Beware of Distractions

“By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination.”

—CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

Then the cares and anxieties of the world and distractions of the age, and the pleasure and delight and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches, and the craving and passionate desire for other things creep in and choke and suffocate the Word, and it becomes fruitless.

—Mark 4:19

We often look at the devil as the author of our destruction, but he is actually more the author of our distraction. If he can distract us from our God-given purpose, he can cause us to bear no good fruit in life. God is glorified when we bear good fruit so, obviously, the devil wants to do anything he can to prevent that.

It is easy to get distracted in life; it is not something we have to try to do. We do, however, need to really discipline ourselves in order not to get distracted. Each person has many demands and expectations placed on them. It seems every person in our life expects something, and quite often, we find it confusing to know when to say yes and when to say no. Our spouses, friends, parents, children, other relatives, employers, government, churches, and neighborhood all expect us to do different things. It can be overwhelming and tiring.

While trying to meet all of these expectations, we frequently find they distract us from our main goal, which is following the will of God. If you are a people pleaser, then you know it is not difficult at all for the devil to distract you. He can easily lead you to dissatisfied people, and cause you to spend your life trying to make them happy. I finally realized a lot of the people I was trying to keep happy had already decided they were not going to be happy no matter what anyone did. They were basically miserable, dissatisfied, unhappy, and being used by the devil to make me unhappy.

The Bible teaches us not to get entangled or distracted, but to focus on Jesus (see Hebrews 12:2). Remember, the more you focus on the truly important things in your life, the simpler life will be.