We Interrupt This Program
How can we pray for you today?
“The Lord is my shepherd…” (Psalm 23:1a)
“We interrupt this program…” and then comes the latest news flash from a radio or television station. We may hear an important piece of information, but occasionally the bit of news affects our lives only minimally. After the news comes another announcement, “We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.”
In our relationship with God, too often we think He only breaks into our consciousness when He has some “news” of great importance. Life is too often regarded as “regular programming” with God bursting into our awareness only when He wants to halt us in our tracks or get our attention in a specific way.
Perhaps we are only aware of His presence Him when we intentionally call on Him. (Which usually only happens when we need His help!) Occasionally the sight of a snowcapped mountain will remind us to praise Him but when there are no visible mountains, we easily go on about our business. We return to our “regular programming.”
It seems that David got it right as recorded in the first words of the familiar Psalm 23. “The Lord is my shepherd…” All the verbs in the psalm are present tense except for the final phrase when the Shepherd King contemplates his glorious and unending future.
In Grace: An Invitation to Life, the authors write, “it is possible to live in the unceasing care of a relentlessly attentive and gracious God” (emphasis mine). Living this way is true “regular programming” with the events of life breaking in only as minimal interruptions.
Dear God, Help me to focus first on you, and only after on my circumstances. Thank you that You are always enough. Amen
Question: Is God part of your “regular programming?”
3 Responses to “We Interrupt This Program”
Leave a Reply
Start a Conversation
Media
What Do You Fear?
What do you fear, and why? Is it holding you back from realizing your full potential?
>Watch
- Contact
- |
- Advertising
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Link to Us
- |
- Media Releases
- |
- What we believe
good article very thought provoking thank you for this article
I had to come a long way in this area. For the past 2 and a half years, I have been in a very high profile job which attracted a lot of positive attention as I was helping to develop at-risk youths & communities. This, however, brought along with it some enemies, or moreso, people who just don’t like me. They are so consumed with me that they even attempt to spread rumours about me that at one point in time could have comprised my job. I have kept the Lord as my regular programming, asking for protection & strength whenever I enter a vehicle, whenever I enter my office, whenever I sit at a meeting, and so on. I was looking for a job for about 1 year and a half prior to getting this job & I have continually praised Him for everything He has given me.
Thank you so much for this tremendous article, Marilyn! God is part of my regular programming, but I confess that I need practice when it comes to listening to Him on a deeper level. I find it really difficult to slow down and just “be still and know that He is God.” Yet, I know that, in order to have peace, this is absolutely essential. I have tuned out television and secular music and radio, and with the exception of staying up to date on what is happening on the news so that I can pray and be in touch with our world, I do my best to focus my mind on God and His Word and activities that involve the Lord and serving Him. Today, to give such a message – that to tune out the television and the stereo and all that is secular to give time to the Lord, especially if one is tempted into sin or offended by the provocative and vulgar language and images on even mainstream television – and if we are Christians, it would be difficult not to be offended at the very least – many consider such a message radical and prudish. I consider it to be the wisdom of the Lord, allowing Him time and space to speak into our hearts, and disallowing Satan to speak into our lives through mainstream media.
God bless you for this, Marilyn! You spoke directly to my heart today, and to just what I needed to hear in my life.