10 things that can distract us from God (part 2)

There's so many things that distract us. Here's another 5 to watch out for.

6. Our Work

Work, work, work. What a distraction this can be! And I’m not just referring to a job, I mean everything from a job, to leading youth group, or bible study, or anything! It is so easy to get caught up in our duties, but the most important thing is that we do it entirely for the Lord. I love this following scripture:

"As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)

We can have great motives behind our work, but sometimes we let the work become more important then “listening to Jesus”.

7. Our Hobbies

I love hobbies! I have a huge range of them; from playing guitar and singing, to video games, sports, and numerous others. The dangerous thing about them is that they can consume a lot of our time.

However, our hobbies can provide great opportunities if we use them for God's purposes. For example, we can play video games or sports, with people to develop relationships, and create opportunities for gospel conversations. Check out this great article on further ideas about how to honour God with our hobbies.

8. Desiring a blessing from God, more than God Himself.

I have to be honest, this is easy to fall into, at least for myself. It can be so easy to pray for a specific thing over and over again, but forget about spending time with God. We can very easliy start treating God like a vending machine, and we just go to him when we want something, but we don't follow him with the rest of our lives.

Remember, its ”seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). Its not “first seek all these other things, and then if you get around to it, seek his kingdom”.

9. Our ministers, pastors, and youth leaders

What!? What's this doing on the list!? What I’m referring to is how we can easily becoming dependent upon our leaders. This can be a really deadly interference in our walk with God. It is not our leader's responsibility to feed us all we need to be spiritually healthy, we need to work at it ourselves as well.

A lot of people fall into the habit of only getting teaching, or reading the Bible on a Sunday morning, or Friday night. This would be like only eating once a week! If we did this, we would be horribly malnourished! And sadly, this is the case for many spiritually.

10. Ourselves

The last one on the list of distractions, and possibly the most likely to distract us. We are, by nature, sinful, and if we live by our nature, we will not get close to God. That is why we need to die to ourselves, and live in Christ (Romans 6:11). But no matter what we do, there will be a constant battle within ourselves between spirit and flesh (Romans 7:15-21). That is why we need to constantly allow God to search our heart, and purify it (Psalm 139:23-24). The first step to overcoming ourselves is being aware.

Article originally published at LivingforJesus.com