Overcoming Distractions

 God gives you and me important assignments and sometimes we don't fulfil them.

 Why is that?

I often allow distractions to hold me back. Do you too?

We are so easily distracted by electronic media.

Jesus is our role model. He always lived in communion with the Father. He never allowed himself to be distracted.

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? What I say to you I do not speak of my own accord: it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his works. Jn 14:10 NJB

If you love Jesus and follow Him, then God Himself lives in you.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—
the Spirit of truth. ... you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. Jn 14:16–17 NIV

The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, dwells in us, but we must be attentive.
We must be careful that we listen to Him, that we live in communion with Him, that we are not distracted by our visible environment.

We certainly want to follow Jesus, but in our thoughts we sometimes wander and then we do not listen to the voice of God as we would like.

But Paul exhorts us to train our minds, and we certainly want to do that because we don't want to be failures.

Do not conform yourselves to this world, but be transformed and renew your minds,
that you may prove and discern what is the will of God, what pleases him, what is good and perfect. Romans 12:2

It is so easy to be influenced by negative thoughts.
The internet and worldly media a full of negativity.
If you always eat unhealthy food, you can't be healthy.If you drink a lot of beer or wine several times a day, you can no longer think clearly.

This world is poisonous and we must defend our hearts against it.
We need to let God's word cleanse our hearts. but don’t let bible knowledge be an end in itself.

Jesus said to the Jewish scribes:

You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me,
yet you refuse to come to me to have life. Jn 5:39–40 NIV

Bible reading can be learning about God or getting to know God personally.

We need to build ourselves up daily in the Spirit. I thank God that he is so merciful with me and always wants to help me.

God has given me his Holy Spirit and I can pray in the Spirit. Speaking in tongues is not difficult at all and the Holy Spirit then prays with me.

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,
keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Jude 20–21 NIV

Paul wrote:

I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 1 Cor 14:18 NIV

If we want to fulfil the tasks that God gives us, we must build ourselves up with God's help.

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;

and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Rom 8:26–27 NASB95