Daniel 12:4 But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.

      The inundation of ever-flowing information rushing towards our minds is now coming at the volume and pressure of a firehose trying to fill a glass of water. Dan.12:4 But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. We have very little room to process the barrage of everyone’s talking points simultaneously. A landfill of excessive verbiage is piling up in our mind, becoming a mountain of bits, bytes, statistics, facts, rumours, figures, and data that we cannot find room to contain, nor the time or willpower to sort out. Like many people, I cannot keep up with the fast acceleration of knowledge being presented. I feel overwhelmed and crushed by the flood of everyone’s opinions and verbal outcries over their interpretations of all that is happening. Where is God’s garden of quiet?

      We live on a bad-news planet where we, as Christians, are trying to bring the good news of Jesus Christ, the Saviour, to this lost world. We are competing and vying with everyone, and everything for the same resource, which is everyone’s attention and dedication to what is being offered. The world’s promises are being proffered to fulfill everything people have hoped and wished for. These fantasies are illusory and impossible to achieve, leaving the hearts of mankind in painful emptiness. Hag. 1:6 You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes! Truly, the world has created a junkyard of numerous thoughts, and we need to sort them according to the will of God.

      How do we turn this landfill and volume of information into an organized library of God’s spiritual acumen that we can walk in and understand? Can we find the thread of hermeneutical holiness that God is trying to get through to our hearts, while bypassing all the world’s shadows and whispers of conspiracy theories jostling for attention? Is this what happened to the Laodicean church? Had they become like the Ephesians who lost their first love for God? The Laodiceans had become full of the worldliness that surrounded their daily lives. As so many people do, this might be what caused them to place Christ in second, third and even last place in their lives. Rev. 3:15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. Jesus had become an afterthought rather than the Lord of their hearts.

      Is this how we become dull in our relationship with the Lord? We become so distracted by all the stuff being offered to us in every manner that the soft still voice of the Holy Spirit gets washed out by the volume of worldly nonsense. Day by day, the noises of life get louder, and the difficulty of being still before the Lord becomes an exercise of great will. Mark 4:19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. We once came to God first and took time to hear from Him, but it is now becoming a religious task. There is wisdom in God’s Word that says to be still and know who your God is. Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!

      I believe we can find the truth of God’s intention if we are attentive to reading God’s Word and praying to Him for the Holy Spirit’s understanding He wants within our hearts. John 16:13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. The Holy Spirit knows the mind of God. He can show us what His will is so that we, too, may be in relationship with God the Father, as we walk through the vitriol of worldly screaming while keeping our robes of righteousness without spot and filth. We can keep our testimony of honest humility when the Word of God’s anointing is upon us. John 17:15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.

      The Laodiceans had become dull and insipid in their hearts toward God, who had saved them from the pagan lives they were living. Their confession of “Jesus is Lord” had been replaced with, “I am rich and I need nothing.” Rev. 3:17 For you say, ‘I’m rich; I have become wealthy and need nothing,’ and you don’t realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I do not want to get to a point where I have become wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked and didn’t even see it coming, all because my mind and heart had become the dumping ground for the world’s empty promises. I want to be the vessel who hears the Lord and is available for His use. I want to hear on that glorious day what the servant heard from his master. “Well done, faithful servant, enter my joy. Matt 25:21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

    We need to allow the judgments of God to refine our thoughts and hearts so that when God speaks, we hear Him. Let us not become the hoarders of worldly stuff, but let us be the ones who sow good seed and reap a harvest in the Kingdom of God. Mk 4:24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear. By the measure you use, it will be measured to you — and more will be added to you. 25 For whoever has, more will be given to him, and whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Yes, Lord, give us more of Your good grace that we may hear and obey Your Word.