Devotion October 26, 2016
19/10/16 08:26
Greetings!
What a glorious morning!
So I am getting ready to leave the house and it strikes me as a little odd that all of these household chores are going to get done when I am not even here! Before I left, I gathered up laundry and put it in the washer which washed the clothes without my having to do a thing except stick the clothes in the washer! I then gathered up some ingredients and threw them in my crockpot which would prepare my dinner for me so that when I returned home there would not only be these wonderful aromas but a nice warm meal. I then gathered up some more ingredients and threw them in the bread machine which would also greet me with rich aromas and some fresh bread. The washer finishing its load of clothes made me do the huge chore (well, I need to make it sound like I am doing a little work!) of transferring the now clean clothes into the dryer - which will dry my clothes for me. I then reloaded the washer with my remaining clothes…. and the process began again.
Then there was the dishes. The dishwasher is a marvelous labor saving device but for some reason this wonderful machine has created my biggest stumbling block…. Living by myself, it is so easy to just use the clean dishes out of the dishwasher instead of going through that step of putting them away and then using them! But the down side to this system is that as I use the dishes, I put them, now dirty, in the sink, where they pile up until which time I get tired of looking at them or I run out of a necessary dish such as a plate to eat my dinner on!
So while all my other conveniences were doing my work for me, I had finally reached that place where it was necessary for me to remove the clean dishes from the dishwasher, put them away and replace them with the dirty ones. Which I did. The dishwasher of course was full with the sink dishes and I started it up, another machine doing work for me!
However, it is sort of like clothes when you think you have all the laundry done and you find the pile behind the bathroom door, as I went around the house doing a few things I began to find a dish here and a coffee cup there and a drinking glass sitting on the desk and a bowl on the TV stand until the sink was half full of used dishes while the already over full dishwasher was in the midst of washing the previously gathered dirty dishes…..
Seems that way when we begin to get our spiritual life in order. We have finally made the choice to spend some time each day in prayer and to spend some time each day reading our Bibles and spend some time each day in quiet so that we can hear when God speaks to us, (and there is no machine that can do these chores for us!) only to become inundated with little problems and new issues and interruptions and extra work and chores. Our sinks are full before we can even get ourselves in a routine of doing those things that we know we should be doing.
It is a common problem; a common problem shared by everyone who tries to keep up with our time with God. But don’t give up! Keep at it.
Making this important time may be a struggle (just like my struggle with keeping up my dishes!), but God will bless your ernest desire to spend time with him and God will help you as you battle all the distractions and you will find that you will be truly blessed as you make that spiritual time a part of your life!
Amen!!
Joanne!
These devotions began in 2006 as a way to give us a midweek boost as we live out our lives as the people of God! Feel free to share them if you wish.
What a glorious morning!
So I am getting ready to leave the house and it strikes me as a little odd that all of these household chores are going to get done when I am not even here! Before I left, I gathered up laundry and put it in the washer which washed the clothes without my having to do a thing except stick the clothes in the washer! I then gathered up some ingredients and threw them in my crockpot which would prepare my dinner for me so that when I returned home there would not only be these wonderful aromas but a nice warm meal. I then gathered up some more ingredients and threw them in the bread machine which would also greet me with rich aromas and some fresh bread. The washer finishing its load of clothes made me do the huge chore (well, I need to make it sound like I am doing a little work!) of transferring the now clean clothes into the dryer - which will dry my clothes for me. I then reloaded the washer with my remaining clothes…. and the process began again.
Then there was the dishes. The dishwasher is a marvelous labor saving device but for some reason this wonderful machine has created my biggest stumbling block…. Living by myself, it is so easy to just use the clean dishes out of the dishwasher instead of going through that step of putting them away and then using them! But the down side to this system is that as I use the dishes, I put them, now dirty, in the sink, where they pile up until which time I get tired of looking at them or I run out of a necessary dish such as a plate to eat my dinner on!
So while all my other conveniences were doing my work for me, I had finally reached that place where it was necessary for me to remove the clean dishes from the dishwasher, put them away and replace them with the dirty ones. Which I did. The dishwasher of course was full with the sink dishes and I started it up, another machine doing work for me!
However, it is sort of like clothes when you think you have all the laundry done and you find the pile behind the bathroom door, as I went around the house doing a few things I began to find a dish here and a coffee cup there and a drinking glass sitting on the desk and a bowl on the TV stand until the sink was half full of used dishes while the already over full dishwasher was in the midst of washing the previously gathered dirty dishes…..
Seems that way when we begin to get our spiritual life in order. We have finally made the choice to spend some time each day in prayer and to spend some time each day reading our Bibles and spend some time each day in quiet so that we can hear when God speaks to us, (and there is no machine that can do these chores for us!) only to become inundated with little problems and new issues and interruptions and extra work and chores. Our sinks are full before we can even get ourselves in a routine of doing those things that we know we should be doing.
It is a common problem; a common problem shared by everyone who tries to keep up with our time with God. But don’t give up! Keep at it.
Making this important time may be a struggle (just like my struggle with keeping up my dishes!), but God will bless your ernest desire to spend time with him and God will help you as you battle all the distractions and you will find that you will be truly blessed as you make that spiritual time a part of your life!
Amen!!
Joanne!
These devotions began in 2006 as a way to give us a midweek boost as we live out our lives as the people of God! Feel free to share them if you wish.