Distracted by Busyness

As college baseball teams prepare for their conference tournaments this week, the intensity rises. Coaches and players study game film, analyze statistics and data, and pour over scouting reports. They know their opponents’ tendencies: the pitcher’s put-away pitch, the batter’s hot and cold zones, and the team’s defensive deficiencies. Every strength and every weakness is mapped out—all with the purpose of exploiting any vulnerabilities.

Just as these teams prepare to face their competition, we too have an opponent who knows our tendencies and weaknesses. The Bible describes Satan as a “roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). He studies us—not with game film or stat sheets, but with millennia of experience in human behavior. He knows where we are strong, but more importantly, he is well-acquainted with our weaknesses. He strategizes his attacks where we are most vulnerable, when our guard is down, and where temptation can find its mark. Two of his greatest tools in his arsenal are distraction and busyness.

If Satan were holding a conference with his demonic forces, here is a list of distractions and temptations he would likely communicate for them to use against us. Don’t overlook these!

• Keep them busy with non-essentials.

• Tempt them to overspend and go into debt.

• Keep them and their children from going to church by scheduling travel sports tournaments and competitions every weekend.

• Make them work long hours to maintain empty lifestyles.

• Discourage them from spending time with family so the home disintegrates.

• Overstimulate their minds with television, computers, and social media so they can’t hear God speaking to them through His Word, the Bible.

• Keep them chasing after material things in order to appear successful in the eyes of the world.

• Stimulate their minds with models and TV personalities so they focus only on outward appearance and become dissatisfied with themselves and their spouses.

• Make sure married couples are too exhausted for physical intimacy; that way, they’ll be tempted to look elsewhere.

• Make them self-sufficient. Keep them busy working in their own strength so they’ll never rely on God’s strength and power in their lives.

Listen closely: It’s been said, “If Satan can’t make you bad, he’ll just make you busy.” I would add distraction to that quote as well. Sometimes, being “busy” simply means “Being Under Satan’s Yoke.” Don’t allow Satan to distract you and make you so busy that you have no time for God in your life.

Be aware! Stay alert! Your enemy, Satan, seeks only to kill, steal, and destroy (John 10:10).

Remember: If Satan can’t make you bad, he’ll just make you busy and distracted.

Keep your dukes up!