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Quiet Time Interrupted - Encouragement Café - February 29, 2016

Quiet Time Interrupted

Café Menu for Monday, February 29, 2016

Today’s Special:

Devoted or Distracted

Carefully prepared just for you by your friend, Robin Jones

Main Ingredient:

One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life.   To gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple.

Psalm 27:4 NIV

Entrée:

My eyes stopped like a computer cursor blinking over these words,

Natural devotion may be enough to attract us to Jesus, to make us feel His irresistible charm, but it will never make us disciples. *

Talking out loud to myself during my quiet time, if natural devotion doesn’t make disciples, what does, Oswald Chambers?  What type of devotion makes me give my utmost to His Highest?

The still small voice whispered, Supernatural.

What does that look like, Lord?

In my mind’s eye, I see a worn out, worried woman scurrying about preparing food for a special visitor.  Frustrated, she stops.  Her eyes hone in on her sister.  Childlike and hanging on every word, the sister sat at the Visitor’s feet.

Feeling unfairly overworked, the woman interrupted their conversation:

Master, don’t you care that my sister has abandoned the kitchen to me?  Tell her to lend me a hand.

TheMaster said, “Martha, dear Martha, you’re fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it—it’s the main course, and won’t be taken from her.” 

Luke 10:40-42 MSG

Lord, I see.  Mary was devoted and Martha was distracted.  A distracted and divided mind is the opposite of devotion.  But I still need more understanding.  What does supernatural, wholehearted devotion look like,

…I prayed.

Frustrated because I couldn’t quiet grasp what the Lord was showing me, I interrupted my ‘quiet time’ by going for a walk with my puppies.

Zippy took off like a shot.  Scout stuck close.  At times, he was so close to my knee that I lost sight of him in my peripheral vision.  He was unmoved by the horse apples that normally entice him.  He was my shadow.

The still small voice,

His eyes and ears are devoted to his master’s movements and voice alone.

Zippy was close by and she could see and hear me.  I’d call and she’d obey most of the time.  However the sights, smells, and piles in the horse pasture overwhelmed and divided her devotion.

Eventually, she became more interested in what I was doing because Scout was wholeheartedly devoted to what I was doing.

The still small voice reminded me of a note from my Ryrie Study Bible’

Wholehearted devotion spurs others on to consecrate themselves to the Lord and follow Him faithfully.**

* Quote from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers

** Study Note from the Ryrie Study Bible

Take Out:

Illustrated above are three ways to maintain a perspective of wholehearted devotion:

1. Quiet Time. Focus your heart and mind on the Lord every morning. Use a daily devotional or reading as a spring board.

“In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.” Psalm 5:3 NIV

2. Conversation.  God is moved by our prayers. They literally go up before His throne. 

“The smoke of the incense,together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand.” Revelation 8:4 NIV

3. Rumination. To ruminate means to think about something over and over in your mind or to meditate on it. As you do, the Lord will enlighten you further with His truth.

“Young lions on the prowl get hungry, but God-seekers are full of God.” Psalm 34:10 NIV

Dessert:

Lord, You tell us that if we seek You, we will find You, that if we ask for wisdom, You will give it. Lord, may we seek You first. May we constantly meditate on what You are doing and saying. May we consecrate ourselves and follow You faithfully and wholeheartedly. May we give You our Highest Praises. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

© 2016 by Robin Jones.  All rights reserved.

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