Thursday, November 10, 2011

Assaulted or Refreshing?

“LORD, teach me to listen.  The times are noisy and my ears are weary with the thousand raucous sounds which continuously assault them.  Give me the spirit of the boy Samuel when he said to Thee, ‘Speak , for Thy servant heareth.’”
That is from a little calendar that offers excerpts from A. W. Tozer’s  “The Pursuit of God.”
The man died in the year nineteen hundred and sixty-three. Imagine what he would say if he was living now?
His words resonate with me.  My ears are under assault too.  So are my eyes and it makes my brain overload!
I made the mistake of setting my cell phone up so that status updates from Face Book are directed to it.
Big Mistake!!   In no time at all I have dozens of the updates in my message folder.  My phone flashes until I clear them.  One at a time…
I cannot figure out, as yet, how to stop this assault, but I will!
My email box is a little easier to manage….I just hit that nice little “x” at the top of the page.  I dare not read everything that comes my way!
As for the Internet itself, it could swallow you whole!
One thing I am learning is that I cannot let all this technology consume me.  I do not want to be a slave to any of it. 
I already have a Master.
And I want to be free to hear HIs Voice.
Discipline and balance.  They are the key.
I am determined to use all the technology as handy tools, not as consuming passions.
I have a consuming passion.  His Name is Jesus.
This week I am hanging out in Philemon.  It is a little epistle of Paul’s.  Just twenty-five verses in all, but they are overflowing with examples to follow.  Examples to adopt for one’s own life.
I have been chewing on verse seven.
“For I have come to have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.”
Oh, how I want to be one who refreshes the hearts of the saints! 
Not only do I desire to refresh my fellow believers, but everyone who come across my path.
We learn from that verse that it is Philemon’s love that did the refreshing.  But where did he get such love? 
From Papa, of course.
When we receive Him, we receive His love.  As we draw nearer to Him and learn from Him, we will be filled to overflowing with His love.
Yes! Overflowing all over everybody in our lives!
It was that love that gave Paul such joy and comfort.  He know he could count on that love.
Not many know that kind of love. 
Those of us who do, must guard our hearts and minds.  We dare not allow the assault to continue. 
To sustain such love and to actually overflow we must hear from Him continually.  We must be able to hear Him.
So instead of surfing the web, I think I’ll surf my Bible and listen for His Voice!

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