What comes between me and God? "Notes to self"

What comes between me and the kingdom of God? Is it fear, doubt, possessions, work, distracting pleasures, societies rules, shyness, my need to control outcomes, lukewarmness, weariness. my ideas of "perfection"? To understand I have to pause. I have to turn off all background noise. However important or worthy that noise seems, however relentlessly it pursues, I must put God first in my heart. Uncluttered, uncompromising. True, clear. I have to put aside all that hinders, all that rises between myself and the voice at the center of my soul which whispers soft and true above the storm, "Peace be Still". God is a loving Father, and however many times I fall, fail and flail, He is there to fold me beneath His wing as soon as I turn toward Him. "Let your unfailing love surround us, LORD, for our hope is in you alone." Psalm 33:22 There is no place deep, distant or dark enough to keep me from this Love unfailing. When all around seems in disarray I may turn toward His face. See Him, not the struggle. He will turn the struggle into a victory with my surrender a hundred times faster than with my striving. He works all things out for good and I can trust in Him like a child. The safe and steady hands of a carpenter shaping life and form and beauty from brittle wood. "Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain." Psalm 127:1 I can fill the open page of days I'm given with a story of His love, with eternal words that spin beauty and love into this fragile world. "Nothing is important except that which is eternal." "If thou walk inwardly, thou shalt not weigh flying words....Let not thy peace be in the mouths of men." End quotes taken from "If" and "Rose from Brier" by Amy Carmichael