Direct Your Demeanor
“And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. ”
First, we must focus on Christ and not the crisis. The more we focus on the problem, the bigger it appears. Likewise, the more we focus on God, the bigger He appears. I'm reminded of a lesson God prepared for me about this very topic.
A couple of weeks ago, I was running an errand that required me to drive farther than I'm usually comfortable with. I don't like to drive. I know how to drive, and I'm very competent, I just don't enjoy it. In addition to that, I inherited my dad's sense of direction, which means I couldn't find my way out of a paper bag with an opening at both ends. Nevertheless, I had an errand that needed to be run, so I hopped in the truck and followed the directions my husband had given me. I had driven to the place a couple of times before, so I knew it wasn't that difficult. It was the trip home that gave me trouble.
As I drove, I was listening to a book on CD. In fact, I was engrossed in the story. A little too engrossed as it turns out. Don't get me wrong, I was watching where I was going and paying attention to traffic. What I didn't notice, however, was that I missed a turn. Slowly, as I drove along, I realized that nothing looked familiar anymore. The farther I went, the less familiar things looked. In a state of panic, I realized what I had done. It was impossible for me to determine, however, how far past my turn I had gone. I was debating whether to turn around and try to find my turn or continue on in hopes that something would become familiar.
I continued down the road, glancing around, searching for anything that looked familiar. I tried to calm my churning stomach, telling myself that I could always turn around and go back the other way. But then, a moment of decision appeared. The road I was on no longer went straight. All traffic had to turn either left or right. I reasoned that since I was supposed to have turned left a ways back, turning left would be the correct choice. In the back of my mind, I prayed that reasoning was sound. Before long, I began to see signs for the BiLo Center, which is very close to my house. Relieved, I followed the signs, knowing that I could find my way home from there.
Looking back, it's a humorous tale. At the time, however, I was not laughing. Thankfully, my distraction only cost me a little time and panic. It could have been much worse.
Distraction is a deadly tool used by Satan to get us off course in our Christian walk. Often, we are so distracted that we don't even realize we're off course until we're far from where we should be. Then we're left stumbling around in the dark, trying to figure out where we took the wrong turn and how to get back on track.
Many things can serve as a distraction: people, circumstances, money, fame, and sin, just to name a few. These things (except sin), in and of themselves, are not wrong. But our focus on them can be. It's easy to get so bogged down with certain things that we lose our true focus. We get off course. In short, we miss our turn.
Distraction. It seems innocent, but it's so very deadly! So how can we fight against it? I think it's best said in Joshua 1:8: This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
It's hard to be distracted when we're meditating on God's Word. By focusing on the message of the Bible day and night, we won't be so easily swayed by other things that come along. Instead, God's Word will direct our eyes to Christ, and as long as we're looking to Him, we're headed in the right direction. It's simply a matter of focus.
