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Distraction to Destruction
by Steve Countryman When you think of being distracted, texting while driving probably comes to mind. Texting while driving has caused more deaths surpassing drunk driving and sleeping at the wheel. Distraction is also one of the Devil's best tools! With distractions he can pull your attention away from your God, your family, your friends, your job, your responsibilities and just about anything you can think of. Distractions can pop up at anytime. They can be something that happens to you, they can happen in front of you or they can happen to your friends or family that drags you into it. Distractions can be accidental or on purpose. You don't have to be ADD to be consumed by distractions. Anyone who has ever been on the Internet knows first hand how distractions work. Distractions can be a physical happening or something that is all happening in your mind or a combination of both. Anything can become a distraction! If I were to name all of the different types of distractions, I could easily fill a book. There are harmless distractions and harmful distractions, both good and bad. Recognizing the difference between them becomes important. Distractions can lead to a state of confusion. 1 Corinthians 14:33 "For God is not the author of confusion but of peace" Confusion can also lead to more distractions. As an effective weapon of the Devil, distraction is best used keeping Christians tied up and too busy to spend time with their God. Some distractions can lead you not only down the wrong path but lead to your destruction! Harmful deceitful distractions that cause you to waste your time, effort and energy to gain nothing while promising everything. Most attacks from the Devil are done with distractions. All sin is used as distractions to keep your attention off of God! Distractions that can take your attention away from listening to beautiful worship music playing on your car stereo and flip it over to the driver who just cut you off and then hit his brakes. Now your attention is fully on the other driver and your temper has kicked in. After screaming at the driver, who can't hear you with your windows up, you honk your horn, give them a dirty look or something more expressive as you drive off. Mumbling to yourself you don't even notice the worship music playing that you were previously sing with. Now the rest of your day is turned upside down because that distraction has successfully messed you up and robbed you of the joy that you had just moments earlier! It is hard to receive the awesome blessings God has planned for you when you are too busy being upset and angry from distractions. Everywhere in life distractions await you. Advertisers are banking on grabbing your attention by creative distractions anyway they can. As you drive, listen to the radio, watch TV, go to the movies or just hanging out with your friends, distractions from advertising surround you. Then there are those distractions that you encounter on the news and in politics when our leaders use an obscure news story to distract us from the more important news that they are busy trying to cover up. To deflect your attention away with distractions elsewhere. Sad thing is that distractions are just part of life. We humans are easily distracted! God uses distractions to help get your attention and focus back on Him and put you back on His path. "Nudging" of the Holy Spirit is just another way to say distraction by the Holy Spirit. Harmful distractions can hurt and damage your daily walk with God. They will limit your blessings and the use of your spiritual gifts. It becomes important that you are VERY aware of the types of distractions that are at work around you. How you handle distractions and how you let distractions handle you is key to your walk with Father God and how you live your daily life! Now that you are aware what is at work around you, you need to ask Father God for the gift of discernment and wisdom to help you recognize and correctly handle those harmful distractions. To flip this totally upside down you also need to know that you are God's plan to be a heavenly distraction here on earth everywhere you go! Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |