I woke up the other morning with these two words coming to mind: distractive desires. So, what exactly are distractive desires? They are desires that distract us from what we should be doing and who we should be. They are not necessarily always sin but if not monitored have the potential to become sin over time. Certainly, at the very least, they pull us away from God.  These are things that are out of balance and out of priority in our lives.

These are activities that not only take us away from time with God, but also with our family.  These distractions are choices we make without always realizing it because they have become habits. Habits that are so automatic that we don’t even realize we are missing opportunities to prepare, improve, and produce better lives for ourselves and our family. We don’t always see the upheaval that such a distraction causes in our lives. Remember, anything out of balance can cause unrest in our mind and spirit, and our lives.

Just think about it for a moment and ask God to check your heart for any desires that are out of balance for what He would have you do.  I’ve heard others say they just can’t read through the Bible each year, or even each day; that they just don’t have time to pray.  Really? How much time would you have to give up from doing your hobby to read a few Bible chapters each day?  Do you really need to watch that much television or spend that much time on a hobby? Think about it.

As I said, some may think all this seems trivial but actually we are talking about how much value we put on our relationship with our Heavenly Father. When there is anything in our lives that is out of balance, we run the risk of those things turning our hearts away from God. When that happens, that’s when they become sin, no matter how innocent they may be in the beginning.

Hebrews 12:1 puts it this way in the NKJ; “therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. The NIV instructs us to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.”

A weight is also defined as being oppressed with a burden or weighted down with cares, or even a mental or emotional burden. These weights have the potential to distract us from the truth and promises of God. A desire is a strong longing or craving. Everyone knows about this when it comes to our appetite for food, but how many think about it in relation to things like obsession with watching movies or playing video games, or working on your favorite hobby? Actually, I knew a lady a long time back who was so obsessed with cleaning her house that she hardly made time for anything else. That too was a distractive desire. Having a clean home is a good desire, but she wanted her house to always look so perfect that it distracted her away from enjoying what God had given her to enjoy. That, for sure, is living out of balance.

Balance means to have or bring into harmony or proportion; or to arrange so that one set of elements equals another; influence counteracting the effect of another. We need the influence of the Word of God in our lives to balance out the effect of the worldliness that comes against us in such evil ways: via movies, books, news, and even what the Education System wants to teach us. We must learn and always be aware of how the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy through his schemes, strategies and deceits. (John 10:10; Ephesians 6:11) We must learn and believe that it is Jesus who gives us life and life abundantly.

This brings us full circle to my favorite verse in the Bible, Matthew 6:33; “but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you”. Now granted, when put into context, the prior verses are referring to what we should eat and wear etc., but the truth is that when we seek God first for our lives, then all the other things – including our hobbies, work, and desires will be in proper balance too.

The more time we spend with someone, or doing something, the more influence they have in our lives.  Let’s concentrate on placing and keeping our desires in line with God’s Word; and thereby making it easier to detect and eliminate any distractions that come to exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. Let’s do what Second Corinthians 10:3-5 tells us to do: bring all those thoughts and activities into obedience to Jesus. God is the better influence for our lives.