Distractions.

They’re everywhere. It seems like the enemy knows just what to do to distract our heart, especially when we have the opportunity right in front of us to seek and see the will of God.

Think of Martha. 

Jesus was right there in her house. Mary was at His feet learning of Him, hanging on every word He spoke. Martha, meanwhile, was distracted by many things. She was distracted by much serving.

‘But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. ‘ Luke 10:40-41

Samson was distracted from his purpose by Delilah.

‘Afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.” So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound to afflict you.” And it came to pass, when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him, so that his soul was vexed to death, that he told her all his heart, and said to her, “No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”’ Judges 16:4-6,16-17

David was distracted from what he had.

‘Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “ Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.”’ II Samuel 11:2-5

The enemy doesn’t have to work too hard to distract us. We do a good job of distracting ourselves. We allow our phones to intrude on our prayer life. We allow our minds to go down bunny trails while reading the Word.

Just as Scripture tells us not to allow ourselves to be anxious, we’re not supposed to allow ourselves to be distracted from Jesus. But here’s the thing. The enemy certainly does come to steal kill and destroy (see John 10:10). We know that because Jesus said so and Jesus is not a man that He should lie nor the son of man that He should repent.

One of the enemy’s favorite tactics—and it’s a low-level tactic quite frankly—is distraction. He wants to distract your heart so you can’t hear the voice of God. He wants to distract you from what you’re supposed to be doing in the moment so you can’t bear fruit.

Let’s break the external forces that are distracting us and setting us back from God’s best life.