Stop, Look and Listenfeatured

“But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.” Jude 20-21

After writing last week’s devotional about being 100% faithful to God, I spent some time thinking about how one actually achieves that.  I first took stock of my current situation.  How much of my time do I spend on actually loving God with all my heart, all my soul and all my mind (Matthew 22: 37 – my paraphrase)?

Surely my quiet time with God in the mornings can qualify!  I ’ve gotten a little better on spending daily quiet time with God in recent years, so I probably average about 30 minutes a day if I throw in the time I spend preparing for my weekly Bible study (and I don’t subtract the time my mind wanders all over the place!).  I did the math on this and assuming that I am awake 16 hours a day, this come to a whopping 3% of my time.  So, let’s add in weekly worship and Bible study, and the periodic serving others kind of project and I might be able to add an average of 3.5 hours per week.  That moves me up to 6%.  Even if I add the occasional pop-up prayers that I utter, I think I would be hard pressed to get to 8%.  That is a long, long way from 100%!

Now when I am having an absolutely terrible day, I may spend a bit more time desperately pleading for help from above.  Conversely, when I have an absolutely fabulous day, I may spend more time praising Him.  However, the vast majority of my life’s time is spent on the ordinary and mundane.  On those kinds of days, if I really love God like I say I do, you would think that my heart’s desire, my soul’s longing and my mind’s discipline would compel me to spend more time in communion with Him.  Deep down I don’t want Christ’s words to the church in Ephesus to apply to me, “Yet I hold this against you; you have forsaken your first love.” (Revelations 2:4)

So, how do I (and you?) move beyond the 6-8% level (which hardly screams, “I love God with all my heart, soul and mind!”)?  Possible answers came to me in the form of a bunch of “What Ifs” to share with you.

What if my heart’s desire and my soul’s longing and my mind’s discipline moved me to seek him in my ordinary moments?

What if I used the old safety motto, “Stop, Look and Listen” as a device to keep me on track?

What if I stopped (or at least paused!) several times a day, in the midst of the ordinary to look for Him in that moment?  He is always there but I won’t experience Him unless I discipline my mind to pause long enough to seek Him.

What if I looked for what He was doing in my life at that moment?  Is there something in this mundane moment to thank Him for?  Is there an opportunity to serve someone else in His name?

What if I listened to His voice as I paused?  Maybe He wants to reassure me of His unfailing love for me.  Maybe He wants for me to let go of my “plan” for the day and follow His better plan.

What if I Stopped, Looked and Listened multiple times a day?  What if I stopped robbing myself of the time He’d love to spend with me?  Why not let Him infuse my life with multiple doses of His truth and wisdom, His love and encouragement, and His kindness and compassion?  I wonder how many more opportunities God would have to bless me and bless others through me.

At first glance the painting above (“Faithful”) has two prominent crosses. If you take a 2^nd glance, I’ll bet you find a third cross.  I think I’m going to use this painting to remind me of a couple of “threesomes.”  First, it will remind me to love God with all my heart, soul and mind.  Secondly, it will remind me to Stop, Look and Listen for Him in more and more of my life’s moments.   I’m not going to worry about percentages, I just want Him to see growing evidence that I do indeed love Him with more and more of my heart, soul and mind!

So, I’ll close with one word that means “so be it” or “let it be so” – Amen! [jetpack_subscription_form]