Distractions

It is my intent and goal to post this blog every Monday. I’m not sure that anybody really “looks forward” to them coming out or anything, but it’s a matter of obedience to me.  As a pastor, it is my job to teach and encourage others, and this blog is one avenue that I can do that, so it’s an obligation for me (an obligation that I enjoy, but an obligation just the same).

Today is Tuesday, and I just realized that I didn’t even think about writing my blog yesterday. Why? Distractions! Our son and his wife are coming from Iowa today to celebrate Christmas, I have to prepare a devotion for the Christmas Eve service, along with a full message for Sunday morning. That’s not to mention that we are still adjusting to 3 more in the home, and until yesterday, I have done absolutely NO Christmas shopping. So yesterday my mind was basically everywhere, except on this blog like it should have been.  If anybody looks forward to them on Monday, I apologize.

I think often times our Spiritual life goes down the same path.  We have great intentions, we plan to read Scripture daily, we plan to dedicate a specific amount of time to prayer, maybe we even plan to get more involved with our church, we want to do what’s right and we have all types of great godly goals and we get…. “distracted”.

The enemy has done an amazing job in our world today keeping our focus on everything except Christ.  Studies have indicated that as a whole, attention spans are much shorter now than they were in the past. One study showed that for performing tasks, most people today focus for an average of 47 seconds as compared to 2.5 minutes (150 seconds) in 2004. It makes it hard for us to keep our focus where it belongs.

If we are honest with ourselves, it’s likely that we have all fallen victim to being distracted away from Godly things.  It’s been a strategy from the garden of Eden through the time of Jesus, why would we expect it to be any different today? Adam was told before Eve was created not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but we are not told that Eve was given this information from God. When the serpent approached Eve, he distracted her by asking “Did God actually say…”, and her response was not what God had said at all.

 Genesis 3:2-3
² And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, ³ but God said, ​‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

That is not what God said, so she either didn’t know what God had said for sure, or she forgot. If we don’t know what God actually says, it’s easy to get distracted.

How did Jesus handle temptation? He hadn’t eaten in 40 days, and he was encouraged to turn stones into bread.

Matthew 4:1-11
​¹ Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ² And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³ And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” ⁴ But he answered, “It is written,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Jesus responded with the Word of God, He knew exactly what it said.
⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple ⁶ and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and
“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
⁷ Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ​‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Jesus was tempted again, and again He responded…”It is written”

 ⁸ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹ And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’”
¹¹ Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Three times Jesus was temped by the devil, and three times He responded with God’s Word, whereas Eve responded with what she thought God said. Can you see the difference, and the importance of being IN God’s Word daily?

Peter tells us

  1 Peter 5:8
⁸ Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Lions tend to look for the weakest prey, those who don’t truly know His Word will be the weakest prey.

We will all get distracted, we will all make mistakes, and when that happens, we need to do our best to correct our mistakes, move on and try not to let them happen again in the future.

The holiday season is a great time for the enemy to keep us distracted from Godly things, because we have SOOOO many other things going on, but I would encourage you to MAKE time for God, make Him a priority, keep your focus on Him.  That doesn’t guarantee that you won’t slip up, but if you do, you’ll quickly correct it.

Thank you for reading this, as always, I would encourage you to spend time in His Word, in prayer and in the fellowship of other believers.  And if you haven’t visited already, we will be having a Christmas Eve service at 5:00 on the 24^th. I would encourage you to come visit our little church on the hill, it’s worth the drive.

Bro. Jason