Distracted

Prophetic Warnings

The Word of God is filled with examples of people who follow God, then fall away, then return to Him only to fall away again. To help draw the people back to Himself, God would often send a prophet to speak to the people about the direction they are heading in and that they need to make a sharp U-turn.  

I think of Jonah. 

Jonah was a reluctant prophet, sent to the people of Nineveh to warn them of the impending divine wrath that was heading towards them. Jonah was a man who (eventually!) stepped outside of his own little world to minister to a whole people group. 

There is no telling what we can do if we remove the distractions and escapes that we build into our lives, look at the state of our communities/nations/world, and start to get a complaint about it. 

We have the Holy Spirit within us. We are able to make a difference. 

2 Chronicles 7:14 (CSB) says this: 

‘…and my people, who bear my name, humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land.’ 

I am humbled by the grace of God in this verse. Our responsibility is to humble ourselves and pray, seek the Father’s face and turn from our wicked ways. God’s part of the deal is that He will hear us from His throne in Heaven. Forgive our sin. Heal our land. 

That’s a pretty generous trade-off if you ask me. 

Complete forgiveness of sin and a healed land. Isn’t that what we all want? To see the violence and endless evil cease in our generation. 

And it is possible, but first we must put down our phones, stop shopping, turn off the computer games and get a complaint to pray and act on. 

A time to rest and a time to fight

I’m not condemning respite and recreation. We need it. We’re commanded to sabbath! But when our lives are permanently distracted from the greater things going on outside of our lives, we need to ask ourselves if we really care and believe if our prayers and subsequent action can make a difference to make this world a better place. 

For me the complaint is education. I believe that if we can produce healthy, well-rounded, intelligent children through education and information about the world that they live in – past, present and future – then we will have healthy, well-rounded, intelligent adults who make healthy, well-rounded and intelligent life decisions.  

I’m aware that things like poverty and war impact the ability of a nation to educate their young, I’m not suggesting the lack of education is the root cause of all evil in the world. Not at all, our world is far more complex than that. But if we can instil wisdom and awareness into our developing people, I believe – and hope – that this will go a long way to bringing about the change that we all long to see.  

Not all are built for academia necessarily, for some they are more artistically inclined. Either way, education and personal development can build into society the ability to give back and contribute to our communities and nations. Our world.  

This is my complaint and I hold my hands up to say that I have done little to nothing to pray or act on beginning to see a change in this area of society. That’s my confession and my area of change. 

I am determined now to step outside of my own personal zone of comfort (again, not a bad thing in and of itself) and humble myself and pray, seeking the Father’s face for His heart around my complaint. 

My sincere hope is that, as I do, God will honour my pulling myself away from distraction and hear me from Heaven, and heal our land.  

What is your distraction? 

What is your complaint? 

How can you put down your distraction and pick up your complaint, starting from today? 

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