Where did the morning go?! I woke at 8:30am and it’s now close to 10am and I’ve accomplished little to nothing.

Does time ever get away from you? It does me….all the time. Take this morning for example. My second Tuesday of “funemploment” I’m basking in my morning “quiet time”, that time us Christians claim as sacred one-on-one time to devote to our relationship with the big guy upstairs only problem is:

“Oh lemme just check Instagram real quick…..oh cool I wanna reply to that Facebook message first……ok just one email”, and before I knew it 90-minutes just flew by and I had yet to give God any minutes.

I believe in the society of today this is one of the biggest obstacles to our quiet time and one of the devils most useful sneaky tools. I fall prey to this trick so often if not daily I’m sad to admit. 😦

THE ART OF DISTRACTION.

Sometimes its a great thing….

And sometimes, not so much.

It is one of the devils most seemingly innocent but deadly tricks. I consider myself a somewhat disciplined Christian, most days able to easily say no to the obvious things that the devil tempts with like invitations to late nights and heavy drinking, exciting events that fall during my women’s bible study, and men asking me out who clearly don’t put God first being just a few examples that come to mind —-but the devil is clever and adjusts his game plan as we strengthen our faith.

2 Corinthians 11:14 says, No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 

Reminding us that not all things that look good are good, and also, as shown here– reminding us that Satan can use things that don’t seem sinful by nature, for evil. Instead of causing us to do evil, all he has to do is draw us to things that draw us away from time with God and he has accomplished a great feat.

Now, it’s not others so much that he uses to pull me away from my time with The Lord, it’s myself. Its the art of distraction as I wrestle with a seemingly innocent idea of quickly checking social media first thing in the am rather than jump into my bible study.

“Afterall, how much more enticing is finding out what happen while you were sleeping than digging Into that book,” I hear the devil whisper in my ear. “Just a quick look won’t hurt, then you can get to your study, Jessica.” —but the reality is the devil knows how hard it is to reign in my mind once the day hits and once I start redirecting my focus.

 

So this morning, I failed.

I got sucked into distractions and when I finally prompted myself to study, out of sheer guilt (also not from God— as if it wasn’t bad enough to steal all that time, now the devil guilts me for falling prey to his alluring distraction), I had to laugh as I opened my book to to this page:

(Set-Apart Femininity: God’s Sacred Intent for Every Young Woman)

Isn’t it true though? Anytime we make changes (in my case quitting my job so I can focus on what God is directing me to do) the devil redirects his focus as well. So now that I have created time, he’s creating new ways of keeping me occupied and away from

My goal : Time with God

and the Ultimate Goal: Winning hearts for the Lord.

Why does a short time with the Lord matter to the devil? Because the devil knows how powerful time spent getting to know our father and prayer is. He knows if he can just thwart that the day will will be completely different.

“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12-13 (NIV)

Believers, you know its true. Everyone of you can think to a day when you were disciplined and took time to pray and do a little devotional or bible reading or whatever your quiet time looks like and no doubt you walked into that day with more confidence and direction and willingness to succeed than when you woke up. And on the other hand, we all have those days where we rush out of bed (or get distracted from our quiet time) and jump into our day and just can’t seem to catch up or feel successful that day. The whole dynamic of the day changes due to that one small act.

And the devil knows it!

So tomorrow I will start again. I will wake with intent and leave my phone where it lies, by my bed, and dive into the most important part of my day remembering how vital it is to my day, my health, and my ability to love on and serve others.

Get behind me Satan!!