Staying Focused While Spending Time with God

Have you ever started your devotions to find yourself only minutes into them, wondering how you got away from the scripture or your prayer list? Staying focused can be a problem when spending time with God as I realized when I pulled up this week’s image.

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I’m going to throw it out there. I’m not sure what that building is. My best guess—a turkey or chicken coop.

I took the picture because I thought the structure was interesting. No turkeys or chickens strutting about at the time and I’m not sure I’ve seen any since. An occasional horse stands close by, but no fowl.

A wake of turkey vultures congregates along the road next to the field occasionally, but I can’t imagine anyone building them a house.

Would they? Build a house for that venue?

In case you’re interested… Vultures are relatively social and often feed, fly, or roost in large flocks. A group of vultures is called a committee, venue, or volt. In flight, a flock of vultures is a kettle, and when the birds are feeding together at a carcass, the group is called a wake.¹

Would you?

You’re probably thinking, That’s a crazy question.

Why would anyone build a house for vultures?

Vultures don’t need houses. Besides, who would want to raise vultures? Do people farm vulture eggs? I found very little during a quick internet search regarding eating vulture eggs. I know of no vulture egg farms, no end caps at the grocery store with vulture egg, milk, and bacon displays, and no vulture egg omelets at the diner. Apparently, the vulture egg business isn’t profitable.

Now, I found a YouTube video of a guy from North Carolina who performed about the same amount of research as me and determined he’d have to eat one to see if they were edible. He scrambled it as he would have a regular chicken egg, ate it, and seemed to do okay. At least he appeared fine as the video ended.

One viewer comically commented, “…and then he died three days later.” There was no official follow up on the video, so I’m assuming he’s just fine.²

Still, the thought of eating vulture eggs may strike you as grotesque. Not surprising, but when you consider how well-suited vultures are for their role in the ecosystem, you will, like me, appreciate the miracle of their make-up.

For instance, vultures have strong corrosive stomach acids to aid them in doing, you know—what we’ve all seen them doing on the side of the road. In addition, they use urohidrosis (or urohydrosis) to cool their legs. I’ll let you make your way to the Fun Facts link in the footnotes to get a better idea of what that entails. Fascinating.

How in the world did we get from devotions, to vultures going to the bathroom on their own legs?

In this case, don’t blame yourself, I took you there. However, you can see the path from opening our Bible to “I’ll do better tomorrow,” can happen just like that.

I love what Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8-9 (NASB).

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

Paul provides a wonderful list of items for us. He’s telling us God wants us to dwell on the things of God. To do that we must remain in them for a time. How do we do that with the world’s distractions?

You know. Vulture eggs and all that.

Four steps to staying focused during time with God.

1. Set aside a specific time. Preferably one in which you have energy.
2. Ask God to help you focus and meditate on His Word.
3. Start your devotions with application in mind. Be intentional.
4. Practice daily to create good habits.

If you struggle to stay focused while spending time with God, go back to these basics. As Paul reminds us, the benefit is “…the God of peace will be with you.” Isn’t that worth it?

Let us know what takes your focus away and how you deal with it. You may help someone by sharing.

Today’s feature photo comes from a “photo-a-day” challenge I pursued several years ago. The photo inspires the topic. For me, the posts challenge my creativity, writing discipline, and dependence on God for His message. My prayer is that you find hope in God’s Word, and that you’ll share your hope with others.

¹Fun Facts About Vultures https://www.thespruce.com/fun-facts-about-vultures-385520

²Turkey Vulture Egg, Edible or not? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKtRq-NAkmk