“For this reason, when I could
stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in
some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in
vain.”- 1 Thess.
3:5
So, I
have missed several blogging days recently or at least been hit and miss. I
have been really busy and caught up in other activities.
My son
was sick, my schedule was packed, I had meetings, youth group parties, the list
could go on and on. It has been hard to keep up with my writing.
I could
join a large majority and chalk it up to Satan as the distractor. However, I am
going to own it and say it's my prioritizing that is the issue.
My kid
is definitely my priority before my writing. My wife is most definitely a
higher priority than my writing. My job is a priority, but I could balance my
time a bit better. Although, the rest of
the stuff, if I really wanted to make my writing work, I would have made it a
priority.
I got
lazy. I was tired, but I needed to push beyond and focus. I just didn't. Plain
and simple!
Now, I
do believe Satan can play a role in causing distractions, but I firmly believe
God gives us the power to push beyond the obstacles thrown in our path. I also
think we tend to give Satan too much power in our lives.
This
devil is not as powerful as God. He knows we are a threat if we are moving
towards and with Jesus, but he does not own our lives. We allow him to have
control when our priorities are off, plain and simple.
We can
blame a lot on Satan, but in reality, a lot of times, it is just life. Life
gets in the way. However, we need to be aware of the enemy who is trying to
tempt us into losing our focus.
Satan is
real, no doubt about it. Yet, his power is limited. In fact, we see in the
story of Job, that he can only receive power to do anything if God allows him
to do anything. Weird right?!
Yet, we
seem to want to put the blame on him and give him more strength in our lives
than he deserves. My distractions may or may not have come from Satan. I don’t
know. However, I do know that I have not had my priorities correct, which may
have allowed Satan to have some more power than he ever should have had in the
first place.
I
remember Dana Carvey had a skit on SNL (Saturday Night Live for those who hate
acronyms) called “Church Lady”. Everything would be given over to Satan. “Why
would you buy that movie? Hmmm…could it be SATAN?” We would tend to lean
towards that excuse, but we bought it because we heard it was a good movie and
we chose to ignore the fact that it had nudity and graphic sex scenes. That was
a choice we made.
Don’t
jump on me because of the movie I described, if you want to, maybe it’s because
of Satan. However, think about the fact that Satan did not cause you to pick
that movie. He may have tempted you, but due to your focus you chose to ignore
the Spirit possibly urging you to avoid it, and you went for it. That’s on you!
The same
goes for my writing, for my personal life, for anything I choose to do. My
priorities need to be Christ centered and allow Him to guide my steps. If I
choose to lose my focus, then yes Satan’s temptation will lead me down a wrong
path. However, I can’t blame him, that’s his job.
On the
other hand, my job is to stay centered with Jesus and lean on His understanding
in order to maneuver through the obstacles the deceiver is throwing my way. I
just have to focus my priorities.
This is a link to a Church lady youtube video for reference:
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