Thoughts from Bob Goff

Dear Friends,

Today's entry comes from a book I recently purchased at a local Barnes and Noble. It's title is: "Live in Grace, Walk in Love - A 365 Day Journey" by Bob Goff. Today's selection is the 7th entry in the book. Enjoy.

DON’T LET ANYTHING BUT JESUS DISTRACT YOU
“When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Matthew 6:6

I read that the average person spends one out of every five minutes on social media. It’s literally taking over our lives, minute by minute. To minimize the distraction, software companies have developed apps to keep you off social media for twenty-four hours, no matter what. Some apps are designed to restrict your internet access completely, and you can’t turn your computer off or on, restart your internet, or do anything to get around it. 

This is how serious our distractive habits have become, and I know it personally. We all have our weaknesses. For some people, it’s sports, or fashion, or cars. Me? I can’t stay off social media when friends of mine start posting their kids’ back-to-school pictures or Halloween costumes. How are we supposed to be productive when we see four-year-old pumpkins with superpowers?

It's easy to get distracted by everything else; what takes a little more work is to only get distracted by Jesus. When it comes time for praying or reading about Jesus, it’s easy to feel like we’re wasting time. We get fidgety. Our minds start to wander. Our fingers reach for our phones to take a quick peek and see what our friends are doing. We check to see if we have any more likes or comments on our posts. With all the stuff on our to-do lists and all the opportunities to connect with others, it can feel forced to stop, be still, and be silent.

We’re not wasting time on God. It’s actually the best use of time to spend time with the One who created time in the first place. He knew we would need to eat, sleep, work, and brush our teeth, yet He still asked us to pray. He urged us to spend time with Him because He knew it would actually change everything.

Sure, it’s good to guard your time, but it’s even better to guard your heart. Don’t keep such a tight grip on your time that you miss out on Jesus. Take some time today and decide to only be distracted by Him. What’s your plan for how you can be distracted by Jesus today?

Mr. Goff is right. There are times when we needlessly interrupt our conversation with Jesus to check our posts - as if such things can't wait until the all-important privilege of time spent in prayer with Him is done. Maybe the app he alludes to is a good idea. An app that makes us unable to check our phones for 30, 45, 60 minutes (so as not to interrupt our times of prayer)! We could call it the "Protect Your Prayer Time" app!

That would surely be a best-seller among Christian people, right? Or maybe not. For one would have to regard their fellowship and time spent with Jesus as super-important to cut themselves off entirely from all outside distractions for that long, just so they can be distracted from the world long enough to have a focused, in depth, transformative time of sharing with Him.

Living in His All-sufficient Grace, Pastor Jeff