Does something else in your life ever come between you and your relationship with God? Is He always your main focus? Most likely, He's not always. Because we're humans and the desires of our corrupt nature seem to grab our attention away from Him. It's a daily battle just to keep Christ at the center of our lives. And I, personally, do not always win that battle.
But you see, when Christ really is the center of everything in our lives, all that seemed to be such a struggle before...well, it just falls into place. I remember one Sunday school lesson from a little while ago that has really stuck with me. One of my Sunday morning small group leaders was talking about things that come in the way of our relationship with God. She explained it kind of like this, think of your relationship with God as a cell phone. If something is blocking the signal to your phone, then you can't reach anyone. It's like when you go under a bridge or in a tunnel - you can't get reception until the thing that is blocking it is removed. But sometimes it can be hard to know what is distracting you the most, and it's even harder when you love that thing so much that you can't pull yourself away. Do you ever hear the Holy Spirit speaking to you at times? And you feel God telling you to spend time in His word, but you just push those thoughts away and away until you become so calloused that you can't even hear Him anymore. I want to admit it just as much as you do, but that's what we do. Our distractions get the better of us...So, in class, we proceeded to make a list on the white board of some of the biggest distractions in our lives. The number one thing was, you guessed it, phones. That and excuses ("I'll do it later", when later never comes) seemed to be the biggest competitors for our attention. As I reflected on this I could see all of the things that are keeping me away from God. I have tried to let go of the distractions and put more of my focus and attention on God...which hasn't been the easiest thing ever, let's just say. In other words, it's just plain hard to let go of these things that please our worldly desires. And yes, it has gotten easier over time, but like I said before, it's a daily battle. But it is most certainly a battle worth fighting! To truly focus on God before anything else...that's our (or one of our many) goals. Because, then, all those obstacles that we used to face in our daily lives...they're simple. Because we put God's commandments first, and we put His will above our own.
You may think "It's not that simple to just drop all of our worldly distractions." Yeah, I know, I know. And it takes time, but it's worth it in the end. Start by listing a few of your biggest distractions.
- Phones
- Excuses ("I'll do it later.")
- Sports
- School
- T.V (Netflix is a big one..)
- etc. etc.
Faith
