“And He said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 1 Kings 19:11-13 (ESV)
Last week we talked about recognizing God’s voice among other voices. This week I’d like to dive deeper into a piece of this same passage that God struck my heart with.
It’s in verse 13.
Look closely at Elijah’s response when he recognizes God is here to meet with him.
He wrapped his face in his cloak.
Elijah took the time to show reverence in the situation he was walking into. He not only recognized God’s voice- but he recognized who God is. That He deserves our reverence and awe. That He is holy. He didn’t walk out there nonchalantly. He acknowledged God’s greatness that he was being asked to enter into.
After reading this, I felt God’s whisper in my own heart asking, “Christi, do you enter into Our time together acknowledging who I am?”
And my heart broke. Because I knew the answer was not always yes, but it should be.
Sometimes I’m very intentional and focused in my time with God. But, other times all it takes is for my phone to light up and my attention and heart forget who I’m talking to.
We have so much happening around us today that it’s become normal to do two things at once and think we’re paying full attention to both. I can easily listen to a podcast and do house work. Watch a TV show and be in a back-and-forth texting conversation with a friend. These aren’t terrible ways to spend some time, but when it comes to our personal time with God, He deserves our full attention.
If we want to learn and hear His voice in the time we spend with Him, we need to remember Who we’re talking to.
Giving full attention to something is a concept I’m constantly trying to get my 3-year-old to grasp. He is HIGHLY distracted a lot of the time.
The other evening I asked him to start cleaning up his toys before bedtime routine began. His job was to pick up the 10 blocks scattered on the floor, toss them into the bucket where they belonged, and put the bucket up on the toy shelf.
Sounds simple. There was just one problem.
Ace listened to what I was asking of him and sat on the floor to gather the blocks. But in the middle of picking up, he caught a glimpse of someone mowing their lawn outside our window. This might as well have been his favorite Mickey Mouse episode on the TV.
He slowly tossed the blocks in the bucket one by one, with one eye on the bucket, one eye out the window. Some made it in, some took a few tries. Finally, he got them all into the bucket and as he was placing the bucket on the shelf, the lawn mower went by again and he was staring out the window. The bucket only made it halfway onto the shelf and crashed down to the ground with the blocks bouncing out across the floor.
I heard the crash and knew exactly what had happened. This wasn’t the first time a lawn mowing distraction caused a mess. So I asked him to clean them up again and put it on the shelf.
After what felt like seventeen reminders but was probably closer to four, he heard me over his wide-eyed fix on the lawn mower and bent down to start all over again. Then, he quickly shoved the bucket up on the shelf so he could run to the window and watch the mower.
Yet again, the bucket wasn’t solidly on the shelf and fell. I walked over and tried to help him see that if he just put his full attention onto what he was doing, this wouldn’t keep happening to him.
It took him three tries, and a few eye rolls that I feel he’s much too young to give already, to finally get the block bucket safely on the shelf.
It wasn’t that he was incapable of picking up his blocks, but his attention was elsewhere. And not only did it undermine his focus, but it showed me where hearing my voice ranked up against what was happening around him.
Without meaning to, when we allow ourselves to forget who we’re meeting with and let something else take part of our attention while we’re talking with God, we’re choosing that distraction as more than or just as important as God is to us.
If I were to ask you which is more important to you: your relationship with God or your phone? Or talking with God or getting busy work done? It’d seem like an obvious question, even offensive. But, does your heart’s focus during your time spent with God reflect that?
When our attention is split between multiple things going on, we can’t give our full attention to anything. But if we take the time to remind ourselves Who’s presence we are walking into before we dive into our prayer requests or reading, it can help keep our attention focused on Who we’re meeting with.
Do you go into your time with God the same way you sit down on the couch and watch a show?
Remember who you’re spending time with. Comfort and safety with our Lord is good and natural the more intimately we know Him. But, not sloppiness. Not halfhearted seeking. Not one eye reading the Bible, the other watching out for a text we’re waiting to receive.
To learn God’s voice, we need to remind our hearts Who we are talking to and bring our full attention to our time spent with Him.
A question I’ve been asking myself this week is how would my time with God look differently if I first stopped to remind my heart Who I am about to talk with?
It’s helped me check my heart.
It’s kept me from interrupting my prayer time to quickly text someone back, or put my Bible down as soon as I hear my washer buzzer to switch over the laundry.
Elijah took the time to cover his face with his cloak as a sign that his heart knew Who’s presence he was walking into.
Do you go into your time with God with the acknowledgement and reverence of who God is?
From one of His children to another,
Christi
Love this reminder!