Distraction (noun) Dis·trac·tion: Something or someone that prevents someone from giving full attention to something or someone else.

Reading that, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Is it your phone or something on your phone? A game you're addicted to or social media? Is it a person? Your boyfriend or girlfriend, your family, your friends, your teachers? Is it a sport that consumes your life? Is it your job? Because you work so many hours?

In other words, distractions can be a lot of things in your life. But what if I asked you a more specific question?

What in your life is "distracting" you from God? If you go back to that definition it uses the words "prevents you from giving your full attention to something or someone?" So let me ask that question again: "What in your life is preventing you from giving your full attention to God?"

I know in life, in general, I personally am a very distracted person. Granted when I am given a task or project I am usually determined to finish it. I usually get very distracted by little things in the process. And I mean the littlest things such as food, my phone, people, random noises (like the refrigerator rebooting itself.) The tiniest things can distract me from devoting my full attention to what I am working on.

But when I ask myself what is preventing me from devoting my full attention to God. The answer seems to consume a wider range of things. Things that aren't so little because my life consists of them. My job(s), my MANY responsibilities, my friends, my current relationship (if I am in one), my family, my phone (this is a big one because I can literally be spending time with God and my phone will go off and suddenly I am scrolling through social media.) Is it weird that I think my church distracts me sometimes from devoting my full attention to God? Do you feel like that too? Not meaning during a Sunday service, but meaning the hours I spend volunteering or practicing for worship, or being a leader on a youth trip, serving in general?

Something I have noticed about myself is that if I don't devote a certain time to give God my full attention I never will. My life will begin to consume me, I will forget about God and all his promises, I will eventually find myself lost and alone at one point not knowing where to go next. I try to devote my mornings to him. Before I start my day. unfortunately, that doesn't always work because I hit the snooze button one too many times, but that just means I have to be more intentional about spending time with him before I go to bed.

Few reasons I enjoy my morning time with God:

- Mornings are quiet. No one is blowing up my phone. No one is awake and my world tends to be less loud in the morning.

- It symbolizes me starting my day with God and putting him in charge of my day and all that it is going to consist of

- Lastly, it gives me a chance to drink my coffee and get physically and spiritually ready/energized for the day!

The reality of it is your life is the very thing that is distracting you from devoting your attention to the person who is in charge of it.

Challenge: Take a minute right now, use the notepad on your phone and make two lists. One that consists of things that distract you while working on homework, projects, tasks, etc. And the other list consisting of things that distract you from devoting your full attention to God.

If one of your things appears on both list challenge yourself to limit the time you spend with it. That very thing is probably beginning to control your life.

"No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and the world." - Matthew 6:24

"Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established." - Proverbs 16:3

"Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ" — Colossians 2:6-8

Listening (verb) lis·ten: Make an effort to hear something or be alert and ready to hear something.

While you're reading this I want you to picture yourself in this scenario as vividly as possible. It should be easy because most of us have been in this situation at one point or another in our lives.

Scenario: You're in a class. Could be a college class or maybe you're still in high school, middle school, maybe a support group etc. Whatever class you're in you are listening to the instructor/teacher lecture on a topic. You are aggressively taking notes so you can retain all the information better. You are also so focused on taking notes because your instructor told you there is going to be a test when he is done talking. Now, you start to look around the room (you start to get distracted.) You immediately notice a few people not paying attention at all and that makes you realize you aren't either so you quickly focus your attention back. This happens multiple times. Your phone vibrates on your desk and you check and take your attention off of the instructor and answer the text. Then you see a notification on facebook or twitter so you check that too. Oh, and you also realize you forgot to text your roommate to get toilet paper at the store while she was out so you do that too. This happens multiple times too. Your instructor continued to talk but as you focus back you realize you missed a lot and you have no idea what he is talking about now.

Let me ask you these questions, how much time did you spend distracted from the instructor? Better yet what all did you listen to while he continued to talk when you were distracted? Probably not much.

Now, that you've got that picture in your head. I want to put some symbolism to that. Imagine God as the instructor. He's talking and you are listening sometimes but you get distracted. You realize you missed a lot of what he has said. So now it is time for that test. God is putting you through something hard in your life. You go to him in prayer about it, you ask him to tell you what to do, you beg him to give you hints. But all he does is watch you carefully and remains silent.

Sometimes when you wonder why you can't hear Gods voice through trials remember that the teacher always stays quiet during the test.

Also, remember that God was, that teacher talking to you that whole time you were on your phone during the lecture, and what he said during that time could've been some key information for that trial.

Keep in mind that this can also relate to your life, not just a classroom or sit down setting. You can let your life get so busy and let the people in it distract you. You can get so caught up in sports and social events and even church serving opportunities that you lose sight, or should I say, lose your ability to hear Gods voice. Chances are during that time of you being so "busy" God was talking the whole time. You missed every word because life distracted you. People distracted you. Your phone distracted you.

In order to hear God speak you are going to have to turn down the volume of the world.

As the first scripture says (Matthew 6:24) "it is impossible to serve two masters."

How do you feel when two people are trying to talk to you at one time? You get confused and feel stressed, right? So you usually ask one to stop talking while you listen to the other.

My question to you is: Which one are you going to tell to be quiet, the world? or God? Better yet, which one do you find yourself listening to more? The world or God?

My pastor told me something that stuck with me one day. He told me this when I was complaining that I couldn't hear God speaking to me and I needed him too desperately.

"God only speaks to those who take the time to LISTEN. God also LISTENS to those who take time to pray. Be both of those people and you will hear God almost every day of your life."

This made me realize that sometimes we as people expect God to show us some big-time directional signs. Meanwhile, God is saying "I don't need to show you a sign when I can just tell you." But he is also saying, and this one may hurt:

"I can't tell you anything if you are not listening or paying attention." - God