Sin starts with a distraction. The distraction is not necessarily the sin, but it potentially opens the door to sin. The definition of distraction is “a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else” (Oxford University Press).
I ‘randomly’ saw this quote today after I started writing this. I don’t know its source. “If you don’t separate yourself from your distractions, your distractions will separate you from your goals and the life you want.”
The late T.F. Tenney said, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”
The writer of Hebrews said, “…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” Hebrews 12:1.
Our world provides us with many opportunities to be distracted. Frankly, I’m doubtful we could live without potential distractions in our life. Distractions can come from family, ministry, economy, or just trying to breathe.
Sin starts with a distraction. Try backtracking a sin from your past and figure out how it began. That sin did not happen because you gave your full attention to God and His kingdom.
This can get fuzzy when ministry is the distraction. If the focus is on ministry and not God, then ministry becomes a distraction. The result of ministry being a distraction can be destructive to us and those we attempt to minister to.
A Solution
Being proactive in our relationship with God minute-by-minute will allow us to be more effective in the various aspects of life and accomplish more in the process. Keeping our thoughts on God will make us better spouses, parents, saints, employees, employers, etc.
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee” (Isaiah 26:3).
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