Thursday 13 March 2008

EarGuards

3
Psalm 1
"Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the ungodly shall perish."


On Monday my ear guards broke, or rather, they've been broken for a while and in my attempt to mend them I wrecked them completely*. So on Tuesday I used Gary Bolton's, (he's only in Wed &Thurs). But yesterday when Gary was in work he obviously and rightly took his back, in order to guard his eardrums from the 'CLUNK CLUNK BANG BANG' of the machines. This left me without such ear protection and I could only hear a mummer from my mp3 player and couldn't really make anything out amidst the noise and clatter of the machines!

So I went on a hunt, initially I was looking for, perhaps a couple of broken sets of ear guards that I could put together, forming one unique pair for myself. But, and this was better, I found an old pair that no one uses anymore, cleaned them up and now the noise of machines is in the background while my mp3 is more prominent.

But in thinking of this, I thought about the noise and business of life that we allow to affect our ability to listen to God, pushing His word into a sort of mummer that is drowned out by everything else that we fill our days with!

Entertainment etc may not be wrong, but in our entertainment age we tend to have little time for devotions, Bible reading, prayer in our personal lives, leaving these for a Sunday at Church!

I know that I permit many things to overwhelm me, TV for one is something that so often draws me away from God's Word and takes my mind away from meditating on Him. This is definitely something I need to guard against.

How about you, is there something in your life that is affecting your ability to hear from God, something so 'noisy' in your life that it drowns out what God is saying and draws you from Him?

The Psalmist in Psalm 1 says;
"But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. "
But so often in our entertainment age; our delight is in the video game and on the TV listings we meditate day and night!
Perhaps we need to make more time in silence alone with God's Word in Prayer, and to hunt out guards against the noise and distractions of our life that can drown out the things and Word of God and draw us away from Him. To hunt out guards that will help us to bring God's word to the prominent place in our lives and everything else will fade into the background?



[* Oh yeh, and Every Home Crusade workers'll tell you that as I was attempting to fix my ear guards, they kept braking on me and in frustration I threw them down - this is true and something I need to repent of. It is a reminder to me that sin has consequences - in this case nothing to guard my eardrums!]
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About Boaly
Gary has been involved in printing the Scriptures for 20 years, enjoys photography and rambling online

3 comments:

Stephen Altrogge said...

Yep, email and the internet is definitely a distraction for me. I've had to make sure that my Bible takes priority over them!

Joe Blackmon said...

I taught through Psalm 1 on my blog last year and I have to say I agree with your thoughts about letting things distract us from the word of God. Great post.

Boaly said...

Thanks Joe & Stephen
So many different things can distract all of us, have to be vigilant about this! I have to admit though it's a struggle when it comes to tv! Something I've had to work hard at since I first came to Christ.