You Shall Have No Other God Before Me.

This week God has been reminding me that time with Him 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 comes first. Key on the “always” because, as He’s pointed out to me, I have a tendency to let the world distract me. Are any of the following familiar to you? They sure are to me.
- This is super important. I need to get this taken care of first.
- This won’t take very long. Let me just knock it out of the way quickly.
- This is so heavy on my mind that I need to address it first so that I can focus properly.

I could go on and on but I really love the irony of that last one. Don’t you? As if God isn’t enough to refocus me when the siren of the distractions is calling!

I know that my morning prayer time with God makes all the difference in my world - inner & outer - and God has helped me tweak an outline that takes me through gratitude, prayer requests, listening, journaling, & summarizing. The whole process can take less than 20 minutes and still be powerful.

As integral as that time is to the peace & success of the rest of my day, sometimes I find myself “too busy” or “too distracted” to slow down. Laughable but not really.

(Side note to acknowledge that 20 minutes in the morning is not what God asks of us. Constant conversation throughout the day is the goal but that 20 minutes focused time is a different sort of prayer)

I’m so grateful that God desires a relationship with me badly enough to demand my attention to Him! And I know without a doubt that He’s preparing me for times that are too tough for me to handle without God’s strength and comfort.

How blessed are we to have a God who loves us so!

*****
{Image is a view through a car window on a rainy, overcast day. Raindrops are visible on the window. Tree-covered mountains are fuzzy through the fog and a single tall fir tree is blurry in the foreground.

The scripture is Exodus 20:3
"𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘰𝘥𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘦."}

I chose this picture today because it looks how I feel inside when I start to lose my intimacy with God.