“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
I honestly don’t know a human being who gets more easily distracted than I do, and it hasn’t always been this way. Seems the more I follow the Lord Jesus Christ, the more I devote myself utterly to God and ministry, the more the distractions come, and the more distracted I get. Now I can’t speak for the devil, nor would I ever want to speak for the devil, and the devil and I have entirely different destinies given he’s bound for hell and the lake of fire in eternal torment along with all who do not give their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ, and I only by God’s grace because of Jesus Christ have an everlasting relationship with God almighty, praise be to the Lord, but if there’s anything I know about the devil from personal experience and from watching the world around me, it’s this.
The devil LOVES distraction, and given his three-fold mission to steal, kill, and destroy people’s lives (John 10:10), I can perfectly understand why. Why, and how, does he use distraction given his mission? The devil tempts people with distraction, and lures them with distraction, and draws them with distraction. He tempts, lures, and draws people away from the Lord and godliness to the world and wickedness, evil, sin, darkness, and ungodliness. And there seem to be three main reasons he uses distraction:
1. TIME
2. ENERGY
3. FOCUS
In essence, the devil wants to consume people’s time with ungodliness, and consume people’s energy with ungodliness, and get them to focus on ungodliness. Why?
Because the Lord God almighty created humanity to LOVE and WORSHIP and SERVE Him forever, and our FOCUS is supposed to be ON GOD AND THE BIBLE AND OTHERS, our ENERGY is supposed to be used to LOVE AND SERVE GOD AND OTHERS, and our TIME is supposed to be used to – to what? You got it. To LOVE and WORSHIP and SERVE God forever and to love and serve others for His glory. Our main purpose in life is supposed to be to love and glorify God through a personal forever relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and to help build His everlasting Kingdom of followers by spreading the Gospel message, helping people to learn to follow Jesus, and loving others in Christ’s name in the process.
Our FOCUS, our ENERGY, and our TIME should belong to the Lord and to His will for our lives, day by day, yes. But when we are distracted, our FOCUS, our ENERGY, and our TIME are diverted and used for other purposes. The devil wants to bait us by dangling tantalizing appealing appetizing yummy delicious irresistible distractions in front of us, sometimes periodically, sometimes regularly, sometimes relentlessly, such as like in my own case, to STEAL, KILL, and DESTROY our lives, to lure us away from God and God’s will for our lives, and to wreak havoc in our lives and to stop us from spreading the Gospel and Christ’s love to the world around us.
I wish I could tell you I never get distracted. I do. Often, in fact. Too often, to be honest. But always, absolutely always, the Lord leads me back to focusing on Him, on His Word, and on those He has called me to love and serve. He is teaching me day by day to watch out for distractions, and when I fall for them, to quickly come back to where I belong. With my FOCUS, my TIME, and my ENERGY devoted utterly to the Lord and to a world in dire need of learning about Him, of believing in Him, of knowing about Him, of knowing Him personally, and of following Him – forever.
The Lord told me long ago that just because I face distractions doesn’t mean I need to get distracted.
Let’s be careful, you and I. Let’s strive together, all of us, to place and keep our hearts and lives in the hands of the Lord, and to return them there when we find we have gone adrift. Let’s recognize the devil’s efforts to distract us, let’s learn to say no to the distractions, and ever more often, let us learn to say yes to the one we should always – and forever – say yes to.
The Lord!