We are living in days where the most valuable thing we can do is give more of our time and attention to Jesus! This is the case always. However, I do believe there are times and seasons where the Lord will call us to come away and be with Him in a greater and more intentional way.
We are constantly bombarded with things and by people who are bidding for our attention. Just as an example to illustrate this thought, there are recent studies that state Americans will pick up their phones 96 times per day. That translates to about once every 10 minutes every hour we are awake during the day. I don’t think these stats come as a surprise to us. We are constantly and systematically getting notified about phone calls, text messages, emails, social media alerts, and the list goes on. We live in a culture where it has become the norm to be physically with someone but not actually be present. We can be with someone and be connecting with several other people at the same exact time. Sharing our attention has become a way of life for us.
If we are not careful, our attention can become so divided that we give Jesus a piece of our day instead of giving Him all of our attention! Giving Jesus all of our attention instead of trying to fit Him into a specific block or window of time is challenging to us because it is giving Him permission to affect all areas of our life. Giving Him all of our attention means He has our attention when we are interacting with a spouse, or our children, or a coworker, or someone who has mistreated us, or a barista who didn’t make our latte perfectly, or the bagger at the grocery store who smashed our bread… I think you get the point! If He has all of our attention it will affect every area of our lives. Giving Him all of our attention means we respond to His voice and leading and not the circumstances we are facing. Being with Jesus prepares us to actually live our lives like Him here on the earth.
In Psalm 27:4 we find David said there is one thing he desired and one thing he was seeking after. His desire was to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life and gaze on His beauty. Also, it wasn’t like David had nothing else going on so he could just hang out in the secret place with the Lord all day. In fact, he was apparently in a really troubling situation. In the verses just before this he says the Lord will protect him when evil ones come to destroy him and that he won’t be afraid even if war rises against Him. It sounds as though there was A LOT, he could give his attention to, but his response was a desire to fix his gaze on the Lord. May we be ones who recognize the days we are living in and in the midst of so many things bidding for our attention, let us respond to the voice of the Lord calling us to come away and be with Him. May this be our greatest desire and the one thing we seek after!
Until Next Time…
