Are You Distracted?

There are two words here in 1 Corinthians 7:35 that “jump off” the page while reading. They are “attend” and “distraction.”

To “attend” is to “wait upon,” “regard,” “serve,” or “fix the mind upon.”

“Distraction” is to be in a state of “confusion,” “perplexity,” or “the mind being drawn away from a fixed position.”

As Christians we are called to “attend” to the things of God and “wait upon the LORD” (Isaiah 40:31). We are called to “serve the LORD with gladness” (Psalm 100:2), and we are called to have our mind on the things of God (Philippians 2 & 4) and not on the things of the earth (Colossians 3:1-2).

The reason, or one of the reasons, we don’t fulfill this calling in our life is because our mind becomes “distracted” (Psalm 88:15) by all sorts of earthly/worldly things. It’s easy to become distracted, especially in the age of technology and terror. We become confused about what to do and what’s going on and what to believe. We enter into a state of perplexity and mistrust, and the mind becomes drawn away and swayed from being fixed upon Christ and our calling to “attend upon the Lord without distraction.”

This is the reason, or one of many reasons, God ordained his word as our source of light and direction to get our minds and “attendance” back on him and his calling in our life. He ordained the local church and preaching and teaching of his word as a means to rebuke, reprove, correct, and instruct the mind back to attention.

When the Book is opened our minds become renewed. When the church doors are opened our minds become renewed. There will always be opportunities for “distraction,” but there will also be a way to escape from being “distracted.”