An Attractive Distraction !!!!
Saturday Morning July 13th....
I often come down to the church office to get some work done on Saturday mornings, as I dont get interupted and its quiet and there are no distractions.
Life is full of distractions.
Things that happen to you, or around you, that cause you to get off track, out of focus and even confused.
not all distractions are ugly !!!!
from a spiritual perspective, often the reason why people fall and fail in their spiritual journey is because of a very attractive distraction.
but I am not writing today to speak of that....
I wonder if we ever think or long for an attractive distraction from God the Holy Spirit.?
if we ever put ourselves into a position where we desire so much after Him that we find oursleves distracted away from the mundane and ordinary.... and into the supernatural. ?????
now just quietly.... over my short life of 53 years I have had my fair share of inappropriate distractions. I have made ample enough mistakes to last a lifetime, I know it, Julie knows it, and my God knows it.
and I dont want to be distracted by sin, and the temptations that seem to come my way all the time...
I think humans can be complicated at times. I think I can be complictaed at times. (sigh)
Paul talks of it in Romans...
The thing we dont want to do, we do. Even though we say we dont want to do it, secretely, deep within us, can be this other secret desire of yeah but lets hope it happens anyway.
When we surrendered our lives to Jesus we laid down our desire for inappropriate distraction, but it still comes doesnt it ?
We want to pray, and read our bible and worship and learn and study, go to church....but Masterchef is on TV, or the Tour De France, or the Ashes or the dog, or the ????? ( you fill in the blank)
what would it take for us to move into the realm of distraction by God only ?
for me.... I have some distance to still travel, life for me is often out of control and out of balance and that needs correction all the time, everyday I start my day talking to God about that bit.
distracted by work......... by the next pressing issue to deal with..........
if we were all to be honest, sometimes the distractions come that shouldn't as well. !!!!!!!!!!
In my life I have noticed a few things:
1. The moment I start to drive forwards in my spiritual journey, growing larger in the inside, the greater the distractions come to tempt me to stay shallow and weak and insipid and powerless.
2. The moment I step up and stand up and own up to who I am, and my calling, something comes into my life and trys to steal away that commitment, and distract me away from my call and try's to destroy me.
3. The other thing I have observed is...that when I stand true and remain unswayed, and focussed and "un distracted ", that is the time I grow the quickest and achieve the greatest results in my life, spiritually especially.
so why do we allow ourselves to become distracted by anything ? other then Jesus ?
we are human, and we fail sometimes.
if that's you today, then its a simple step of refusing the interuption and settling for the peace of Jesus.
its called repentance and I choose it today for me.
a balanced life is good, its good to have outside interests, sport, tv, relationships, fun.... its important for us to live our lives to the max and enjoy life. Its just that if we have chosen Jesus, then put Him first and above all other choices and watch how life starts to become even more peaceful than you have ever known before.
dont get distracted by a lesser choice than Jesus.
get and be distracted by Jesus Himself.
Wouldn't you love to be like Peter and take the risks. attempting things thought impossible ? Well I think we all need to know that the storm rages, but we need to be distracted by the Jesus who walks on the water and He calls us to live above and beyond our human mindset and limitations, and enter into the realm of the supernatural where nothing is impossible.
What a sweet distraction that would be for this world and our churches.
I often come down to the church office to get some work done on Saturday mornings, as I dont get interupted and its quiet and there are no distractions.
Life is full of distractions.
Things that happen to you, or around you, that cause you to get off track, out of focus and even confused.
not all distractions are ugly !!!!
from a spiritual perspective, often the reason why people fall and fail in their spiritual journey is because of a very attractive distraction.
but I am not writing today to speak of that....
I wonder if we ever think or long for an attractive distraction from God the Holy Spirit.?
if we ever put ourselves into a position where we desire so much after Him that we find oursleves distracted away from the mundane and ordinary.... and into the supernatural. ?????
now just quietly.... over my short life of 53 years I have had my fair share of inappropriate distractions. I have made ample enough mistakes to last a lifetime, I know it, Julie knows it, and my God knows it.
and I dont want to be distracted by sin, and the temptations that seem to come my way all the time...
I think humans can be complicated at times. I think I can be complictaed at times. (sigh)
Paul talks of it in Romans...
The thing we dont want to do, we do. Even though we say we dont want to do it, secretely, deep within us, can be this other secret desire of yeah but lets hope it happens anyway.
When we surrendered our lives to Jesus we laid down our desire for inappropriate distraction, but it still comes doesnt it ?
We want to pray, and read our bible and worship and learn and study, go to church....but Masterchef is on TV, or the Tour De France, or the Ashes or the dog, or the ????? ( you fill in the blank)
what would it take for us to move into the realm of distraction by God only ?
for me.... I have some distance to still travel, life for me is often out of control and out of balance and that needs correction all the time, everyday I start my day talking to God about that bit.
distracted by work......... by the next pressing issue to deal with..........
if we were all to be honest, sometimes the distractions come that shouldn't as well. !!!!!!!!!!
In my life I have noticed a few things:
1. The moment I start to drive forwards in my spiritual journey, growing larger in the inside, the greater the distractions come to tempt me to stay shallow and weak and insipid and powerless.
2. The moment I step up and stand up and own up to who I am, and my calling, something comes into my life and trys to steal away that commitment, and distract me away from my call and try's to destroy me.
3. The other thing I have observed is...that when I stand true and remain unswayed, and focussed and "un distracted ", that is the time I grow the quickest and achieve the greatest results in my life, spiritually especially.
so why do we allow ourselves to become distracted by anything ? other then Jesus ?
we are human, and we fail sometimes.
if that's you today, then its a simple step of refusing the interuption and settling for the peace of Jesus.
its called repentance and I choose it today for me.
AND FINALLY BEFORE YOU THROW YOUR HANDS UP IN HORROR....
a balanced life is good, its good to have outside interests, sport, tv, relationships, fun.... its important for us to live our lives to the max and enjoy life. Its just that if we have chosen Jesus, then put Him first and above all other choices and watch how life starts to become even more peaceful than you have ever known before.
dont get distracted by a lesser choice than Jesus.
get and be distracted by Jesus Himself.
Peter walked on water.... He was called by God, He stepped out of the boat and had a real crack.
He was succesful until he got distracted by the storm raging around him. It was only then that he started to sink.
just a thought !!!!
Wouldn't you love to be like Peter and take the risks. attempting things thought impossible ? Well I think we all need to know that the storm rages, but we need to be distracted by the Jesus who walks on the water and He calls us to live above and beyond our human mindset and limitations, and enter into the realm of the supernatural where nothing is impossible.
What a sweet distraction that would be for this world and our churches.
I pray that you will continue to stay focused, as I observe you do, and continue to give Jesus the glory.
ReplyDeleteThanks for leading and encouraging us to place Jesus first in our lives.
Bill
PS The new layout of this site is great.