Read it: Acts 17:10-32, Luke 10:38-42
Live it:
Our reading today takes us through Paul and Silas’s visit to the community of the Bereans and then to Paul’s visit to the community of the Athenians. After Paul and Silas went to Berea, the Bereans searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were telling them the truth. In Athens, most of those in the community seemed preoccupied with discussing the latest ideas. Based on their response to the teachings, Athens seemed like a very noisy place and Berea seemed peaceful and reflective.
There is a lot of noise in our lives every day. The noise of news, the noise of ideas, and the noise of negativity. Are you going to be preoccupied with the noise? We just went through a busy time for everyone with Christmas and New Year’s. During this time and the time leading up to it, we had the ability to have something to occupy every minute of our time. As we get back into our routines, hopefully, you will have time to evaluate your priorities and determine if something in your life is a priority that shouldn’t be. In addition to that, I hope you can find time to rest in the Lord.
At Focus Church, we make our prayer service at 9 am a priority every Sunday. At a recent prayer service, Pastor Rafael reminded us of the story of Mary and Martha, specifically how Martha was focused on tasks and Mary was focused on resting in the Lord. Our 9 am prayer service is just like that. So much goes into preparing for our service, but at 9 am, everyone stops what they are doing, and we get together and focus on Jesus.
One thing I would encourage you to do to learn how to not be preoccupied with the noise is to make attending our 9 am prayer service a priority for you; it’s open to anyone. Maybe rest is something of a struggle for you, but the prayer time is a great place to start to learn how to rest in the Lord, and then you can integrate it into your everyday life.
Ps. James