Hints of green play in the top of the trees and early flowering plants bless with colorful blooms. Spring is finally starting to show signs of new growth, and I’m so ready for a season budding with fresh hope. I’ve been frazzled and antsy, desperate for answered prayers and to find a balance.

With the start of a new Bible study, Kelly Minter’s No Other Gods, I realized my time on social media is a major problem. Sure, I can tell myself I’m ministering to others, connecting with friends, reading devotions, and encouraging others in ministry. Even though I hope to do those things, when I’m truly honest with God and myself, I waste more time online than doing anything worthwhile.

God gave me a visual the other morning. Our Maple tree is sprouting new growth. Unfortunately, the squirrels find the leaves a tasty temptation, and they do not resist temptation. Our poor tree is looking rather stressed. A Bluebird, who has a nest in our yard, will knock on our window to tell us the squirrels are too close for comfort. After taps on the window from our feathered friend, I stepped out on the patio. A squirrel jumped off the tree and ran for cover. Then, another four jumped off the branches and ran. Yikes! If we don’t make changes, the Maple tree might be stripped bare by long-tailed, furry rodents.

In the same way, social media seems to be stripping bare my time and sanity. I need to make changes.

God blessed with another visual from a squirrel. Sweet hubby moved one of our bird feeders to a shepherd crook further back in the yard to try and keep the critters from climbing on to the feeder. A few minutes later a squirrel climbed up a few feet on the pole and couldn’t go further. He returned to the ground to study and analyze the situation. Not to be dissuaded, he again climbed up the pole about a foot, then shook his body. The quaking of the pole caused some of the feeder’s content to scatter on the ground. He then happily munched on what had fallen. Squirrels are clever little things, aren’t they?

Like the squirrel that shook the pole, sometimes we have to shake things up to get the good stuff. I too need to shake things up for my spiritual, emotional, and physical health. I need to chase away the things that chase me away from God. I need to spend time with God without running to immediately post what I’m reading, writing, or learning. Instead, I need to wait for the Holy Spirit’s prompting to share. I’m shaking things up, I’m chasing away things that strip bare my soul and chase me away from God, and I’m relaxing into the strong arms of my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Are you looking for the good stuff? In your spiritual walk, what do you need to shake up and what do you need to chase away?

Heavenly Father, please forgive me for being so distracted. Help me to use my time better and to use social media in a way that honors You. Help me to chase away and throw aside everything that keeps me from running the race You have given me. Thank You for shaking me up and showing me the things that have come between us. I ask for Your forgiveness. Thank You that Your kingdom is never shaken. Help me to cease striving and know that You are God.

Thank You, Father for this day. Help me to rejoice and be glad in the days You have given. I love You, Father. I’m resting in You and praising You.

I ask these things in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, who is my Savior. Amen.

“Only the things that cannot be shaken will remain. So let us be thankful, because we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken. We should worship God in a way that pleases him with respect and fear… throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us.” ~ Hebrews 12:27b-28 (NCV), Hebrews 12:1 (AMPC) 

Emphasis added on scripture.

Sometimes ya just gotta shake things up first appeared on https://lisabuffaloe.com