A distraction is anything that draws our attention away from our intended objective. According to Webster's Dictionary; a distraction is defined as: (n) derangement, frenzy or diversion. And derangement is defined as: putting out of order, disorder, insanity. These are some strong words for something people accept as common place. The world is designed to distract man by creating a diversion from what we know to do - to doing something that is against our better judgment. Since we live in a world that belongs to God; He has a set of rules by which everything in His creation must play or suffer the consequences for disobeying His rules. There is also an instigator in our midst that God calls Satan or the devil who creates distractions or diversions that are particularly attractive to the sense realm of the human being and draws our attention away from the one to whom we must give account.

 

For the Christian or Christ-like child of God, it is the distractions in life that we have to ignore while overcoming the temptation to succumb to them. Jesus said of Satan in [Matthew 16:23] "You (Satan) are an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." In other words, Satan is in disobedience; an offensive odor in the nostrils of God; does not know what God is doing; and spends his time working on man to deceive him into becoming like himself - disobedient. Since Satan is a spiritual being who is mindful only of the things of man - he uses the things of this world to distract man that he might prevent him from finding his Creator and becoming all that he can be. Satan knows man is a sensual being, therefore he uses sights, sounds, smells, things that feel good, and tastes good, to attack man through his physical senses and keep him in a state of distraction. God on the other hand works from the inside (regenerating our spirit man) outward, instead of from the outside (through the flesh) in to capture the spirit within as Satan does. A person who lives by his senses is a distracted, faithless, person who is easily swayed between two objectives and never able to come to a definite conclusion about either. [James 1:6-8] describes this person in this way, "But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts  (the distracted individual) is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."  What James has just described for us is the hope of Satan. If Satan can keep a person distracted, he has won another soul for hell, but if a person looks past Satan's distractions and searches for the meaning of life, God promises us, that person will find Him.

 

As time has passed, the sights and sounds of this world has increased exponentially becoming ever more beautiful and evil at the same time. Even the unbelieving man knows that some of the most beautiful things in this world are the most deadly. So Satan knowing that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, packages sin in a beautiful wrapping while hiding inside the beautiful package a deadly poison. Because man is so used to living by his senses he never takes notice that everything that Satan does through his distractions is designed to take something of value away from him. As a result Satan has stolen from man so often that man has grown accustomed to being stolen from and hardly takes notice of his loss until the end results of the distraction has taken ahold of him and his suffering sets in.

 

As much suffering as there is in this world, it looks like man would finally take notice and understand someone is behind the suffering. And if we understood someone is behind the suffering then maybe we could understand that there are opposing forces at work in this world, and that one of them is for us and the other is against us. Then maybe we could understand that Satan's desire is to make everyone's life as miserable as he possibly can before we die. He does so because we are made in the image and likeness of our God. Satan hates you and I as much as he hates our Father and Creator. If he can make us suffer, happy is he. But if we refuse to become distracted and stay on course with our Lord, then we can make him suffer and cause his forces a lot of damage. That is also why he tries as hard as he can to keep the gifts of God out of our understanding. If the church ever comes to realize God has empowered us to break down every stronghold Satan has installed in this world, we can do his cause so much damage it would take him centuries to rebuild it. But as long as we remain ignorant of his devices and remain in a state of distraction, we make his work easy for him.

 

God, in the beginning gave man good health, plenty of wealth, and a sound mind. [3 John 2] And it is still His desire for man to have such things. He went to a lot of trouble to give the life of His only Begotten Son so we could have these things in our life, and even had His desire recorded in His Word so we would know where to look, and what to believe - so we could get more if we ran low on these things. But the distracted man does not hear wisdom calling to him over the television, Internet, radio, etc, and so when sickness comes he runs to the doctor and buys pills because that is where his faith is at, and when he runs low of money he runs to the bank to borrow more and pays them for the privilege of going into debt, and when he becomes confused he runs to the counselor and buys advice; not understanding that these natural businesses are not designed to bless a person or to cure a persons Ill's; they are designed to take away their blessings without providing a permanent solution to their problems. The world has no permanent answers to our problems, but that is where distracted people have been taught to go. God has answers, and He provides a cure free of charge. The only things He asks of us in return for His help is for us to be faithful to Him - nothing more. I know God must be awfully disappointed when He looks at His children giving away what He has blessed them with to worldly people who hold a worldly degree from a worldly university, but have no answers for our problems. God's children have made the people of this world rich. They enjoy our blessings and live in mansions upon the hill top and around the lake shores, while God's children reside on the outskirts of town living from hand to mouth on borrowed bread. OTBP