looking to walk with us and talk with us and lead us in right paths.
He provided a way, the Only Way, to restore us to fellowship with Him.
So that each day, when we do answer texts and read the news and encounter people, we have godly insight to offer and we have our perspective based on God’s perspective of life here on planet Earth.
Tozer says the opposite of being distracted away from devotion to God is the same thing it has always been…
Be still…cease for a while and just sit in His Presence…and know…know Him…gain head knowledge and heart knowledge and soul knowledge of HIM… Psalm 46:10
through…
prayer…
mediation on His Word (the Bible, people…the Bible is His written WORD)
cultivation of the inner life.
Not the little-g god of your inner life…but cultivating the deep places inside of you where God Almighty has made His home, if you are a believer.
And if you are not…oh dear one, do not waste another moment of your life living your way…begin to pray now that He would reveal Himself to you and that you could be restored to relationship with Him through the confession of faith.*
This cultivating of the inner life is truly one of the greatest gifts of grace…freely given by God…and yet we must do our part to grow in Him.
We have to create an environment that encourages our spiritual growth…
Tozer points out that the opposite of living distracted is found in developing certain habits that include:
<3 filling our minds with God’s Word through reading, memorization, meditation and application of Scripture
<3 choosing to walk in the Spirit – yielding ourselves to the Lord in our daily lives and interactions
<3 choosing a life of simplicity and being proactive in wanting less material things
<3 praise
Just like our journey through 2 Chronicles last week.
We find victory by letting praise lead the way into every battle against those things that would pull us away from purer devotion to our God.
Good stuff…as we say these days.
I know I was convicted by the disproportion of time I allot to being still and knowing versus being plugged in and informed.
God bless you all today in all that you do.
*I can’t pass on the opportunity to share that if you have never received Christ as your Savior and made Him the Lord of your life, today ….right now…is as good a day as any. In fact it is the BEST DAY EVER.
While this is not exactly one of the finest “altar calls” known to man, I have stumbled through what I would say to you and written if from my heart this morning. Billy Graham, I am not…but from me to you…
It can be done right where you are or with someone who is a trusted believer. If you know that you are separated from God because of your humanity, begin by acknowledging out loud that you are a sinner – born into a sinful world and sinful in nature. Confess that you have no way to save yourself and that you believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth in human form, lived a sinless life and yet, suffered and died the death you deserved as payment to God to justify your sins and the sins of the whole world. Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that He also rose from the dead, victorious over both sin and the grave and that He ascended into Heaven. That He is the perfect sacrifice for all of your sin and that by receiving Him into your heart, you are forgiven in the eyes of God. Justified by His death and covered in His righteousness. Surrender the control of your life into His nail-scarred hands and proclaim Him LORD over your life and then walk forward today in that new life, cultivating a lifestyle devoted to Him and to His teachings, with praise. When you receive Christ as your Lord and Savior, the Word assures us that He places His Spirit inside of you and then He seals you as His. Once you receive Him, you will want to be baptized as an outward sign of the new life you have been given through Him <3