Are you able to sit in a peaceful place and quietly focus your entire mind on God? If you let out a chuckle or an exasperated sigh at this question you are not alone. Me too. But why? WHAT is it that keeps us so distracted? I know your mind is instantly listing off all the distractions in your life and you (and I) are once again distracted! Ok, let’s both of us TRY to focus.

God has blessed us and the devil has distracted us. Between the two, it is a small miracle we accomplish anything…physically or spiritually. There are so many responsibilities and so much guilt tugging at us in every direction. I think it is time we really analyzed what is keeping us from God. Spending time with God should be our first priority instead of our final chore. If we can’t set aside time for God, then the rest of our life doesn’t typically work out very well. It doesn’t matter whether we spend our time in worship, prayer, Bible reading, devotionals, teachings, etc.

I know not everyone is wired like me, but I love to be productive and busy. It is my happy place. The louder something is calling to me the more likely it is going to get bumped to the top of the list. I have to be VERY intentional to keep my time with God at the top of the list and if I were earning a grade, it probably wouldn’t be a very good one most of the time. It is a constant effort to refocus so that whatever is yelling at me isn’t louder or more tempting than my time with the Lord.

I want you to think about what you spend your time on in your day. This is not an exercise in guilt, we all have a lot going on. But seriously, take a deep breath and really think about what you spend your time on that isn’t honoring to God. Is it TV, movies, sports, video games, social media? Can you create an opportunity for it to be God honoring or should it not be part of your equation any more? I think we need to actively focus on simplifying our lives. We have WAY too much distraction and it is causing us anxiety and pulling us away from our all loving Father God. Some of our blessings are literally destroying us spiritually! Just keeping up with the American dream takes some serious investment, is it worth it? I think if we take a look at what we can do to declutter, remove the unnecessary extra and find peace we are so much closer to God’s heart.

If you look around your home and it exhausts you, then maybe it is time to simplify. I grew up in a very cluttered house and it defintely caused anxiety. My mom was a secretary and this snuck into our home life. I remember every surface in our home being covered with stacks of paper that she was always in the process of sorting through. Every table, couch, chair, floor, etc. for decades was covered with stacks of papers. If we had company over, we would have to carefully move the stacks so that people could actually have a place to sit. I don’t do clutter for this reason, it actually stresses me out.

Earlier this year I went to Kenya on my first mission trip, it was an outstanding reminder of how much distraction we have in our American lives. We could get rid of 80% of our possessions and still have more than the Kenyans I met. They were joy filled, God honoring and would give everything they had to come to America. It broke my heart. Every chance I got I explained to them how blessed they were and I truly envied the simplicity that they live in every day. They trust God for everything. I am so busy trying to take care of everything I have been “blessed” with that I don’t always give God the time he deserves.

I want to get to a place where my time with God CANNOT be impacted by the distractions in my life. I think this should be a goal for all of us. Let’s take action to simplify, declutter and be intentional with the time God has given us. We can’t possibly do what we are here to do if we are too distracted to seek his guidance. I don’t want to look up from all the clutter in my life and realize I missed the purposes God had for me here. Look around. If there are material things that are causing you anxiety; seriously analyze whether they are worth having in your life.

Do you have so many expectations of your time that there is no quiet time left to spend with God? Try to take some of those repsonsibilities off your plate that don’t have eternal significance. This may take a while, but it is worth careful consideration. How can you create time in your day to spend before the Lord? Even if it only starts with 5 minutes. FIVE intentional minutes focused on the Lord if you have been spending ZERO is a 5 fold improvement! Just start somewhere. Can you get up a tad earlier, stay up later, or read a Bible verse with your kids at bedtime. Maybe you put restrictions on yourself with TV, movies or social media – they are designed to suck our time away from us. Just figure out ways to be intentional. Let’s not let our time slip away and only have a life filled with distraction to look back on.

Colossians 3:1-2 You have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.