It's the Most Stressful Time of the YearSample

Overwhelming Distractions

Proverbs 4:25 "Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you."

If there were ever a culture that was distracted, it would be this one in 2021. 

The average attention span of a person today (July 2021) is 8 seconds. To put that in perspective, the average attention span of a goldfish is 9 seconds. So between legitimate reasons like faith, family, work, health, money, and sex, we are distracted. Add on social media, news, culture, Covid-19, and that Christmas is upon us and we are overwhelmingly distracted. 

God made us, so He knew that we would be prone to distractions. I love our scripture verse as you can't get more plain-talking than, "Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you." You don't have to be a theologian to understand that verse. 

The Bible has a lot of stories about visual perspectives, and one of my favorites is Peter walking on water in Matthew 14:22-31. In verse 29, we see Peter hop out of the boat and start walking on water toward Jesus. As we continue reading in scripture, Peter takes his eyes off Jesus, and it all goes sideways after that.

So what can we do to set our eyes on Jesus and keep them there? 

Stay in the Word, pray, and don't put ourselves in distractive situations. Our scripture verse doubles down and says, "look straight ahead" and "fix your eyes." 

When you are reading God's Word, set aside quiet time to focus on it.

When you pray, don't do it right before you go to bed if you know you fall asleep while praying.  

If you are trying to fix your eyes on Jesus, double down and keep them there. 

One thing you can count on is there will always be a distraction. If the devil can't make you sin, he'll try to distract you from God. 

Uncommen Questions:


What is in the way of you spending quality time with God?

What distractions can you get rid of today?

Uncommen Challenge:

I challenge us all to identify the distractions in our lives that separate us from God.