If you watched the movie, “Up,” then you remember Doug the dog. Every time someone goes on a rabbit trail or gets distracted, either they say, “Squirrel,” or someone else does. I hear people say it often because we’re a lot like Doug. We get easily distracted. We have our eyes on the prize of where we’re headed and something shiny gets our attention. We try to pray and we start thinking of all we have to do today. When we try to read the Bible, our phone goes off with someone trying to reach us. We live in a world full of distractions, but we must learn to keep our eyes on Jesus.
In Matthew 14 after Jesus fed the 5,000 He put the disciples in a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee. Somewhere in the night, a storm came over the sea and began tossing their boat. At 4:00 in the morning, while fighting to keep the boat afloat, Jesus came walking to them on the water. When they realized it was Jesus, Peter asked to get out of the boat and walk to Him. Verse 30 says, “But when he realized how high the waves were, he became frightened and started to sink. ‘Save me, Lord!’ he cried out” (TPT). Jesus reached out His hand, saved him and walked him back to the boat. When Peter got distracted, he began to sink and became afraid.
Proverbs 4:26-27 says, “Watch where you’re going! Stick to the path of truth, and the road will be safe and smooth before you. Don’t allow yourself to be sidetracked for even a moment or take the detour that leads to darkness.” It sounds simple enough, and it’s easy to pick on Peter, but we all get distracted by things around us or our circumstances. Taking the easy way out has become the norm, but we must stick to the path of truth. We can’t allow ourselves to get distracted so that we make decisions out of fear. We can’t allow distractions to get us off of God’s path. When we find that we are straying or are being distracted, we need to be like Peter and cry out, “Save me, Lord!” Just like He rescued Peter, He will rescue you and walk with you through the storm of distractions.
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
Devotions by Chris Hendrix 