How focused is your Brain?
 
Are you able to have one thought process at a time?  Or do you sometimes feel like your mind is going a mile a minute.  Thoughts zooming around your mind like cars on a track desperately trying to avoid crashing into each other.  The whirring getting louder and louder until boom there is a crash and we are left at a total loss trying to figure out what to do.
 
We all get like this from time to time, especially in this difficult season when you might have one subject exam in the morning and another in the afternoon and you do not know which parts to focus on for either.  The brain is a noisy place, full of voices pulling you in different directions.  Trying to get you to focus on different things. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to be quiet and still.
 
I am sure you hear this a lot, but stillness can sometimes be the time in which we are spoken to the clearest.  God has an amazing way of speaking to those who need to hear it in the subtlest of ways.
 
I think of Samuel, who in the quiet of the night heard the voice of God.  He heard Him so loudly and so clearly, he thought that the voice of God was that of his master.  It was only when he was truly quiet and settled could he hear what God’s message was.
 
Sometimes listening can be the hardest thing.  We as humans can shut off our brains to things that we might not want to hear.  Things that we may feel we do not have time to focus on but we still should stop take a moment and listen.  It says in Proverbs 19:20-21 “Listen to advice and accept instructions, that you may gain wisdom in the future.  Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the lord which will stand.”
 
Every year students are sat down in assembly halls across the country and are told the same thing, “These exams are the most important you will ever take.  They will impact the rest of your life.”  That is a scary thought, however, this is not true with good preparation and with a calm mind and God with us, we can face anything.
 
No matter what, God has a plan through all things, and when things seem difficult He will be there.  He is a strong hold, an anchor and a guide.  He will support you.  In your studying He will be there, helping you to understand difficult concepts.  He is there in the teachers you have, who you can go to for support and listen to their wisdom.  He will be there in the exam hall with you and He will give you a calm and clear mind if only you ask for it.
 
I always remember before any of my school exams in the car on the way my mum and I would pray together.  We would pray, “Father God, give me a calm mind.  Help me to be at peace.  Help me know that no matter the outcome you will find a way for me and help me to be with you.”  A small thing.  A short prayer.  Said in less than 30 seconds but in those words it helped me to become centred and got me settled in to whatever exam I was going to face that day.
 
We know that our God is for us.  He is fighting in our corner.  And “If our God is for us, who could be against us.” (Romans 8:31).  He is your support in this time and it can be hard sometimes as we may feel that in everything we have to do He will fall by the way side. However, our God never leaves us.  He is always with us.  He is always for us.  He always has a plan for us.
 
Our studies can feel overwhelming and I’m sure that your schools have told you to have regular breaks when you’re studying instead of just cramming everything into your brain.  Just as these little brain breaks are important, so is taking time to talk to God. Be it 5 minutes or 5 seconds, speak to Him and He will listen.  We always think that our prayers have to be big.  But they don’t so long as they are earnest and true, that is what is important.
 
It says in Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”  So, I urge you now to go out, thank God for the tools He has given you.  Pray that He will help you to find the answers and breathe knowing that God is there to support us in our journey.