Distractions

Major Distractions We Face

Stopping short of the best God has for you, still claim you're living a blessed life. 

James

-85 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do. NLT

5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

Tyndale House Publishers. (2013). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.

If the enemy cannot defeat us in other ways, he always has a fallback plan. He distracts us in a number of ways:

Distracted by bills, the cares of life 

"Choke the word"

The myth of multitasking 

Distracted and pulled in a multitude of ways. Can't focus. Can't commit. Loyal to none but believe they are loyal to all. A constant internal struggle to walk in one direction. Stability is foreign. Running to and fro.

Jesus addressed the same concept. In Luke, He warned this would tactic would be used. He says that we must remain on guard or our heart will become overcharged with surfeiting, drunkenness and cares of life until that day (His coming) comes on you unawares. It is literally a warning that if we are not careful we will become so over concerned and over occupied with the problems of life like the rest of the world that our heart becomes weighted with the giddiness, nausea of being habitually intoxicated by the cares and distractions of life and our spiritual senses will become impaired. We become light headed so we can't think straight, speak clearly (slurred words) or walk straight (stagger) and we will stagger away from our relationship with God. (Some of you can't even focus right now on what we are talking about because you are so overwhelmed by what you will face when you walk out these doors that the to-do lists are distracting you!)

On another occasion when Jesus is asked about the signs of the last days His response addresses this tactic of the enemy. He says we will know we are in the last day when we see days like they were in the times of Noah and Lot. Notice he didn't address sin as signs. He could have said, "You will know the last days are here when you see homosexuality, drug abuse, child abuse, abortion running rampant." No! Instead he listed the 8 things they lived for: eating, drinking, marry, given in marriage, buying, selling, building, and planting. In other words, in the days of Noah and Lot the people weren't consumed by sin . . . they were consumed by life! Not wrong, but so distracted by life, they missed out on the spiritual and so they are overtaken by a flood of judgment.

What is distracting you? What is it that the devil uses to wrap up your mind? What is it or who is it that he uses to wrap up your heart? What does he distract you with to cloud your focus and to steal your energy? Could it be that good things are getting in the way of God things? Here are few things that the enemy uses to distract God's people from reaching their promised life:

Desires - possession begin to possess, lusts (That is the story of David, Solomon, Samson)

Dreams (fulfilled and unfulfilled)

Detours/Delays

Decisions

One man said this, “If the enemy can't deceive you he will try to dilute you by challenging you to attack in all directions at once! God led Israel to conquer Canaan 1 city at a time. Breakthrough comes when we narrow focus to singular objectives!”

We are simply distracted into defeat! How? Why is distraction so deadly and dangerous?

1. Distraction affects our memory!

When we are distracted we forget! We forget our spiritual identity! We forget that we are not of this world. We forget that this is not our destination. We forget that we don't live for this world but for another. We forget that we are the sons and daughters of God, salt, light, and leaven. We forget that His approval is what matters! We are so forgetful that when someone tries to remind us of our rightful place, our promised place and promised power that we just pass it off as pipe dreams, preacher jargon and wishful thinking!

2. Distraction affects our mission!

Since we are distracted and forget who we are then we fail to pursue a fresh and active relationship with Jesus. If you forget you are a soldier you forget to fight. If you forget you are a prince you forget to reign. If you forget you are join heir you forget to take possession of what is yours! We settle for yesterday's experience, yesterday's miracle, and yesterday's manna. We like Samson, go through motions and “shake ourselves”. We sing the same songs, say the same prayers, repeat the same testimonies, but we go no deeper. There is desire. There is no pursuit. We want to be spoon fed. We blame a preacher or a church if we don't find any more of God. We are so distracted that we fail to do anything for our own spiritual condition. And since we are not growing spiritual we then become like the disciples who moved their boats out of deep and anchored them in shallows. They are washing nets going through motions of fishing but with no heart or hope for catch. We forget that we are on mission. We forget that lives are at stake. We forget that eternity is at stake. Our distraction steals our urgency! We begin to worry more about maintaining than obtaining. We perfect the nets but fail to use them. We have forgotten our mandate because we are distracted! We think carpet color is our mandate. We think politics is our mandate. We think our personal opinion is our mandate. What is our mission? To know Him and to make Him known . . . PERIOD!

Hey Jude . . . what are you saying? Don't let the enemy distract you or you will find yourself settling in enemy territory and your distraction will bring you defeat! Let us answer the call of and "fix" our eyes on Jesus. Riveted attention. Riveted focus. Unwavering in our stare. Undeterred. Some of us just need to get fixed!