Given August 29, 2018 
I have a smartphone and a smart watch. They connect with each other and provide me with information, alerts, and, well, the time of day. It’s a pretty good relationship. The other day I had stopped at the Post Office to check the mail and, as usual, I parked as far away from the door as possible so I could get some extra steps in which would be recorded on my watch and sent to my phone. Being a former Health and Physical Education teacher, I know the importance of fitness and try to do what I can to keep my body in shape. Well, as I approached the door of the Post Office, I felt my watch vibrate on my wrist and was reminded of what it was. I had left my phone in the truck and had exceeded the distance between it and my watch for them to connect. The watch was too far away from the phone to remain connected and I got a warning.
As usual, God used the incident to remind me of a truth. Sometimes, we get so involved in things of the world or allow troubles and worries to distract us that we, unknowingly, move away from God. We may forget and leave Him in the truck or be distracted and wander off the path. Can I get a witness? We don’t intentionally say, “God, I don’t need You here and now, I’ll be back in a minute.” No, we would never say that! But sometimes we may just wander off and get out of touch with our Master. Wouldn’t it be nice, when that happens, if we’d get a warning vibration or signal to let us know we had just gotten outside of God’s presence? God said He’d never leave us or forsake us, (Hebrews 13:5) and, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20). So God is never really far away from us. And we know that when Jesus went back to Heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to be IN us, “By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.” (1 John 4:13). The Holy Spirit of God will speak to us, warn us and direct us if we’re close enough to hear Him. If we’ve not allowed the distance between us to be too great that we can’t hear. If this happens, we need to “draw near”, (James 4:8). Listen for that “still small voice” and pay attention. I often ask God to “red flag” me when I’m about to get off the path and He’ll do that if we’ll listen.
Stay close to God.