Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life. [Isaiah 55:3a (NLT)]
The gardeners in our community always stop running their mowers, weed whips and leaf blowers whenever someone passes and we walkers appreciate not having grass clippings and yard debris blown into our faces. Yesterday, I noticed that nearly all of them check their cell phones during that short break in their work. Today, as I waited in the car while my husband pumped gas, the first thing I did was reach into my purse to check my iPhone. Had I missed anything in the world since last I’d looked? I will venture a guess that most people are like the gardeners and me—they check their phones during those brief pauses that occur throughout the day. Hopefully, they resist the urge to check them while at a red light but I see plenty of drivers who do!
It’s not just our cell phones—it’s our computers and tablets as well. Most of us frequently check our email, social media, the stock market or weather reports, the latest video on YouTube, or even the eaglets’ progress in the eagle cam. Then, as soon as we return home, we check the voice mail and caller ID in case we’ve missed anyone’s call. Are we ever so diligent about checking with God to see if He’s got a message for us?
In those brief moments of quiet that occur throughout the day, what if we didn’t check our computers, pick up our phones or, worse, the remote to see what’s on TV? Most likely, nothing that important has transpired since last we looked! What if we took those moments to check in with God? If He has nothing to say to us, we could always take those precious seconds to send him a thank you for the little blessings of the day or shoot out a prayer for a friend, co-worker, or that person who is texting while driving. If nothing else, we can take a deep breath, be still and know that He is God.
Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world. [Psalm 46:10 (NLT)]
Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at me, your High God, above politics, above everything.” [Psalm 46: 10 (MSG)]
And what did I do after putting this devotion in my “To Post” folder? You guessed it, rather than thanking God, I checked my email!
My summer beach novel began with a man having a heart attack on a commuter train. For the next several pages, I was privy to the thoughts of his fellow passengers. They were annoyed and frustrated by the train’s unscheduled stop and saw the man’s collapse as a tremendous inconvenience. As they disembarked to find another way into the city, their thoughts were not of the dying man and his wife but of themselves and how their lives had been disrupted.
Although an acolyte usually lights the altar candles at our northern church, our pastor did it yesterday. He came out of the sacristy with an unlit brass candle lighter in his hand, reached up to the sanctuary lamp, removed its red glass globe and took it out of the holder. Using the sanctuary candle, he lit the candle lighter before using it to light the altar candles. After returning the sanctuary lamp to its rightful place on the wall, he explained that, although there had been several books of matches in the sacristy, they all were empty. No one seems to smoke anymore and, being new to our parish, he had no idea where matches might be stored. A resourceful man, he solved the problem perfectly.
After their recent visit to the oncologist, a friend asked me to pray for her father. His cancer is terminal and she asked me to pray that he will come to know God. He’s been sitting on the fence for quite some time and his time for fence sitting is rapidly running out. As I added him to my prayer list, I wondered, “Can we pray someone to God?”
As I went through my prayer list this morning, I noticed that my prayers are very specific. I pray for those I know who are mourning, but they’re not the only ones dealing with loss. I pray for those I know who are sick and for my friends who are sitting at their loved one’s bedside, but they are not alone. Although I pray for a friend experiencing problems at work, another having financial difficulty, and a family in crisis, I know others must have the same problems. I pray for those I know who are struggling with addictions but can’t come close to naming all who need that prayer. I pray for my pastors and friends in the ministry but pastors (and congregations) everywhere need those same prayers. Unless I hear sirens, I don’t pray for first responders, but those firefighters and paramedics need my prayers more often than that. Some mornings I have enough trouble getting through my long prayer list, how can I add more to it? We’re told to offer prayers of intercession for all of God’s people, yet how can we do His work (or ours) if we spend all day in prayer? We’d be so heavenly minded that we’d be of no earthly use to anyone. Nevertheless, it’s not just my list of people who need my prayers. I suppose I could cover everyone else with a quick “God bless the world and everyone in it,” but that doesn’t seem heartfelt to me.
“Let Christ be first in your thoughts in the morning and last in your thoughts at night,” were the words at the bottom of an Our Daily Bread devotion. A great way to bookend our day, it makes sense to have our first thoughts of the morning and the last at night to be of Christ. Nevertheless, I wonder about all those hours between the opening and shutting of our eyes. What should be first in our thoughts then?
Devotions of the Heart 