Tearfund Lent Devotional Day 6

Pay attention

‘Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?’ (Psalm 139:7, NIV)

God is omnipresent. Always present, at every moment.

We don't need to wait for God to 'show up'. What we need to do is open our awareness. Faith, in a way, is therefore merely the practice of paying attention.

That’s easier said than done in the age of distraction, when we're encouraged to focus anywhere but the present moment. We can’t be distant from God, but we can be distracted from God.

So here is a challenge for you this Lent: pay attention.

Pay attention to yourself. Your depths. Your aches. Your desires. Your tiredness. Your anger. God is in those things. Pay attention.

Pay attention to the world. It really is astonishing. Pay attention to other people. They're all going through something.

Pay attention to hope. It’s real. While the news tends to focus our attention only on what’s going wrong in the world, there is plenty going right. God is not in a state of dismay; God is moving, working, feeding the great work of restoration.

Always-present God, help us to pay attention. To the world. To other people. To ourselves. And, ultimately, to you. Amen.

Gideon Heugh

Gideon writes for Tearfund and is a poet and environmentalist