Listen to this excerpt from CS Lewis’ Screwtape Letters – fictional Letters that instruct a Demon on how to defeat the enemy (which would be God and His purposes):

“I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who read in the British Museum. One day, as he sat reading, I saw a train of thought in his mind begin to go the wrong way…if I had lost my head & begun to attempt a defense by argument I should have been undone. But I was not such a fool. I struck instantly at the part of man which I had best under my control and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch…once he was in the street the battle was won. I showed him a newsboy shouting the midday paper, and a No. 73 bus going past, and before he reached the bottom of the steps I had got into him an unalterable conviction that, whatever odd ideas might come into a man’s head when he was shut up along with his books, a healthy dose of ‘real life’ was enough to show him that ‘sort of thing’ just couldn’t be true…[Many] find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. Keep pressing home on him the ordinariness of thing.”

So how do we not become distracted and dulled by the ordinariness of everything around us? How do we cultivate depth in our life? How do we fill our lives with the extraordinary, with God himself? Here’s how an old Puritan describes it:

“If you want a cup to take in water, you must hold it still for if the cup stirs and shakes up and down, you cannot pour anything in, but you will say “hold still”, that you may pour it in and not lose any. So if we would be vessels to receive God’s mercy, and would have the Lord pour his mercy into us, we must have quiet, still hearts. We must not have hearts hurrying up and down in trouble, discontent and vexing, but still and quiet hearts, if we receive mercy from the Lord.”

Here are a few practical ways to do that:

1. Fast: Fasting is the putting away of something for a time in order to develop a hunger for God in prayer. This could last a day, a week, or a month, but discipline yourself through taking something away. And when the pangs of hunger come on for that object, beg God to give you more of Himself. Or, in those moments of “pain” be reminded of the sufferings of Christ that bought a sinner like you.
2. Seek Solitude: Whether its 5 minutes while kids are asleep, an hour on Saturday morning, or a whole weekend, find a place where you can sit in silence & reflect on the Mighty Deeds of God. Try and schedule it as a regular discipline, be it every week or every other month.
3. Read the Bible & Discuss it with a Trusted Friend: Schedule Coffee twice a month for 45 minutes. One person read the text for about 10 minutes, then the other for 10 minutes. Reflect only on God’s greatness in that passage. Then close in prayer, asking God to call to mind those places He is acting in your own lives
4. Come to Weekly Prayer: Every Sunday at 4PM people gather to pray. They are not there to pray for “Aunt Sally’s toe nail to heal” (though you can pray for that in your own time). They are exalting the One True God & petitioning Him to act. This will help you to get your eyes off yourself and on what He is doing in the world.
5. Invite Others in your CG to Memorize & Meditate on a Short Passage: Take something like John 3.16. For a month, recite it and reflect on the words of that verse.

What will be the outcome if you do this? You will see and be encouraged by the Mightiness of God!