- Planning a lesson
- Writing a sermon
- Listening to a podcast
- Writing a blog post
- Publishing a book
- Reading a book
- Designing graphics
- Doing taxes
- Waiting on hold with the IRS
- Planning a worship time
- Taking kids to school/track/soccer…
- Picking up kids from school/track/soccer…
- Parent/Teacher conferences
- Helping a new friend find food or shelter
- Ordering curriculum
- Evaluating programs
- Watching Netflix
- Researching new ideas
- Fixing broken things (or ideas)
I bet your list is as full as mine. Should we keep going? Any of these things can threaten to quiet your conversation with God or to drown it out completely.
DON’T LET THAT HAPPEN!
Some of these are really good things – things that we should be giving ourselves to. But none of them should get our time and attention at the expense of staying connected with Christ. In fact, if we are so busy (even in good activity) that we lose our connection, we’ll find ourselves spinning our wheels and getting nowhere. Jesus put it like this,
Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
We have to stay connected with Jesus. Be careful to give God priority and keep the conversation of your life with Him going strong.
At the risk of turning this post into a sales pitch, I want to let you know (if you don’t already) that I’ve produced a resource that can help you do exactly that. It’s a guided journal called PRAY that walks you through the Bible to see what a life of conversation with God could look like for you. I’d love to have you check it out and let me know what God does. Your favorite bookstore can order you a copy, you can pick up a copy from me directly if you’re in the area, or you can get it via this handy, dandy portal to Amazon:
