Nehemiah 6:1-9

Nehemiah 6:1-9
English Standard Version (ESV)

  I am very, very easily distracted.  Many of us are--an email or something on TV or a passing thought prevents us from staying on task and completing the work we are in the middle of.  Currently, I'm writing this as I try and pack up with a television on in the background as I'm wondering how Rachel and the kids have been doing while I have been absent.  I'm very distracted.
  It's important that each one of us make room for God and for God alone.  When we settle ourselves into a place where we have tried to eliminate distractions as much as possible, we make room for our souls to listen for the Word of God.  We're not distracted by every little thing, and in that quiet space we can truly listen for  God.
  I fool myself all the time when I think I can listen for God in the midst of everything else I am doing.  So often, what ends up happening is that I spend jumbled time and call it devotional, but in reality I've just wasted an opportunity to listen for God by listening to everything else.
  So let us find and cultivate places and spaces where we can focus on God and God alone.  In those places, may we prepare ourselves and be receptive to what God has to say to us.