Abdication

Thursday, October 30, 2025

Good morning, Lord

Father in Heaven, I seek You first-the knowledge of Your kingdom and Your righteousness. Fill my consciousness constantly and complete Your joy in me as I take up my cross and follow...In Jesus' name…

Memory verse: Psalm 27:13-14 (NIV)

“I remain confident of this, I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

Verse of the day: Ephesians 2:8-9

8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Today’s reading: Jeremiah 20-21 2 Timothy 4

Abdication

I have given three reasons for prayerlessness: disappointment, deviancy, and distraction. We get disappointed and down when our prayers are not answered the way we want and need. We deviate from God’s plan and sin. But the last one, distraction, should be abdication. Distractions are not sin in themselves. Abdication means ‘a failure to fulfill a duty or responsibility’-that is sin in God’s eyes. A distraction can present itself and we can turn away-but-if we allow ourselves to be distracted from God’s will for us, this is abdication-sin.

Some point to the ‘dopamine-doom loops’ of all our gadgets. Some go back to the beginning of radio and then TV and say this was the downfall. But it goes back to Adam in the garden when he failed with responsibility with the forbidden fruit. He was with Eve when she took the fruit(Genesis 2:4-3:24)-he could have stopped her-but she was his ‘dopamine doom’ and sin entered.

So how much time do we spend on gadgets and TV and pleasing our inner fleshly desires? If you had spent one half of the time you have spent on your phone and TV in the past 2 years in prayer, how would your heart and soul be different? How would your life be different?

It comes back around to priorities and what we feel is really-really important. Is it escape from reality or the reality of our need for intimacy with God?

The opposite of abdication is acceptance. Will we accept and dive into our responsibilities before God?

Are you ready to say, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”?(Joshua 24:15)

Tell God you want to be in that place.

...because He loves you, He will do it...

Father in Heaven,

Help me hold Your name above all else and let Your kingdom come in my heart and help me do Your will. Give me today what You know I need and the desire to use it all. Forgive me for choosing distractions. Deliver me from evil.

Father of all,

In the name of Christ Jesus,

Amen