Beware of Distraction

Wednesday 27 July
READ: I Kgs. 20: 39-40
MORE LESSON: Matt. 6: 22

Distraction is anything that prevents you from giving full attention to your object of attention. Anything that prevents you from concentrating on your assignment and meeting your target is a distraction. When God gives you an assignment, a vision or a task, it takes refusal to be distracted, a determination to stick at it till you get the desired result.

There is a parable in the Bible of the king's servant whom the king gave a prisoner-of-war to guard with his life. The king warned him that if the prisoner escaped , he would have to pay for it with his life. The Bible says, While the servant was busy here and there, the man disappeared...: 1 Kings 20:40 (NIV). Distractions make you busy here and there at the expense of the assignment God has given you in destiny.

Distractions can occupy a man's day from morning till night as he traverses the whole city, all for him to get home in the night to realise that he can't point to a specific thing that he achieved for the day. This is why it is important to look back moment by moment, day by day and year by year and see whether we achieved our objectives for the moment, or spent time on distractions. If at the end of each day,, you reflect on the day and cannot point to one single thing that has been achieved for that day, that day was wasted. This is the reason you must beware of distractions on your journey of life if you must move forward and not miss your targets and visions.

Distraction makes a man lose focus and makes him miss his mission. . Unproductive and unfruitful lives, unfulfilled and distorted destinies have resulted from distractions. At the direst, it makes him lose his life. In the text, when the prisoner escaped and the prisoner was to be judged, it was decided that it was binding on the guard to lose his life as it was agreed when the prisoner was put in his custody. Distraction can cause a man his life. Take a good inventory of your life today and check everything that is not in direction with your purpose in life and is merely serving as a distraction. It could be a habit, a relationship, a game or sinful pleasure. Whatever is a distraction, destroy it today.

One of the strongest prayers you need in your journey forward in life and eternity is to bind everything sent from the enemy to distract you. Similarly, one of the best decisions you can make is to decide that you will not allow anything to distract you and you will not distract yourself. Go and live a life that is not subject to distractions, in Jesus’ name.

PRAYER/ACTION
* I bind every force of distraction hindering my moving forward, in Jesus’ name.
* I separate myself now from agents of distraction that make a man to lose focus in life.
* In my journey of destiny, I am unmovable and unshakable, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
I am appointed today as an ambassador of good news, I shall not give or receive evil news, in the name of Jesus.

Prepare to meet your God II

Tuesday 26 July
READ: Lk. 3:1-9
MORE LESSON: Rev. 22:12-15

It is common knowledge that if a man doesn't prepare for a thing, when it comes, he will be caught unawares. Lack of preparation leads to regret because whatever is not prepared for will not be properly done. If there is a visitor coming to you at a time and you do not know the time he will come but he said that he could walk in at any time, the best thing to do for such a visitor is to be prepared 24 hours in a day, seven days in a week, thirty days in a month, all year round. You just get ready for that visitor so that any moment he comes, you are not caught unawares. This is the attitude to assume in the issue of preparing for life after death and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This issue needs urgent attention because Jesus can come at any time.

Life is fragile and death can come any time. Death is not the end for all men are heading somewhere after death. There is life after death and it will be either spent in hell or in the presence of God. Whatsoever we do now or do not do, will determine where we end. The body will return to dust and the spirit will return to God. Whatsoever we do now to prepare for that time is what is most important. Everything on the face of the earth is good, but any life that is lived with the abundance of every good thing without a good relationship with God will be regretted. It will obviously be regretted because a time will come when you will have to stand before your God and explain how you spent your time on the face of the earth. All the things that God has given you the privilege to attain, all the things you have acquired, those you were not able to get, one day you will stand before God to give account.

God told the people of Israel to prepare to meet their God (Amos 4: 12). God had to forewarn His own people about the danger of living a life without preparation to meet Him. Those of us who are privileged to be in the world today need to be warned and warned again. So the Lord is calling our attention to this great issue again today, prepare to meet your God, But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death: Rev. 21:8.

PRAYER/ACTION
* The coming of the Lord shall not meet me unawares, in Jesus’ name.
* I shall not be ashamed to meet with my Lord at the end of my life, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Today is a good gift from God, I reject evil from dawn to dusk, in the name of Jesus.

Prepare to meet your God I

Monday 25 July
READ: Amos 4:12
MORE LESSON: Isa. 40:3

Therefore thus will I do unto Israel, and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet the Lord. The way people live today, one would wonder whether they are conscious that a day is coming when all things on the face of the earth will be over. People live for money, self and material pursuit. The desires of many men these days are more towards things of the earth than heavenly things. These are truly the last days as people have lost natural affection and perversity is idolised. Many kill for position and fame. Riotous living among youths is on the increase and even adults are partakers of atrocities. When you go to our schools and institutions, you will see how young boys and girls live in unrighteousness as if it is the order of the day. All manner of reckless dressing, some with the consent of parents, occult and fetish things have taken over everywhere, including the Church.

It is at such a time as this that everyone has to pay attention to preparing to meet the Lord. The increase of unrighteousness shows that the coming of the Lord is here. So instead of waking up in the morning and pursuing money till evening to come back home, eat, sleep, and leave again the next day to continue the vicious cycle, men should prepare for the coming of the Lord. There is more to life than food, drink and material things.

Israel was once like that in the text of today. They forgot about God and everybody was just doing what they liked and running their lives as if they had no God. God sent His servant Amos to go and speak to them to either return to Him or He would visit them with His anger. And He said, if you will avoid my anger, prepare to meet your God. This is the message for this time and season. Both the young and the old, parents and children need to return to God. We need to examine our lives, and begin to remember that after this place, there is another place we are going and if we don't prepare for it now, it will meet us unawares. Death can come at any time and it will be very disastrous to leave this face of the earth without having any contact with God. Do not be deceived by the fast pace of the world today that keeps men busy as if there is nothing else apart from daily survival and acquisition. Take a pause to reflect, break out of the rat race and prepare to meet your Lord.

PRAYER/ACTION
* Father, I receive grace to live each day ready to meet the Lord, in the name of Jesus.
* Ask the Lord to deliver you from every distraction of this age.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
I step into this week in the power of the Holy Ghost, nothing shall fail, in the mighty name of Jesus.

The Flashlight

Sunday 24 July
READ: Psa. 119: 105
MORE LESSON: Psa. 18: 28

The study and understanding of the Bible is vital for life. Light is crucial to life because it is life through light that plants synthesize food and animals eat plants. So light is actually a basic source of food. It is only in light that men walk around well for there are so many difficulties associated with trying to walk around in the dark. The Bible therefore says, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path: Psa. 119:105. It is in the Word of God that we get divine guidance. People always go around looking for someone to tell them what lies ahead. People patronise seers, prophets, diviners and horoscope because of the quest to be guided into tomorrow. Some businessmen pay huge sums to hire consultants, experts and forecasters, all because of the uncertainty of tomorrow. One of the greatest limitations of humanity is the knowledge of tomorrow.

The Word of God is the giver of assurance for tomorrow. The Bible in your hand contains enough divine direction to tell you the mind of God about what tomorrow ought to be and how to enter into it. With the Word of God, confusion about tomorrow is removed. You can know tomorrow without confusion or guess work, all you have to do is search and locate it in the Word. A man that lives by the Word is not confused about tomorrow and does not stumble. The Living Bible puts it in an exciting way, Your words are as a flash light to light the path ahead of me and keep me from stumbling: Psa. 119: 105 (TLB). The Word of God is a flash light showing you the path ahead; it clearly shows you the future so that you will not stumble as you go through life.

As you become full of the Word of God, confusion about what to do, where to go, how to go, disappear. You find answers and directions and walk accurately in the light. Where is your Bible? How well do you read it? Have you ever got a direction on how to go in life and what to do in life through the Bible? If you cannot point to certain decisions, guidance and answers to life's questions that you have personally discovered through reading the Bible, then you have not started reading no matter how much of the theory you have read.

Today, I commend you to the power of the Word of God that is able to keep and strengthen you and solve all the riddles that surround your life. Read the Bible, imbibe the Word of God and the Father of Light will show and lead you in the pathway for a successful tomorrow, in Jesus’ name.

PRAYER/ACTION
* Today, I receive illumination through the Word, in Jesus’ name.
* Oh Lord, let Your Word that I read today unveil every form of darkness in my destiny.
* My destiny will shine more and more through Your Word, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Every strong man of delay and stagnancy, I terminate you right now by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the name of Jesus.