A crucial aspect of following Jesus is dealing with life’s distractions.
I mention it because it’s my current battle—I’ve been distracted this week by unexpected disruptions: a tree in our back yard came down during the July 4th storm, and then the clicker-key for our car suddenly decided not to work. I’ll spare you the details of these exciting events. Suffice it to say that keeping my mind centered on more important matters—like the lives of loved ones, our Goshen ministry, and the mission of Christ—has been a challenge. So let me preach to myself here, and you listen in if it’s helpful.
In The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis notes how the Devil is quite adept at maneuvering amidst the various distractions we face to draw our attention away from Christ (Letter XII). Beware!
Thomas Brooks, in his book, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices (1652), counsels believers on how to respond when “vain thoughts” beckon us away from giving attention to God. A remedy is: “To have your hearts strongly affected with the greatness, holiness, majesty, and glory of that God before whom you stand,” (p. 135). Remind yourself of God’s omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence—that the Lord is “full of all glorious perfections.” Would you fiddle with toys in the presence of such Majesty?
Of course, living in the digital age as we do, we have constant and countless distractions at our fingertips—some innocuous enough, some inherently evil, and all an affront to the Sovereign King who is deserving of our full, worshipful attention. Again, beware!
“Fix your eyes on Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2). Behold the glory of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18). “Gaze upon the beauty of the Lord” (Psalm 27:4). May the prayer in Psalm 123:1-2 be our heart’s cry: “To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he has mercy upon us.”
