Have you ever noticed that it is now possible to go all day long and never have a quiet moment? We have an unprecedented amount of media available to us today — which can be a blessing in some ways: we can listen to Christian music, to podcasts of sermons from preachers all over the world, etc. But a person may now, purposefully or not, fill up literally every second of his day with some kind of music or media. And that is not particularly a good thing.

Many of us would have to admit that virtually all of the time, something is playing: either the television or the radio is on, an iPod is playing in the ear; a CD or even DVD player is going in the car; video game consoles at home or portable games on the road are being played; and we have all seen how almost every waiting room for the doctor or the auto shop seems to have a tv going — and so on. We now have the technology to make it possible to fill up literally every single moment of the day, with no “quiet” moments at all.

We should consider whether this is really healthy, and perhaps due even to the purposeful strategy of the enemy of our souls, to fill up every moment of the day so that we have no time to think — and more importantly, no time to PRAY! I Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Pray without ceasing”, but we cannot possibly “pray without ceasing” when the news and the music and the games never cease, 24 hours a day! Our minds are distracted and filled with everything BUT praying.

Perhaps God is calling some us today to exercise the discipline of turning some of these things off occasionally — not because they are all particularly “bad” in and of themselves — but for the specific purpose of having some “quiet time” throughout the day to worship God and pray. Perhaps one of the “spiritual disciplines” the Lord would have you exercise today is just to reach over and turn something off! It’s hard to be “praying without ceasing” when you’ve always got something “playing without ceasing”!