Distractions!

January 18, 2015

Today. What is “today?” I find myself struggling to get a hold of “today.” The hours, the minutes play “catch me if you can” with me every day!

I like to get up early, before anyone else and study the Word of God. I have a plan. I prepare everything ahead of time….my Bible, my notebook, my iPad, my laptop. I open my iPad to get to my Logos app and a message pops up on my screen that needs my attention. I tried to ignore it but it wants my attention so I take a look at it—bad choice! I find myself caught up in everything dealing with that message, which leads me to other messages, and those messages lead me to other messages…I lost my objective for that morning, to read the Word of God!

So I make a commitment for the next morning to go straight to the Bible study with no computer, no iPhone, no iPad-- I’m doing good…I read one verse and then I get to that one word and I want to know more about it…Without thinking (as a robot would do), I open my laptop to look up that one word on my Logos software which leads me to another reference which leads me to another reference and…I get caught up in something else completely different from where I started. I click on commentaries, word studies, maps, etc.…and my plan to read the Word of God goes off the wayside because now…it’s time to get going with the day’s demands. Time has run out!

As I get older, time plays more games with me. I thought I was the only one with this ordeal but I hear the same complain all around me, “doesn’t it seem as though the hours are running together instead of one after another?” When I heard this comment from someone in my office, I was stunned! Was he reading my mind? A scripture popped in to my head right away: Matthew 24:22 “And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.”

Could it be that the Lord is shortening the days, as we get closer to the end? Are we experiencing the phenomenon that will occur during the tribulation period? We are not there yet but everything, every prophecy is converging together for those last seven years of man’s rebellion against God.

I believe we (followers of Jesus Christ) are living on borrowed time. Look up and see! The clouds are gathering together for that great, awesome storm: The Day of the Lord! It is near, at the door and we must be alert, grabbing every second we can to do the work the Lord has called us to do. The enemy keeps us occupied so that we lose our time with meaningless things but we must fight, we must keep on fighting until we are called home to be with our Lord.  We must fight with everything we have because time is even shorter for us! The Lord commands us in Luke 19:13 to “Do business till I come.” –The Lord is coming soon, very soon!

Today is passing and there’s nothing we can do about that! Can we fool time? Of course not! All we can do is grab the “bunches” of “spare” time we have and use it the right way because every second that passes it is lost forever!

“Today is the day the Lord has made;

We will rejoice and be glad in it.”

-Psalm 118:24