Sidetracked

Shyju Mathew

"Experience the Word of God, in the power of the Spirit."

July 8, 2009

[Spanish Translation] One of the greatest challenges, many youngsters and adults face in our Christian life, is to have a stable walk with God. At one point, you seem to be going strong and before the end of the curve, you seem to have hit the floor, struggling with things that you know don’t matter, yet it has swept your heart away from God.

Over and over again, I have seen young ones and others, including myself, who have allowed the enemy to overpower us by the smallest of things in significance. The enemy is always at the job of trying to topple us over. Many times, he does not use large weapons but just simple thoughts to pull us down. As children of God, we must recognize that and continually renew our hearts and minds.

I just got off the phone with a friend, who was terribly hurt by discouraging words by his leader. A young friend mentioned to me, a week ago, about how every time he got to pray, his parents would say something that would irritate him and he would lose it all over again. We don’t realize that these irritations are the little ‘baits of satan’ to draw us away from our Creator. The only thing that the enemy is fighting against is your walk with God and it will take every force of the enemy to bring you down. Yet when we allow these issues to take over us, then we lose out on our walk with God.

Dear Friend, I want you to know this –  God has not distanced Himself from us, we have distanced ourselves away from God by allowing the cares and worries of the world overtake us. The trick of the enemy is to draw the attention to ourselves, to our pain, our hurt, our trouble, our worry and draw our attention away from God! As mature Christians, we must learn to put away the little distractions of the enemy and allow God, His presence to swell up in us.

Christ died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again. 2 Cor 5: 15 . He is our ever-present help! All things work together for our good as long as we continue to love Him. So, why allow the enemy to take us down in our walk with God? If you are one of those persons who feel low, hurt or distracted, I motivate you to go back into the Presence of God and ask the Holy Spirit to take over your mind; cast your burden onto Jesus. Remember that even Jesus had angels to minister to Him after He was tempted.

You, being the child of God, have the same Providence; allow the Holy Spirit to minister to your heart. He understands your temptations and the pain involved with it, more than anyone else. It was only after the temptation that Jesus began His ministry. So every time God allows you to face temptations, it’s a clear billboard sign that there is a ministry ahead, that God is going to use you for His glory!

So, shall we refocus?

All prayers for those sidetracked by the enemy’s little baits.

Love,
Shyju