Have you ever had a child seek your undivided attention with great determination? As a grandmother of three young grandchildren, this has happened to me on numerous occasions. My grandchildren want to be assured that I am totally focused on what they are doing .... not on something else. 

Although they are young, they realize that they are competing with a multitude of distractions. Think about it .... How many times have you pretended to be listening to someone when your mind was actually millions of miles away? How many times have OUR minds wandered away from God during our Bible reading, during our prayer time? 

Today's scripture advises us to be still in the presence of the Lord and to WAIT for Him to ACT. Sadly, many of us have a difficult time BEING STILL in His presence. There are just too many things going on in our lives. Often we only take time for a short, quick prayer in our times of need.  Then, we EXPECT God to respond to our feeble attempts to reach out to Him.  We even wonder why He doesn't deliver according to our expectations. 

I once read that "a lot of people TALK to God, but they never HEAR from God. For them, prayer is a monologue" --- all about themselves. Instead of making our time with God all about us, we need to structure our prayer time as a dialogue ... a two-way conversation.  We can do this by speaking to Him and then waiting  patiently for Him to respond to us ... for Him to ACT in our lives. 

My challenge to you during this Christmas season is to give to God the only gift that He truly desires ... TIME with you.  Please know that the focus of this time is not measured in quantity - the amount of time we spend with Him. It is actually based on quality - the amount of our heart that we open up to Him during our time together.  In return for this quality time spent with Him, He will respond in an unbelievable way. Isaiah 40:31 promises that "those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary." 

Dear Lord, Help me to slow down long enough to hear from You - to be strengthened in Your presence.  My greatest desire is to know more and more about You each and everyday of my life. 

I thank You, my Jesus, for dying for me. I believe that You are Lord and that God raised You from the grave so that I can have eternal life.