I have a question to ask you. What is distracting you? When you are trying to get close to God the Father, what is coming between you and God?
There are many ways that we can be distracted. Our families can distract us, especially our children. Our work can distract us, calling us at all times, emails that need to be answered and texts. Boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands and wives can be a great distraction.
There are some pretty important characters in our Bible who were very distracted.
Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. 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 10:38-42)
Martha was SO distracted with trying to get everything right, or in being a good hostess that she overlooked Jesus' teaching and even became jealous of Mary who wasn't helping her in the kitchen.
Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, "It is a ghost!" and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, "Take heart; it is I Do not be afraid."
And Peter answered him, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." He said, "Come." So Peter got out of the boat andr walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, "Lord, save me." Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, "O you of little faith, why did you u doubt?" And when they got into the boat, s the wind ceased. And v those in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are y the Son of God." (Matthew 14:23-31)
In the beginning Peter had the faith that he too could walk on water just like Jesus. However, when he became distracted and took his eyes from Jesus, he sank immediately.
We are distracted constantly throughout our days, just like Martha and Peter were.
Ringing telephones, vibrating notifications, emails, texts, checking our likes or followers.
Even when we sit down in our quiet places to spend time with God we can become distracted. Thoughts come streaming in our heads. Sometimes they are unstoppable.
We can be distracted by the world, and even our enemy Satan uses distraction as one of his primary methods of attacking us. He distracts us from worship, from prayer, from reading the Bible and he even tries to distract us from our callings to ministry.
Sometimes people even get distracted in church. It's easy. you are sitting on the pew listening to the preacher. You look down and there is your phone. You say to yourself, "I'll just check my newsfeed." That turns into you scrolling and ultimately not hearing the message from the pulpit.
How can we then resist these bombardments that distract us from God?
1. Put your devices away when you are trying to get into God's presence. Either shut them off, or put them on silent. If you are at home, maybe don't even bring them in the room where you are going to be with God. If you are outside, don't bring it with you.
2. Train yourself to focus beyond distraction. Mother Teresa when she would go into prayer or worship would picture Jesus sitting on His throne in Heaven. I used to be VERY distracted especially in worship. To the point that I would lose all focus.
I decided to start trying what Mother Teresa did. I would picture Jesus sitting on the throne. It took awhile, I am not going to mislead you. I even would "swipe" the distractions from my mind like certain apps. Eventually, I have come to be able to shut off most distractions.
3. Move on from your distractions. Sometimes even with good focus I just can't read my Bible for one reason or another. At that time I move on to get into God's presence another way. My first choice is usually worship. I turn on YouTube or Pandora and put on my favorite songs and just worship Him! I don't even care if I sound terrible. God doesn't care how I sound, I am worshipping Him. Maybe prayer is a good focus or meditating on Scripture. Whatever it takes to get into God's presence.
Friends in today's world there are distractions everywhere. As we saw earlier, this was even a problem in Jesus' time. Maybe we need to take Jesus' advice and "don't be anxious about many things."
Time with God is so sweet and special. Take time out of your busy day to unplug and just be with Him.
You won't regret it!
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