HEBREWS 12:1-2 – “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
THEME OF THE DAY: THE AFFLICTION OF DISTRACTIONS. David Wells in his book, God in the Whirlwind: How the Holy-love of God Reorients Our World, writes about two challenges the Christians face in the world today. The first one he identifies deals with what is shaping our minds and thus our lifestyles. He wrote –
“The shaping of our life is to come from Scripture and not from the culture. We are to be those in whom truth is the internal driver and worldly horizons and habits are not. It is always sola Scriptura, and it should never be sola cultura. This is a two-sided practice; “Yes” to biblical truth and “No” to cultural norms if they damage our walk with God and rob us of what He has for us in His Word. Being transformed also means being unconformed.”
Wells would then identify the second challenge confronting us as followers of Christ. He continues –
“The second challenge I am going to mention you may have experienced even in the short time since opening this book! It is the extraordinary bombardment on our mind that goes on every day from a thousand different sources that leave us distracted, with our minds going simultaneously in multiple directions. How, then, can we receive from Scripture the truth God has for us if we cannot focus long enough, linger long enough, to receive that truth? Every age has its own challenges. This is one of ours. It is the affliction of distraction.”
The devil, world, and our own flesh do not need to lead us into gross and heinous public sin to discredit our testimony for Christ and reduce our walk with Him to a joyless execution of religiosity or morality. No, all they need to do is get us to succumb to distractions that keep us from time in God’s Word and prayer to know Him, and from intentional obedience to His Word. The battle against distraction is intense and comes from so many different angles. Here are a few, and we each may add a personalized list to mine – the distractions of pleasure, social media, screen time, internet, hobbies, people, entertainment, circumstances, pain, relationships, vocations, planning the future (be wise here, but not obsessed), and worldly pursuits. Behind the challenge of these distractions is the fact most might not be sinful. Actually, they may be good things, but they distract us from the best thing – a close walk with Jesus.
It would be good practice to consistently evaluate the distractions in our lives and see how good we are at defeating them. Then, to seek the Lord to help us continually keep Him in the center of our thinking so that He maintains the center of our lives and not relegated to a lesser place because of worldly distractions.
PRAYER: Lord, help me fight the battle against distractions that seek to keep me from getting close to You.
REFLECTION: Many distractions exist to draw us away from Jesus. Fight them all or lose nearness to Him.