I am an incredibly impatient person! The Lord convicts me about this constantly, and I pray for a quiet heart, but it’s just always been hard for me to wait. Because of that boredom comes quickly for me.
Boredom by itself isn’t a sinful thing….It’s how we respond to those boring moments that makes a difference.
I truly believe the Lord brings boring moments of waiting into my life in order to teach me patience. But those moments are also brief opportunities in the day the refocus my mind on Him.
For every Christian, there should be a time each day dedicated to study of God’s word, and prayer. This is an absolute necessity. Sadly the busyness of life tends to keep us from meditating upon the Lord or focusing on Him for the rest of the day. A five-minute wait in line is often His way of giving us space for prayer, or remembering what the Lord taught us through His word.
Sadly we are too busy looking at our phones (at least I am!)
It isn’t that we don’t want to focus on God, it’s that the phone is incredibly convenient in the boring moments of life. We can do any number of things to keep us occupied, and pass the time. But I can’t help but think this defeats God’s purpose for boring moments. I am focusing more on my own needs than Him!
So what is the answer?
Have something in your left pocket that focuses your mind on God
I recently got back into a habit that should have never been broken. That’s writing down memory verses, and prayer cards (maybe the occasional message outline) from my devotional time on an index card, and put them into my left pocket since my phones always in my right.
There’s nothing really magical about this. It’s well known that our short-term memory cannot be relied on since so much information is coming into our minds at once. Anything you want to remember must be written down, and reviewed. So pulling out that card and reading a memory verse from devotions that morning would impress upon my mind again the Lord’s lesson for that day. And of course, specific prayer requests for loved ones with verses to go with them helps focus my busy heart on heaven.
Of course the cards themselves aren’t the only way to redeem boring moments
- You can carry a book
- Or a physical copy of the Bible
- Or spend time journaling in a notebook
- Or possibly call a Christian friend to talk about what the Lords doing in your life
The Lord gives us many moments in the day when we can lift up our eyes to him in worship, but we must put our phone away first
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