Deuteronomy 8.11 jumped off the page today.

Make sure you don’t forget God.

Whatever you do, don’t let this happen.  Prioritise your remembering.  Don’t forget who He is and who He made you to be.

But it is so easy to forget.

If life in 2018 is marked by anything, it is marked by distractions.

And, these distractions don’t wait in line like polite customers at the Post Office!  No, they crowd in like shoppers on a black Friday.  They jostle and pull and stampede. And yet often we don’t even notice.  That is why they are so dangerous.

In the parable of the sower, Jesus doesn’t pull any punches about distractions.  He says they actually choke good things God has planted.

Why doesn’t that scare me as much as it should?

It is possible, even probable, that I can miss opportunities from God just because I am busy with something else.  I can miss God’s voice because louder ones have my attention.  I can completely forget promises He has spoken to me.

I can forget Him.

Matt Chandler says, ‘”Find the things that stir your affections for Christ and saturate your life in them. Find the things that rob you of that affection and walk away from them. That’s the Christian life as easy as I can explain it for you.”

Maybe it really is that easy.

Maybe the grace that I extend to myself to watch what I want to watch or buy what I want to buy or do what I want to do is actually slowly, quietly stealing my passion for God.

Because, whether I want to believe it or not, my affection and my passion are not endless resources.  The are finite and they have to be spent very carefully.  

Jesus said that we can only follow one leader and that a life focused on earthly treasures has no energy left for heavenly ones.

Mary understood but Martha didn’t.  You can’t be two places at once, so choose wisely.

Jesus tried to teach the rich young ruler that you can’t follow God and obsessively love your stuff at the same time.  Our hearts just aren’t that big.

Jesus teaches us, again and again, in His parables and teachings, that what we chase is what we love the most and that loving God means choosing Him first.  

And choosing to put God first isn’t a spiritually vague concept.  It means deciding every day to minimise distractions and to give Him my very best, not my leftovers.

I know it is a battle.  Life is busy.  We have a wedding in less than three weeks and university application deadlines are looming.  My dishwasher just died and my hair needs to be coloured.

But I have the power to decide what I think about when I wake up and what I think about as I fall asleep. 

We all do.

Remember Jesus today.  Count your blessings and your answered prayers.  Turn worries into a conversation with the only one who can do anything about it.

Relax, He is in control. 

Believe, He is good.

Smile, you are adored.  

Remember, you are His.