Some time ago our pastor preached a sermon that really struck home.  His sermon was from Luke 10:38-42, the visit of Jesus to the home of Mary and Martha.  Only too often it feels like a sermon is being delivered straight at me.  This was one of those sermons, so I thought that some of the points he made might be important to some of our readers as well.

The devil’s primary goal is to distract us from Jesus.  To keep us so busy, so worried, so preoccupied that we forget about our walk with the Lord.  This happens to me only too often.  I don’t often get too worried, but I do get WAY too busy.  Most of the times I am busy with good things but they are things that often keep me from the Word or from my quiet time with Him.

I have been the President of Iowa Right to Life Committee and the co-chair of my local county Republican Party.  Both I am sure were good things, but both had the tendency to make me so busy, so preoccupied.

When Jesus told Martha that He was coming to their home for dinner, Martha must have been thrilled.  She planned, she baked and she cooked.  No doubt, she spent the day cleaning the house so that everything would be just right when the Master arrived.  After he arrived, He began talking and Martha’s sister Mary was so taken by His words that she sat at his feet and listened.

This was not typical for a woman of her time.  Women were not to be scholarly, this was the thing of manhood.  But that didn’t distract Mary, she wanted to learn and there was no better place to do this than at the feet of Jesus.  Well this really irritated Martha.  She thought that her sister should be helping her prepare the food.  So Martha went to her friend Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”

Jesus didn’t tell Martha that what she was doing was wrong, because it wasn’t.  Someone needed to prepare the meal, but what He did tell her was that, “There is really only one thing worth being concerned about.  Mary has discovered it – and I won’t take it away from her.”

Martha had become distracted by the things that she needed to “do.”  Mary decided on the other hand to sit back and listen to her Lord.

The devil is the master of distractions.  The devil wants to distract us for he knows that if we become closer to our Lord, he loses.  He loses his grip on our lives.  As the grip of Christ gets stronger, the grip of the devil gets weaker.

I Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”  James 4:7 tells us, “Submit yourselves therefor to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Our pastor said that distractions lead to drifting away from Christ and drifting leads to agitation in our daily lives.  The more distracted we become, the less time we spend with God, the less our bond is with God.  When we drift from Him our day to day lives show it.  We become less patient.  We are more irritable, our language may revert to the days before we knew the Lord, and worry and despair can set it.

So tonight, think of the things that distract you from spending time with your Lord.  Are you the woman who insists that EVERYTHING in your house needs to be just perfect so you don’t have enough time to spend in your nightly devotions?  Are you the guy who needs to have the yard perfectly manicured so you work until dark and by the time you come in you are just too tired to spend time with the Master? Are you the person who works so hard all day at work that you just need your time to decompress?  Do you just have to watch that favorite show on television or get into that new book you just picked up?

None of those things are innately wrong, but each can be a distraction.  Figure out what is distracting you from your time with God and then resist the devil and he will flee from you.  The closer you become to God, the fewer distraction you allow to interrupt your spiritual walk, the more joy you will feel and the more joy you will impart.

Remember – God knows you, He made you, and He loves you.  Now love Him back!!