The Cure for Distractions

            I’m distracted.  As I try to write this devotion, my dog, Jewel, is pawing at me, desperately seeking my attention. I can’t resist petting her! People are starting to wake up and there are e-mails to read and facebook™ messages to look at.  I then think about the dishes I left in the sink from last night.  Ugh.  I have to get to them because I can’t stand a dirty kitchen.  My thoughts come back to my writing.  What does God want me to say?

            Writing words of encouragement is one of the callings I have from God through our Pearls of Promise ministry but I find that the distractions pull at me more when I am trying to accomplish a God project.  Does that happen to you? I also find the spiritual opposition is fierce when I am following the Lord’s path for my life because my enemy wants to get me off track!

            Before we departed on our last Pearls of Promise ministry trip to San Antonio, our team all had various ailments that could have prevented us from traveling.  One member had a flair up of a disease, another had sciatic nerve problems and I had sharp pain in my upper back.  That’s when I knew this trip was going to be a powerful experience of God so we prayed against the opposition and refused to let these ailments stop us from going.  The day we left, none of us had any issues. The disease was gone.  The sciatic nerve pain subsided.  I no longer had back pain.  It was a miraculous healing on all counts!

            When we are called by God to accomplish a task, we can learn from Nehemiah in the Bible. He felt a calling to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem that lay in shambles after the Babylonian siege 70 years before. There was opposition from the leaders in the outlying areas because they liked it that Jerusalem was vulnerable, without walls.  The people around Judah threatened numerous times to stop the holy building project and when all of their threats failed, they tried to pull the building superintendent, Nehemiah, off the job through a lunch invitation. They figured if they could lure Nehemiah away from the job site and kill him, the wall construction would stop.  Nehemiah sent a message to his “lunch buddies” and told them, I am doing a great work, so I cannot come down. (Nehemiah 6:3) KJV  Nehemiah didn’t succumb to the distractions and kept building the wall.

            How many times do we let our distractions and opposition rule us instead of saying I am doing a great work, so I cannot come down?  How many times do we quit on a calling because we face too many obstacles?  I can guarantee that the stronger the calling of God is, the more opposition you will face, because our enemy doesn’t want God to be glorified. When I start seeing trouble, I begin to pray for triumph.

            Is there something God has called you to do but you just can’t seem to get it finished?  Ask the Lord to take away your distractions and pray against your opposition.  You are doing a great work!