Need God? Read God.

It's always interesting how when I find myself feeling out of touch with God, all I need to do is take a quick inventory of my daily pursuits to see I'm not spending enough time reading the bible or engaging in heartfelt prayer.

There are certainly seasons where I feel closer to or further from Him, like I exist in some elliptical orbit around the Throne. But, more often than not, when I feel unplugged, I can look down and see the power cord in my hand, recently pulled from the socket by that guy I see in the mirror. Even though this isn't news to me, I still learn it regularly. Just like I did about ten minutes ago when I started catching up on some devotionals from the past several days; things that might have brightened my outlook last week had I bothered to read them when I should have.

I've been going through some pretty stressful business stuff lately that seems to get worse each day. I know God will take care of me, and I count my blessings regularly that I have such an amazing wife and awesome son: the family that's far better than I could ever deserve. But, the business stuff is really dragging me down.

Those who know me well know I fall more into the "everything's great!" camp than the "yes, I need to open up and let my Brothers and Sisters in Christ help me shoulder this" camp. But, lately, I've sought the fellowship of two good friends to discuss these things in-depth and it's helped greatly. I've also admitted flat out that fixing these troubles is beyond my ability and I'm now 100% reliant on God to take care of the situation.

But, while I'm sitting here hoping He'll fix things, like most sons hope their fathers will, I'm neglecting what He wants from me. I'm neglecting my time in the word and my prayer time. I've replaced that time with some really great stuff though, like worry, stress, fear and frustration. Sounds like a good deal, right?

Right?

Well, my troubles certainly aren't going away overnight, but the other things that come along with them disappear like mist in a windstorm as soon as I open my heart to prayer and when I read God's word.

So, even though my problems seem impossible for me to repair and have resisted my every effort to fix them, I'm good. Because:

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26

So, if you're going through some tough stuff, and let's face it, we all do whether we want to admit it or not, always remember we need God, so we should pray often and we need to read God's word regularly. The rest is just details that He'll sort out.