I was sitting in a church congregation waiting for the service to begin. I looked across the pews and saw two young men with their heads bent forward and I was blessed to see what at first appeared to be two youth engaged in earnest prayer. Upon closer scrutiny, I realized that their heads were bent over small electronic devices and their thumbs were moving frantically apparently trying to keep up with the messages flowing from their active brains.

I was disappointed to see that mental activity was not being directed to God in prayer as I had first thought.

It brought home to me the fact that the abundant distractions of this modern life can become a dangerous hindrance to our necessary communication with the Lord, if not properly kept in check.

Frequent and undistracted quiet time with God is absolutely essential in maintaining a close, intimate relationship with our Creator. We cannot grow in our relationship with the Lord without quality time in prayer and His word. When we allow ourselves to fall away from these essentials, we can open the door to apostasy and complacency.

God’s presence is very sweet and comforting. We need to bathe ourselves with Him for our refreshment and spiritual survival. We were created for intimate fellowship with Him, and I am sure it grieves Him when we consistently choose to spend more time with our electronic devices.

We are all guilty of this from time to time. It takes some discipline to shut off the machines and surround ourselves with silence. But that is where God is found; in the silence where we can hear His Still Small Voice reminding us that we are not alone and He really is all we need.

Copyright 2017 by H. D. Shively

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