Am I Paying Attention?

Yep, I’ve done it again. I heard God ask: “Are you paying attention?” Am I paying attention?

I forgot to pay attention.

Moreover, I forgot to listen.

Or if I did listen, I didn’t listen for very long. Apparently, I have the short attention span problem.

Listen for the Lord

I know I’ve written before about taking the time to sit and listen for the Lord to speak. And then writing down in my journal what I feel He is saying to me. I did it for awhile and then eventually, I just didn’t take the time for it.

Consequently, flipping through my journal I realized how little the space I created for listening was.

I know you know, we as Christians can get very good at praying. Generally, we do all the talking and none of the listening. We ramble on about our problems and how big they are. However,we never stop to hear what God has to say about it.

At first, we’re a bit shy and awkward when we first learn about praying. Surprisingly, after that we can be like a Chatty Cathy. We don’t know or don’t learn about waiting or paying attention for the answers.

A Gentle Reminder

I just had God’s gentle reminder on my way home the other day. It was as if I heard Him ask:

Are you paying attention? Or are you focused on your problem?

Are you paying attention or are you in a hurry to prove something?

Am I paying attention?

• I can’t pay attention, if I’m focused on all my problems.
• I can’t pay attention, if I’m in a hurry to prove to the world my significance.

This morning I felt the Lord whisper to me:

“A hurried heart is a heart that can’t receive from Me.”

Whoa.

Ok, Lord.

I want to receive from You! I need to receive from YOU! EVERYTHING!

So, I spent a little more time this morning lingering in God’s presence.

I’m Not Being Mystical

I spent some extra time in silence. 5 minutes. At least I think it was. I actually didn’t time it. Felt longer than that though…so hard to be still! I sat in silence and worked on receiving what God wanted to download to me. Ha! I just used a techie term and made it spiritual. ;-P

I realize how hurried I am. Not just busy, but hurried. I’ve been struggling against hurry for a long time. God has pointed this out to me years ago when I was rushing to get my butt out the door to work.

But practicing stillness is a loooong practice. It takes some time to get used to. It takes time to learn how to slow yourself down. It’s definitely a good discipline to keep but especially now in the days we live in where life is on warped speed. We need this stillness!

Practical Actions I’m Learning

Here are some practical actions we can take that I’m learning through this book called God Loves Me and I Love Myself by Mark DeJesus. He suggests:

1. For at least 5 minutes or longer if possible, find a quiet place with no distractions where you won’t be disturbed.
   • Turn off your computer
   • Put your phone on silent and away 
   • Turn off your TV
   • Get to a place .
   • Sit and just be. Just be in relationship with God.
2. Place your hand over your heart.
   • That’s your heart’s cue to receive what you are engaging.
3. Close your eyes and let your mind calm down.
   • You don’t have to feel the need to pray.
   • This is a time to build up your receiving muscles so love can enter into your heart.
     • Of course, I mean God’s love, not some mystical unknown love from the universe.
     • (I’m no hippy so I’m not capitalizing the “u” in universe, as if it was a personal being). But from a known and real personal God.
4. Take in slow deep breaths. 
5. Calm your body and position yourself into a restful position, sitting or lying down.
   • The goal is to set your attention on God and on receiving from Him.

We can do this by setting our minds on who He is, by focusing on His:

• Character
• Goodness
• Faithfulness
• His love for you

Don’t worry if your mind wanders. It will. Just bring your thoughts gently back to God. 

I found this to be very helpful and I intend on making this a daily practice. I hope this encourages and inspires you to do the same!

Don’t Beat Yourself up

If you are like me, you’ll forget sometimes. However, we don’t need to beat ourselves up when we have days we forget or life just seems to get hectic.

We’ll have hectic seasons. We just need to know what season we are in and give ourselves grace when we need it. As they used to say, when you fall off the horse, you got to just get back on it.

The Lord loves us so much and He wants us to have His peace in every situation. He wants us to be settled on His love for us because it is His perfect love that drives out every fear and anxiety. His love is what completes us. He wants us to have His rest. A heart at rest will receive from Him.

Keep at it, y’all!

I am thrilled to be sharing with you readers here on Bonnie’s “front porch”!

Be loved and go love!

In His grace,
Coach C