Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

The Age of Distractions

2 CORINTHIANS 11:3: But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

We live in the age of distractions. They come at us from all angles and I don’t need to list them. We have many in common from our roles in life, our seasons of life, and the technology bombarding our lives. Even right now. You are looking at a device, whatever it might be, that has tremendous distracting power. Laptops, desktops, tablets, and phones are great helps in life, but they also are great hindrances in our lives, and that, particularly in our spiritual lives. Yes, I know the internet gives us quick access to Bible study helps, great preaching of God’s Word feeding our souls, and the ability to interact with other believers for mutual spiritual growth and encouragement. Yet, for all the good, there lurks all the bad. We may easily find ourselves so distracted by social media, website exploring, or just mindless scrolling through Facebook that hours, yes, hours of time are gobbled up, wasted, and distracted us from time in God’s Word and prayer to know Him

In today’s scripture, the Apostle Paul feared the Corinthian church had been “led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” To be led astray means to be distracted away. The cause? The chief deceiver, the devil, had become the chief distractor. And this foe of the Corinthians continues today to be our foe and instigator of our distractions leading astray from the Lord. So, with this awareness, here are a couple things we may do to defeat this tactic of the evil one.

First, accept that every day we will face distractions. If we are serious about our walks with the Lord, we will face alluring distractions leading us to neglect the Word and prayer, and they will likely be distractions from good things-But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:40-42). The devil doesn’t have to lead us into gross sin to distract us. All he needs to do is get us distracted and busy on good things in life that leads to neglecting the best thing in life–sitting at Jesus’ feet. So, to defeat distractions, arm ourselves with the inevitability of them to be in our lives and respond against them with the right priorities and practice.

Another way to overcome distractions is to daily exercise self-discipline with a time and place to be with the Lord. Figure out our best time to be in our Bibles and prayer, then make “an appointment” with the Lord that will not be compromised except for emergencies. The Lord did this. He rose early in the morning before the distractions of the day came upon Him to be in prayer with His Father (Mark1:35). Oh, by the way, make sure that place is free from access to a computer or phone. This is a “technology free zone” to ensure those devices don’t distract us.

Age of distraction. It is upon us, but it doesn’t have to rule us. Fight it by God’s Word and His Spirit, and we will defeat them for God’s glory and our spiritual good.

PRAYER: “Father, teach me to fight off the distractions of the world keeping me from time in Your Word.”

QUOTE: “Distractions in life are inevitable but that doesn’t mean they are to take us from the Lord.”