16. This Can Wait: Avoiding Distractions To Get Into God's Presence

Episode 16. This Can Wait: Avoiding Distractions To Get Into God's Presence

This Can Wait: The Importance of Prayer in a Busy Life

In this episode of the Heal the Healers podcast, we address the challenge busy physicians face in maintaining their spiritual practices amidst their hectic schedules. We emphasize the importance of prioritizing prayer and quiet time with God each day by cultivating a lifestyle based on the principle of talking to God first before talking to anyone else. I introduce the concept of "This can wait for after I prayed," encouraging listeners to put their intimacy with God first.

The episode includes a special announcement about the upcoming Heal the Healers Physician Retreat aimed at providing a restorative space for Christian physicians. Join us for an insightful discussion on integrating faith into our professional lives and discover ways to experience healing and restoration in our busy physician lives.

Register for the Retreat HERE: 👉https://healthehealersretreat.org/

Early-Bird Registration to the Heal The Healers Physician Retreat closes on August 15th. Secure your spot now and save $100. Register here: https://healthehealersretreat.org/

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Transcript

Restream recording Jul 27, 2024 • 10:30:37 PM: 0:00

Well, hello there and welcome to the heal the healers podcast. So excited to be back. And today I want to ask you a question. Are there days as a busy physician where you feel like the day gets started and before you know it, one thing leads to another and you actually haven't talked? You haven't prayed. You haven't cracked open your Bible. You just kind of got into doing mode, which is so easy for us to do as busy physicians. Well, if that is you, that is exactly the episode for you. I'm so grateful that you're here. So stay tuned for after the music and we will be right back. Welcome to the Heal the Healers podcast, where we explore the intersection of faith and medicine. Discover your God given potential and experience Christ's healing in the midst of medical burnout. I'm your host Inga Hoffman, a pediatric hematologist, physician coach, and follower of Jesus. Together, we will navigate the challenges of medicine, integrate faith into our personal and professional lives, experience spiritual renewal, and find restoration in Christ. Welcome to the heal the healers where Christ heals one physician and one patient at a time Well, welcome back. I'm so excited to be back on this podcast. My name is Inga Hoffman If we have not met i'm a physician I've been an academic physician for many decades and i'm a firm believer in christ and my faith in Both are very important to me. And this podcast is all about integrating faith and medicine and really exploring that intersection and help us live our lives as Christian physicians, authentically, boldly, with integrity. without fear, and also learn a few things and how we can actually implement our faith in our daily actions in our very busy physician lives. So I'm so glad you're here. I know it's been a little bit of a hiatus since I last talked to you and my apologies for that. You know, sometimes it is like that time runs a little bit away. And honestly, I have been quite busy with my work. Preparing for the Heal the Healers retreat, which is something you definitely want to pay attention to because the Heal the Healers retreat is fast approaching. So I want you to learn more about that and that's the wrong thing. So hold on one second. I'm clearly clicking the wrong, wrong buttons. So the Heal the Healers retreat I will share with you right now, and then we can dive into a little bit more later, but the Heal the Healers retreat, big announcement is a physician retreat that I created for physicians that are faith filled physicians and need a place to Restore, get healed, get equipped and just find a place of community. We will have an amazing keynote speaker. We have anointed worship, we have ministry time and you will obviously have wonderful time with community and fellowship with other Christian physicians so that you don't feel so alone and isolated. What I've heard over and over again. Many of us feel very isolated and we wonder, are we the only ones in my hospital, in my clinic that is a believer? So to overcome that and to help you get connected with a community of like minded physicians I created this retreat. It's a long testimony how this retreat came to pass. This is really something that has been on my heart since October, 2022, since the Lord placed that vision in my heart. Literally dropped that into me doing a worship service at a church I was attending, and it was marvelous what he showed me and what he put together so far. So I'm really, really grateful for this opportunity. And I think it is a time in a season for physicians to get together and gather together and not just come together to get a bunch of CME talks. That's great, but that isn't filling our faith that isn't building us up in our faith. So this is not about having a bunch of CME talks about different medical topics. This is all about a Christian conference, a Christian retreat with worship, with prayer. With time to learn scriptures, there will be sermons, there will be teachings focused on healing and the healing ministry of Jesus. So you do not want to miss that. We have a very anointed and powerful speaker, Judith McNutt, who has been in the ministry of healing for over four decades, and has, A ministry called Christian Healing Ministry. She started with her late husband. I trained there as a prayer minister so I can vouch for the wonderful, beautiful work that this ministry is doing, offering free prayer for people around the world. And I personally have been healed and touched by that ministry. And I want you to learn, equip and experience that. For yourself. This will be a time to come together in encounter God. We're going to host God's presence, and we're going to just get there to get in his face and wait for his presence and to speak to us. And so this is like no conference that ever existed. I know there were some Christian conferences and there are medical conferences and there was some overlap of medical conferences for physicians that are Christians. But this is very distinct and very drastically different. It is a Christian conference for physicians. So I hope to see you there. It will be hosted November 1st and 2nd in Madison, Wisconsin. So get your tickets. You can scan this QR code because early bird registration closes in just a couple weeks. You really don't want to miss that. So I know I took a bit of time for announcements, but this is important. Because I don't want you to miss out. I believe with all my heart that God is doing something precious and beautiful in the medical community. I've friends in other areas of medicine and in healthcare, and they are starting to notice similar things. And I think it is time for us as doctors to be equipped to rise up and do it. To really be, first of all, healed and restored ourselves from all the toil that has been taken over the years, but then also emerge strong to really be the hands and feet of Jesus. Love people that are difficult, perhaps even to love, love our patients, our colleagues in a very broken healthcare system. We can rise up above what's going on in the world and I cannot wait for you. to be there. I cannot wait to meet you, to pray with you, to spend time with you, to get to know you. So please go ahead, scan this QR code. Early bird registration again finishes August 15th, and I'm so excited and honored to see you there. So with that being said, I know that was a bit time to talk about this, but I think it is so important. So let me get all my thingies here together. Then of course, if you're new to the show, thank you so much for watching. Subscribe to us, share the show, and then. Obviously follow us on YouTube, Facebook, or your favorite podcast platform at Heal the Healers. So thank you so much for for subscribing and for sharing it with your friends. It means a lot and actually helps a lot. So, but with further ado, let's dive in, today's episode. And this one really came. literally to me this morning and I have been kind of waiting. I was like, okay, I need to do a new podcast episode, a new episode here on the YouTube channel. Yet I was really trying to wait for topics. Yes, I could do a lot of teaching. And you know, I teach a lot in my mentorship group for Christian physicians, but I really. Wanted to share something that was fresh. That wasn't just knowledge and something that was a revelation, honestly, to me, just this very morning. So this is fresh, hot off the press, so to speak, really. something the Lord taught me today. And I think this is a word for many of you here. So I'm going to share this with you. So this is what we're going to title this episode. This can wait for after I prayed and you're like, Why this odd title? Well, let me tell you a little bit of the background. I think oftentimes as physicians, we get so busy that it is very easy for us to start our day, get into the turmoil of things, but Pager goes off. We check our emails to see if there was anything. We have to put out some fires. Go started with our day. If you have little kids, especially maybe in the summer, it's a little bit easier. Well, school is out, but you will probably run around and get your kids ready for school in the fall again. And it is so easy to get very busy before we talk to the Lord. In fact, my principal, has been over the years a lifestyle of let me talk to the Lord first before I talk to anybody else. And I'm honest, it isn't always a hundred percent. It is sometimes a complete failure, but that is sort of my guiding principle to put my quiet time in the morning and make preparations for that and be intentional about that. But I understand that it is. often difficult to fit that in. And I have to say, we are living in the most crazy times. A lot is happening this day and age. There is one event after another that we could get agitated about. The last years have been difficult. And I think all of us whether you're a believer or not, everybody feels that draining energy that is a tug of war constantly sort of in the atmosphere. So we often tend to pick that up. And I think in a time of great chaos, where it's very easy to get pulled into different direction on social media, on the news, chatter amongst colleagues in the clinic when you're waiting for a patient, it is very easy to get bogged down. by that chaos and get pulled away from the Lord. And that is actually a perfect thing that the enemy does not perfect, but it is a tool the enemy does to distract us. Chaos, division, diversion, Steal, kill and destroy is what he does, right? And one of the ways he does that, he steals our time away from God by pulling us away and getting us distracted. He destroys our beliefs, our quiet time sometimes he breaks a bunch of stuff, right? And We need to stand very firm and be very, very strongly equipped, especially in this season. I've been kind of talking about this a bunch, but I haven't been on here for a while and I probably talk a lot about this to people that I see in person, but I cannot stress the importance for us physicians to really tune into the season you. Into the Lord. So important. It's always been important. It should have always been the case. You probably heard the saying, tough times pull us closer to God. When things are easy, we tend to relax and be a little bit more complacent, and it is time to really press in and stay with the Lord, read his word and go pray. And again, when there's so much chaos, it is very easy to have a hard time to hear the Lord's voice in your own head or in your spirit. And it is. Very important to learn how to tune in, and you cannot do that if you're not learning to retreat and get in front of the Lord and actually listen to what he has to say, because honestly, how it looks like for most of us, distractions very often creep into our lives, like I mentioned earlier, it's like one thing leads to another, or let me quickly resumes. You know, pick up my phone, right? And before you know it, you're on social media. And before you know it you're checking your email and I do that, too. I constantly have to like, Oh, no, I fell in the trap again. And that's where we have to say, No, my flesh has to submit to what the Lord is saying. And I have to submit and learn how to cut that out. So and it's so easy otherwise to be overcome by those things. And before you know it, half the day is over. So this morning, let me share what actually happened, but let me to share this with you at this very moment because it was my personal experience. Now, I got ready this morning. You know I got up, took a shower, and then I usually get my breakfast ready. Well, this week, not much breakfast because I have been spending a week in the hospital. And fasting and really pressing into God. And it's been amazing experience that I can share another time, but so I prepare my juice in my water for the morning and then I sit down to have my quiet time. I usually retreat in the summertime on our porch to just be alone and have fresh air and see the outside and the nature. So I sit down. I'm ready to open the word. I started praying. And guess what? I usually have my phone with me. Maybe that's a good lesson. A text pops up and I was almost inclined to answer it immediately, right? Because I saw it and I usually want to take care of it because otherwise I will forget. And I literally felt the Lord arrest me and pause me And say, this can wait after I prayed. That was what popped up in my spirit. So that's why this lesson is titled. This can wait for after I prayed. I literally like, I was like, Phone away, pen to paper and wrote that down because that was an instant, like, in the moment lesson and God gives us so many of those in the moment lessons when we really pay attention. So this is what happened this morning. So I was like. Actually following those instructions to no Inga, you're not going to answer this text. You do that later after you prayed and had your quiet time. So put a phone away. And I was in that moment. Obedient to what God told me now, honest to God, honestly, a lot of times that isn't always the case. Sometimes I do things I know I don't think I should be doing this. It's like little things like responding to a text when I heard. Don't do it now. And these are the little nudges we get from the Lord. We have to be obedient because he is training us. It's not this is the one and be all, but he is training us in the little day to day things. So be very aware of what you are hearing from the Lord. If you are hearing a little nudge about, don't do this right now, do this later. He is training you. He is, Telling you to be obedient. And that is really a wonderful time to lean in with things that are not big stakes, right? We all want to clap. You know, the letters in the sky answers from the Lord. But if we cannot hear this quiet voice and follow these quiet instructions, we We never gonna get the big reveal, perhaps. So this is really important. So in that moment, I put it aside and that really then raised my awareness. I'm like, how many times do I let other things slip in and make that more important than prayer? Then quiet time being with the Lord, just being quiet, singing to him, reading his word. And so many times we prioritize very, very easily. We make sacrifices and instead doing other things that are totally not important. And. It is so important in this moment and in this time to really be obedient. What the Lord is telling you and to spend time with him, prayer and intimacy with him has to stand above all. I went to a beautiful conference this week by another church and just last night, it was a great topic. It was really focused on the intimacy with God. And it reminded me. That intimacy with God stands above all else. We have to get into his presence. He has to be more important. Our relationship with him has to be more important than your job. What do you do for your patients even your family, your husband and your kids and your wives because it is critically important in this season. It was always important. This is always how it has been laid out from the start of the Bible. God wants one thing of us. He wants fellowship with us. He's crazy about us. He waiting for you to come to him. But a lot of times we don't come. They say, okay, a little bit later. So use this principle. It can wait after I prayed. Whatever crops up in your life, it can wait after you prayed and really start to cultivate this principle in your daily life. Get up first thing in the morning and get in the wood. Get in prayer and let God speak to you in this season. And if you take the time, he will answer. He promises that. And I cannot tell you how much many times I have experienced that. I know a lot of times. But I'm hearing from physicians and I have been there. I've done this the same way. That's how I know we very quickly excuse our service to the patients, right? We are the hands and feet of Jesus because we're working in the hospital and we're taking care of patients. Wonderful. It is important. God placed you there, but don't ever make that an excuse why you cannot spend time with him. Even that. so much. is idolatry and get back to the place of seeking his face first. This is so simple yet so profound. And I pray that you're encouraged from this moment forward to go with this principle. This can wait for after I prayed. So I want you to even write it down, read it out loud. This can wait for after I prayed, have this lifestyle in this principle to talk to the Lord first, before you talk to anybody else. And I believe, and I trust the Lord will reward us. He will bless you, he will speak to you, he will show you things. You will go into that hospital ground or into your clinic or into your research lab, wherever you are, and you will be equipped and the Lord might be showing you things, especially in this season that you weren't aware of, that gives you solutions for upcoming problems that gives you insights for your patients. But if you and I, if we don't get in front of. His throne if we don't get in the wood if we don't pray It will be very difficult to then hear his voice in the noisy places. So train yourself up to really spend time with him and not just a five minute devotional. If that's where you're at right now, great. That's where you're at. That's where you start, but build up. Don't stop there. Get really hungry for God and dig in there. So I really encourage you take action, do everything else after you prayed. And remember this can wait for after I prayed. So I hope this was encouraging to you and just a simple concept, but I found it so profound. It really, really arrested me this morning. It passed me, stopped me in my tracks and I'm like, Oh my goodness. So and don't wait, start right after this video start tomorrow morning. When you wake up, go start and get into his presence first. Thank you so much for listening again. If this has served you, if this has encouraged you, go share it and subscribe to the show, share it with other people, share it big and wide so that more people can discover the show as well. And then please go register for the Heal the Healers Conference. I'm going to put the QR code up here so that, oops, that is the wrong one. Let me get to this one. Sorry about that. So go scan the QR code above to register for the Heal the Healers Physician Retreat. I promise you, you won't regret it. It is going to be a very, very special, sweet time. And I wholeheartedly believe that all of us will need it. And with that, I'll leave you and say, God bless you. Have a wonderful time and I will see you next week. God bless.