Just Half An Hour

I’d like to think that Moses had it easy when it came to God getting his attention. I mean, I’d like to think that if I saw a bush that was on fire but which wasn’t actually getting burned up, I too would be curious enough to check it out further.

Then there was little Samuel… Asleep in his bed, he heard a voice calling him multiple times. The voice was so audible that he thought it was Eli (the priest whom he lived with at the time) calling him.

Okay, just one more and then I’ll move on… How about Jonah? He most certainly knew God was speaking to him and sending him to the Ninevites and he decided to just flat out do the opposite of what God told him to do.

That’s another story for another day.

Today I’m talking about giving God my attention when He’s trying to get it.

I haven’t seen a burning bush, I haven’t heard an audible voice when I was trying to sleep or even when I was awake (at least, not one that I can attribute to God anyway).

I can infer though, from situations that have happened and circumstances I find myself in, and the ensuing results, that God is demanding my attention… And I’m giving it to Him now…

I can’t not…

In the Christian community I often hear people say that God uses situations in our lives to get our attention. It could be sickness, the death of a loved one, the loss of a source of income (usually a major source of income), an accident, or something else that might initially seem totally random and unrelated to how we picture a loving God.

The busier we are, the more difficult it seems it is to get our attention. Not just harder for God, but harder for anyone in general to get to us.

This might mean that more drastic attention-getting methods may need to be employed in order to stop us in our tracks.

The attention-getting process has been a humbling one but the message has been helpful and is still being revealed.

One of the things I’m learning is that going forward, I don’t want God to have to resort to drastic measures to get my attention anymore. I want to keep my line of communication with Him open and uncluttered.

So how do I do that?

#1 ~ Pay Attention

I’m not going to wait for Him to get my attention… I’m just going to give it to Him.

How?

• Daily time spent in prayer, not just asking for what I want, but praying for His will (and not just in my life either, interceding for others as well).
• Daily time spent in His Word, reading my Bible not just to check it off my to-do list for the day, but with the goal of hearing from Him… Not standing up until I do, and when I do, meditating throughout the day on what He revealed to me.
• Spending time hanging out with other believers, aka attending church services, Bible studies, etc., wherever I can meet with other believers to study the Bible and learn even more about God.
• Sharing what I am learning with others, aka spreading the Word aka witnessing aka preaching the Good News to others… I need to be a better channel and conduit of what I am learning from God and His Word rather than a depositing station where it gets stuck… All this good stuff is meant to be shared.
  • If I’m learning with the intent to share, then I’m going to have to pay close attention so that I learn correctly and don’t pass on the wrong information.

#2 ~ Looking For God In Everything

I’m giving myself a brand new challenge and that is to find God in everything.

This is a personal challenge for me and I want to see if I can find His hand in the big and little things in my everyday life.

While running errands, driving around, going to work, family life…

Is it possible?

I anticipate that sometimes it will be hard to see what He is doing until a particular situation fully unfolds, and other times it might be easier to see how He worked in a specific circumstance.

Let’s see how it goes.