STAY ALERT!!!

       "Cherish therefore the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress, and Assemblies, judges and governors shall all become wolves." 


These words were written by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Edward Carrington. What I saw in them was a warning against inattention...also known as distraction. More so I think that what Jefferson warned against is the utter definition of the current state of affairs in our world. 


We have become a people heavily relient on distractions for entertainment, social status and unfortunately, this may flow into education. A lot of the information we receive has been truncated, leaving out a lot of the details that would fuel a change....a differing view....a critical thought or opinion. 


We cannot stress enough the value of attentiveness. There is no way to bring about change in a circumstance if one remains unaware of the nature of said circumstance. In other words, we cannot change a thing whose existence we do not acknowledge. My mentor brought this point out at a meeting where he said,"The problem we have at times is that we are at war with the enemy but are unaware of it. We have issues to pray over but our busy lives have us so distracted that we downplay the importance of prayer in our lives. In those times it takes extreme situations to bring us back to our knees, and that only until they have been resolved." 


I was reading a devotional drawn from Joyce Meyer's "Battlefield of The Mind" message, in which she gave a story of a Christian lady whose world was crashing under the immense weight of the awareness of her imperfection. When she looked at her life, all she saw was sin. I know that position only too well, and many are the times I wanted to give up on salvation simply because I could not see how God was working on me. Joyce point that out as Satan's strategy for discouragement and distraction, encouraging us to focus on what God has accomplished in us and to rest in the assurance that He who began the good work in us is faithful and well-able to complete it.


In I Peter 5:8(NIV) we are warned to "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." Distraction will cause us to focus on what we lack rather than what we have. This causes discontent, and the thanksgiving due to God is never heard on our lips. Moreover, Paul gives us the exact strategy to live the Christian life in Philippians 3:13-14: "Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." It is IMPOSSIBLE to live out that scripture without alertness in our spirit. If we are not aware of the enemy's schemes, we will not know what weapons to use in warfare. This may result in exhaustion, frustration and probably a downturn in our faith.


SIGH!! I started somewhere and ended up here, but in between I hope you find encouragement and blessing. :)