The Most Powerful Way to Unclutter Your Life

"When you have peace and quiet and you're not concerned with people trying to get your attention, you're dramatically more effective and can get important work done." This is how psychologist Josh Davis describes the advantages of starting your day at 4 a.m. He notes that people booby-trap their offices with distractions: desk clutter, email pop-ups, cellphone, Facebook, other social media. However, "by waking up at 4 a.m., they've essentially wiped a lot of those distractions off their plate."
You may not decide to get up at 4 a.m. tomorrow, but you can still choose to live a less cluttered life. Here's how.
God's word teaches us to "take every thought captive to obey Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5). One way to do this is to cultivate a soul that listens to God. David testified, "For God alone my soul waits in silence" (Psalm 62:1). As a result, he could say, "Once God has spoken; twice I have heard this: that power belongs to God, and to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love" (vs. 11–12).
"God said" appears forty-six times in the Bible. We find this statement first in the third verse of the Bible (Genesis 1:3). The next-to-last verse of Scripture also quotes a direct statement of God (Revelation 22:20). Since neither human nor divine nature have changed, does it seem reasonable that the God who spoke so often in the biblical era would be silent today?
Francis Schaeffer noted that "he is there and he is not silent." Our culture desperately needs Christians to hear from Christ and speak his word to our world.
According to The Atlantic, a major reason more people don't go to church is that they don't trust religious institutions. If they knew they would receive a genuine word from God, it seems they would be more interested in attending.
Time magazine reports that "married people who start watching porn are twice as likely to be divorced in the following years as those who don't." This is especially troubling in light of the fact that 68 percent of Christian men and 50 percent of pastors reportedly view pornography regularly. Clearly, followers of Jesus need his mind in confronting our decadent culture. The more we listen to our Lord, the less we will be persuaded by our enemy.
I have a proposal: ask Jesus to speak to you through the circumstances of this day. Then pause all through your day and wait for him to answer your prayer.
As an experiment, I did this yesterday before taking my morning walk in our neighborhood. I passed crepe myrtles planted between a sidewalk and a backyard fence and heard the Spirit encourage me to "bloom where you're planted." I passed a manhole cover and was led to reflect on unseen realities beneath our visible world. I walked past the tallest tree in our neighborhood and thought of my soul: the closer I get to heaven, the better I can hear from Jesus and the further my voice will carry in sharing his word with the world.
Our Father will speak to us in simple ways like these but also in the profound challenges of our lives. In fact, he wants to speak more than most of us want to listen. To unclutter your life, quiet your soul.

LATEST POLL: Do you talk about your faith on social media? Weigh in → World Religion News Logo Religion News Religions Featured Contributors Video Culture Ethics Issues Opinion Trump Wants to Ban Anti-Semites From Entering U.S. date icon 26 Aug 2016 author icon Posted by Elisa Meyer AddThis Sharing Buttons Share to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to PrintShare to EmailShare to More Donald Trump Banning Anti-Semites Trump outlined a new proposal for an ideological screening test for “extreme vetting.” The 2016 Republican nominee for President of the US, Donald Trump presented a proposal to the American public that would effectively ban anti-Semites from entering the country. Trump was speaking in Youngstown, Ohio when he outlined his new proposal. He said, “In the Cold War, we had an ideological screening test. The time is overdue to develop a new screening test for the threats we face today. I call it extreme vetting. I call it extreme, extreme vetting.” Trump Wants to Ban Anti-Semites From Entering U.S. Tweet This The proposal is not without precedent, which is why Trump was alluding to the ideological screening tests that were ubiquitous during the Cold War, preventing communist leaning people from entering the country. Jewish groups also attempted to have broad bans placed on anyone with Nazi connections or sympathies. The proposal to ban anti-Semites from entering the country comes in the wake of terrorist attacks by extremists in several countries all over the world, notably France which has seen a dramatic increase in terrorism fueled attacks since 2015. Trump echoed this sentiment while selling his pitch for a ban on anyone found to be anti-Semitic, “As we have seen in France, foreign populations have brought their anti-Semitic attitudes with them.” Trump’s proposal would also include bans on people deemed to be intolerant to minorities, such as the LGBTQ community. This would also include people who would wish to impose Islamic religious law on the USA. The proposal has elicited sharp reactions from many quarters, including the advocacy groups for refugees, the Jewish community and the Anti-Defamation League. There have also been calls made to Trump’s campaign headquarters asking for further details on how the proposed ban would actually be implemented. Marc Stern, legal counsel for the American Jewish Committee remarked, “While we appreciate the impulse behind the suggestion that anti-Semites be barred from immigrating to the United States, we doubt it is a proposal that would have much practical effect — even if as implemented it does not succumb to dangerous stereotypes about entire groups of people being anti-Semites.” The director of the Jewish Social Roundtable, Abby Levine said, “It’s too much to expect immigrants to arrive with an outlook that is fully compatible with American values.” The Jewish Social Roundtable is an alliance of many groups and features an immigration advocacy agenda. Levine also commented, “It’s nonsensical to expect immigrants from very different cultural contexts to arrive preaching gender, racial and religious equality. New residents can be shaped by their experiences living alongside people who are different from them.” On the flip side, the director of the Wyman Institute, Rafael Medoff cautioned against rejecting outright the proposal for the ban on anti-Semites, “After World War II, the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Congress tried but failed to block legislation to admit East Europeans whom they suspected of being anti-Semitic and fascist-leaning. Although it would be difficult today to screen out anti-Semites from among potential immigrants, there is merit in the principle that bigotry is un-American and therefore should be grounds for exclusion.” Resources Times of Israel JTA Follow the Conversation on Twitter The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and are not necessarily those of World Religion News. 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