A brief description of what this lesson covers and what you will learn
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Romans 8:28-30
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Understanding our human limitations in time, attention, and knowledge when it comes to knowing God.
It is easy to blame our context for why we can't encounter God. There's a saying, "To make a mistake is human, but to blame it on someone else, that's even more human."
So our context does create challenges for encountering God. We need to look at that, because I don't want us to think individualistically, but to see the bigger picture.
We bring enough limitations to encountering God… just by ourselves. We have limited capacity to know and love God.
In Psalm 90:10, we read, "The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away."
Toil and trouble. It is normal for us to get so consumed with the problems of our lives that we neglect to consider God.
And even without any problems, our attention is often not focused on God. We're sleeping, we're doing our jobs, we're talking to a friend.
We are very distracted! Facebook! YouTube! Instagram! TikTok! Memes! Notifications!
And we know so little about God. A 2020 study reported that only 9% of American adults read the Bible daily. The same study found that only 22% of Americans would say that their choices and relationships are shaped by the Bible.
In many ways, we have a limited capacity to understand God.
Psalm 90:10
The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.
What distractions most often pull your attention away from God?
How do the demands of daily life affect your capacity to know God?
Android phones have a feature called "Digital Wellbeing" and Apple phones have a feature called "Screen Time." Open this app up and see how much time you've spent on various apps in the past week.
How do you feel about what you found?
Identify areas where you may allocate more time to your spiritual growth.
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