Putting God First In a World of Distraction

"But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you." 

Matthew 6:33

Hey friends! I'm back again... and this time I'm back to engrain these words into my head hehe. You know when you write something and it somehow processes in your mind faster? That is my hope in writing this hahaha. Today I'm going to write about something that God truly revealed to me here in Sydney that I believe is sooo important for us as his sons and daughters to know. You ready for it? 

Let's talk about a struggle of mine, I'm sure you can relate. In a world where there's wonderful things like instagram, facebook, youtube, online shopping, and imessage, there are a LOT of things that compete for our attention. We the people, speaking for us all right now, always need something to occupy our time. For my life, specifically, I found that what's taking up the most of my time and energy these past few days has been editing and posting photos on my instagram. I just really delighted in that. I loved photographing and documenting my newfound Sydney adventures. I just couldn't wait to show all of my friends back home! But even after that, my time on instagram would prolong as I would find myself almost endlessly scrolling through my friends stories and posts. Seeing what my they are are up to. It's just really satisfying. It occupies my mind. It's fun to connect with friends. So, what is the problem with that?

God made me aware of what problem this was bringing up. Throughout those times, I had ZERO motivation to spend time with God. And this would carry on everyday, my lack of motivation. And by spending time with God, I mean really giving myself more than just 5 minute scattered segments during my day thinking about Him, but really reading and digesting His word, allowing myself to desire and delight in him above all else. He really desires that first place relationship with me. And you see, the reason I had little to no motivation to do that is because my instagram tank was full, so why would I want to spend time with God as much if I had other pleasures to take up that space? I recognized that I had very real distractions all around me that would prevent from giving God the first place in my heart.

You might be wondering, why is this important? Well, my friends, this is what I learned. God doesn't want just a part of my heart, He wants the whole thing. My first place. He doesn't just want me to communicate with Him as I am occupied with other things, He wants more than just the leftovers. He wants a time where I'm slowed down, not distracted, and just sitting in His presence. Allowing him to move. Occupying my mind over anything else. You know, like in a relationship. (Channel Rithika the love whisperer here) You love them so you invest in them. You grow in them. You give them more than just a little part of your heart. Yet, your attention is pretty much on them all the time. I really think God desires this relationship with us. 

I'm going to throw this little gem in here. Something actually happens when you put God first. Lately I've been praying my hearts desires a ton, and God revealed this verse to me: "Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." What do I have to do first? Delight in the Lord. And what do we know from Matthew 6:33? Seek Him first and allll these things shall be added to you. What would it look like if we really delighted in the Lord first? Wanting him more than your desire for a person. Above all of our deepest and greatest hearts desires. And I think it'll help to get that delight going if we truly gave God more than 10 minutes of our day, taking time to fall in love with him. Because hey, there's so much to love about him if we take truly took time to shut off distractions and get to know him better. Experiencing him more in the quiet time of our day... and man there's something so special and powerful about that time. Let's do that more often. And you never know what God can put in the path of a son or daughter that's after his heart first ;)

So how are we going to do this practically? How do we learn to delight in the Lord? Recognize that this social media or whatever pleasure-seeking thing we do on the daily is taking up a huge part of our attention away from God. But, we really aren't helpless. We can control how we spend our time. And if you struggle with this like I do, call out to the Holy Spirit! He helps in our weakness, remember? Ask him to give you a delight for the Lord again above all else! And from there, I can only imagine the love you will experience and the growth that will take place. Let's put the Lord first again family!!

Love you all!
Rithika, xx.