When I drive around the major freeways of Metro Atlanta, I have to put the pedal to the metal just to keep pace with the traffic flow. Everyone’s in a hurry, and the hurry seems to be getting bigger by the day. Driving through a 55 mph speed zone, I am often one of the slowest, tooling along at 70!
Life seems to have become like the rush of traffic. We pace in front of the microwave because we think heating food takes an eternity. We text and email and expect instant replies. We order online and groan when the expected delivery is over 2 or 3 days.
All that rushing and hurrying is training our brains to crave quick responses and reducing our attention span to that of a goldfish (which is about 8 seconds, according to scientists). If an article is longer than a 5-minute read, we skip it. If a video is longer than 2 minutes, we look for a shorter version.
That poses a danger to our relationship with God. He is never in a hurry. Hearing Him requires careful meditation on Scripture, stillness, and waiting – the exact opposite of how the world wants us to live and how our minds are being conditioned.
It’s a critical element of our spiritual disciplines I had neglected once again. Getting ready for our move to Kenya just over a month away, our lives are filled with to-do lists and conversations about what we must remember to buy, get rid of, take, or give away. Endless research of how to arrange for what in terms of phones, banking, and getting our house ready for our prolonged absence. And, of course, worry that we might have forgotten or overlooked something important.
Moreover, those things had begun to take over my prayer life – legitimately so, but only to a degree. When I exceeded that degree, God stepped in. The Holy Spirit spoke while I was on my morning walk.
“Take your foot off the gas and simply enjoy the company of the Father,” He said.
I realized that my prayer life had become concern-driven and that I was feeling stressed. I was agitated, not joyful. I wasn’t enjoying His company. I was rushing into the throne room every day with a list of requests for logistical help and not much else.
Psalm 16:11 came to mind: You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
The first step to getting reacquainted with the fullness of joy in His presence is taking your foot off the gas. Let your mind slow down. Blot out the busyness that overwhelms you. Keep the millions of things on your to-do list and the worry of not having enough time to do them away from your thoughts for a while. Be still and think about His goodness, His love for you, His knowledge of you before the beginning of time, the redemption of your life and the assurance of your salvation, His faithfulness, and all the ways in which He is at work in your life. And above all, the beauty of His holiness and the glory of His perfections.
When you blot out the raging world around you that assaults your mind every day, enjoyment of His company returns. Not only that, it stays with you when you return to the world and deal with its hurry and business. You find an inner peace amid the hustle that wasn’t there before. You experience a continuous awareness of His presence that warms your heart amid four lanes of traffic going 75 in a 55.
God’s desire for us is not merely to check off items on our to-do list. It is to enjoy His presence. According to the Westminster Confession, the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Another way to put that is “to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.”
The greatest worship we can give God is to enjoy Him above all other things in life. It’s what He created humans for – to be happy in Him. Evangelism – yes. Ministry – yes. Missions – yes. Productivity – also yes. But not without joy in Him! If we miss that, we miss the chief end for which He created and saved us.
Enjoying God’s company requires some intentional measures on our end to set boundaries around the busyness and speed of the world in which we live. We must be disciplined in guarding our time with Him alone. We must train our brains to read and meditate on Scripture. We must build our faith to see the unseen.
It’s worth it. There is no greater, deeper, more steadfast joy than being in the company of the God of the universe and knowing that He wants to hang out with us like He did with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before they sinned and were driven to His presence.
Think about it today. Have you lost your joy? Do you feel burdened by to-do’s, ever-evolving technology, and the fast pace of life? Does God feel far away, and is the idea of enjoying the company of the unseen Creator of the Universe an unfamiliar reality?
Then, take your foot off the gas. Meditate on Psalm 16:11 and let its promise tantalize you. Think about what fullness of joy means. Let it draw you to His presence, where you find your chief end in glorifying God by enjoying Him!