Good Christian Bad Habits Part 3: - Too Distracted for God

Hey, this is Tim Pratt Jr. and I want to welcome you to the Student of Life Podcast. Listen, we're going to get into so many transferable truths throughout the content of these episodes that I believe God is going to use to help you apply because he's going to reveal what's already been there the entire time. Enjoy. What's up? So listen, this is season 4, episode 3 of the Good Christian Bad Habits series, part 3. We have one more to go. Which would be A Crucified Life or Die to Self. We're gonna go with one of those titles. But this one, Season 4, Episode 3, is Too Distracted for God. Too Distracted for God, a part of this series. And just kind of a quick recap, you know, if you want to go back and listen, uh, in this series, you know, God laid it on my heart just to be relevant for these times, you know, just like I said, the title Good Christian Bad Habits, because so many times I believe people come in the body of Christ, you know, we accept salvation And then it's like we think everything's supposed to transform there, but I would even go as far to say, as I just reflect back, um, that it actually seems like it gets more difficult if we don't truly plug into the word of God. Because you have just accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior and truly believe in your heart by faith that God raised him from the dead and that you have turned over your life to him with a commitment to allow him to be Lord of your life. So the enemy doesn't want that. And one of the greatest deceptions too, uh, outside of self-deception, which is probably still good, you know, being that is that, uh, a part of self-deception is that the enemy wants you to think that heaven, hell, all this stuff is not real. Uh, he wants you to just continue to live a life as if like, man, you know, when it's all said and done, then it's just done. It's nothing that you have to look forward to. And one thing I've always heard, I believe the first time I heard it was when I used to work at Molex, you know, with a guy, one of the IT guys named Tim Pratt Jr. as well. He said, I just often tell people, listen, if I'm wrong about this God thing, which I truly believe in my heart that I'm not, but if I am, according to people that just don't believe in it at all, then he was like, I have nothing to lose. It's just, it's a reset, you know, reincarnation, whatever people believe in. Like, it's just all said and done. But if I'm right, then I worry for all of them. And in a nutshell, that's, that's so true. And so, but in my heart, I do— it's times, I'm not gonna lie to you, like the enemy does try to come in and, you know, distort my view. Like, man, is this guy just sitting up here really real? But it's a faith thing, you know. And I know I believe in God with my whole heart. I'm not just talking or anything like that. But it is a challenge sometimes where the enemy— I mean, he will really try to get me in that area And, you know, but as I continue to plug in, and like I say, you know, uh, part— that's why I want to do part 1 with the mind, uh, like renewing the mind, why it's so powerful. And then, you know, part 2 was more so dealing with that self-deception. And this one, uh, I want to deal with the distractions. And in a previous season, I believe I did one called The Cost of Distraction, so it might be some overlap there. But nevertheless, uh, I do believe this one has enough of a new spin and kind of worn its own. Saying, "Too distracted for God," for this Good Christian Bad Habits series. So, um, didn't mean to really go there, like I said, but I just wanted— that was on my heart and I wanted to share it right out the gate. Uh, so that being said, let's, let's jump into this content. So as I was doing some research on kind of US Today and a few other sources, um, I pulled some data and this is basically off a 79-year lifespan, so that's 28,835 days. It says that the average person will spend 26 hours sleeping, 11 years and 4 months on screen time, 4 years and 6 months eating, 1 year and 4 months exercising. That's a lot of time when you look at just a 79-year lifespan. And sleep is very important, resting is very important, but also too, you don't want to sleep your life away, you know. I, like I said, I'm not saying you go ahead and grind, grind, grind, you die early sleep is very important, but at the same time, you don't want to sleep your life away. And then on top of that, you don't want to screen time Facebook your life away, Instagram your life away, or whatever the latest platform, TikTok your life away, you know, just YouTube your life away. Although those things can be very vital, you know, especially depending on what you're looking at, but at the same time, you don't— you want to live. You want to live this life that God gave you, and you don't want to not fulfill it due to distractions. And you know, it's like Maggie's in Heaven said, guys, I had so much more planned for you but you just spent too much time distracted. And it kind of transitioned— I believe I read this in the book a while ago, but it said if the enemy can't make you necessarily like sin in the context of doing things, he'll make you busy, because both of them have the same consequences, the same impact on your life. Negative, you know, and negative impact on your life is that it takes you away from God. So you might not be out here just sinning, like, you know, fornicating or whatever, adultery profanity, stealing, and all that type of stuff, but you're so distracted that you have no relationship with God. And so both of those, in, in some type of way, um, they basically take time away from God. It, it's not fellowshipping and communing with him. And so we have to be very vital about that. And then kind of as a foundational text, if you want to go read it, you know, Galatians 3:1-4, 1-5, Uh, it talks about basically, uh, studying and keeping Christ at the forefront, like seeking him first. And I'm not going to read it, you know, you can go read it for yourself because this episode I really want to just kind of talk, uh, because we might have a lot more scriptures in the next one. But Colossians 3 and 4, if you— like I say, uh, 3:1-4, 1-5, or if you want to read the whole chapter. And then another one is Matthew 22:37. This is kind of go dependent, like showing you how you should prioritize God first, Christ first. And so when you really think about it, in this world it's very fast-paced, super fast-paced. Something is always fighting for our attention. And it's just like, you know, you sit— we sit here and it's like, okay, Lord, I'm seeking you, but I need to do my own networking. Lord, I'm seeking you, but I need to plan out the next 2, 3, 4, 5 years. Lord, I'm seeking you, but I need to do this. Lord, I'm seeking you, but I'm not strategizing enough right now. Like, and so God is just— this is the God of the universe, and you know, we fall for this illusion of the enemy that, okay, if we say he's God, he's who he say he is, he can do what he say he can do, then why is it that we believe that we need to help him? We believe that we can do things in our own strength. And I'm not saying, you know, God doesn't use strategy and planning and things like that, but when you read throughout the context of scripture, most of the time, if not all, I don't believe that— especially if you consider the Old Testament— that— no, I believe all times, really, to be honest, that a lot of those people did not succeed until they got the plan and the strategy from God. And even in that, they questioned him. So what I'm saying is that God does. I believe it's— I know it's somewhere in there, but God does take like the wisdom that we think we have and it like, he just blows it out the water. Because that's why, you know, a lot of times people like, oh man, that, that was definitely a God thing. And so I'm not saying, you know, he won't work through us where we absolutely have to do anything, but are you sitting at the table long enough for him to feed you and you're digesting it, properly digesting it? Or are you looking up and seeing how someone else is eating? Are they eating too slow? Are they eating too fast? Are they not eating at all? You're so focused on their plate that God is saying you're not even, uh, focused on yours. And so once again, because we're distracted— and if you look at that kind of making it relevant in the context of social media, it happens. We get so caught up. Like, for me, you know, I never thought really that I would just have a strive to be just like this great husband and great father. Um, you know, I had highlights of it, you know, early on but just consistently. But it's God because I'm plugging into him. I, as much as I, you know, love my wife, I love my kids, I believe that if I wasn't plugged into God, man, truly plugged into him, I think I would do a lot of good things, but I don't believe I would be nowhere near where I'm at today because I would be just so distracted by the cares and fears of the world. And then I think I would be somewhat of selfish Like, and I'm going to save that for, you know, next episode, the last part to conclude this series. But I believe I would be really selfish. And so we can't fall for that illusion thinking that, you know, we can help God, or that we're just so distracted on how to be successful or whatever we may seek in this world. And like I say, that the God of the universe that knows all, knows the beginning from the end, like, I mean, nothing has ever occurred to him. The plan for our life is predestined, and he gave us choice. And so if I know someone is out there that deeply cares for me— now, it is according to his will, not ours, and that's a whole nother episode in itself— but it's, it's according to his will. But the more we plug into the word of God and commune with him, then our— it fleshes out our will. But if we're only half stepping in because we're so distracted then our will continues to try to kick against the prick. Like, it continues to try to, uh, be, uh, overthrow God's will, and that's not happening. His will is going to be fulfilled. And so I just believe that if you are truly distracted, or I can say all inclusive, if we are truly distracted, we cannot tap into it and know his will. So now it's just this conflict where we keep doing things and we praying and we out here like, and God is saying, it's not my will. That's not my will. That, that— no, I didn't say that. No, I didn't tell you to do that. But thank God for his grace and mercy to kind of help us basically get back where we should be, because he, he's a God that can allow anything to take place in order to get us to where we need to be. But don't fall for the illusion of distractions, because just like I said, like, if the enemy can't just get— if you're not out here just doing the most, as far as in the context of sin, which is still being too distracted for God is a sin because you're putting other things before him. But just like I said, in the context of this video, when a lot of times we hear the word sin, we think it's always somebody doing something. And so it's like, well, I'm praying, I'm reading here and there, but I'm not, I'm not really doing what they're doing. But that kind of goes back to looking at somebody else's plate. So it's still an art of distraction, and the enemy is very subtle. I just kind of want to leave you with this. You know, I thought about making a quick little video, uh, for Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram and stuff, but I was listening to one of my favorite pastors, uh, now Tim Ross, uh, just a great insightful guy, I believe, through the power of God. And he was talking about, in the context of, um, an anchor, a boat, you know, and if you was like just kind of close to the dock or whatever, and you know, you just like maybe a few feet or whatever, just, you just kind of like just out there like, uh, and you remove your anchor, and so you're not— the boat is just idle. And, uh, he was saying— he was talking about it in the context of like if a storm came, you know, or like drifting. But when I listened to the story and I was just like, God just kind of gave me another little spin. So I do want to give credit where credit's due. I was inspired by— with him. And of course, I'm sure people can tell the story many times, so, you know, dealing with anchors and boats, but when I was looking at it from the context of distraction, uh, just let's just say this is like you or whoever, a good friend, your wife, uh, you and your kids, or just you. Like, you just say, listen, I'm going to get a nice little boat and I don't want to go too far out. I don't want to, you know, be too far away from, uh, the, uh, the deck, the docking station. I just want to sail a little bit, you know, and come back and just be safe or whatever, just for the context of this story. And so, you know, you're down there, so you're reading, you're sitting on— you're on the boat, and Seth is like, it just has a little area where you can walk down and you can take a nap. And so like you're just scrolling, you're doing any and everything, and you're not paying attention because it's calm, it's a sunny day, the water, the lake or whatever is beautiful. And so you drift off and you go to sleep for maybe 3, 4 hours, and then you wake up because, you know, you didn't anchor down or nothing like that because you didn't feel no need to. And then you look up and you didn't want to get too far from the, uh, like I said, the docking station. And you're like, you look back and you're like, wow, like you're literally miles from it because you just slowly drifted because due to the current that's pulling you and pulling you and pulling you away from God. And I want you to think about that as distractions. So you didn't have no intent everything was calm, you know, through life. You're just doing your regular program, scheduled life, and you look up and it's like, wow, I'm not where I want to be. And so God is saying, like, you know, basically you weren't plugged in. You want to just imagine if you would have been anchored down in him, that continuation. So, and you know, you would have stayed put where he needed you to be put, you know. He would, uh, you wouldn't have drifted away. So what I'm saying, in other words, that it's never God, it's us. Or is the anchoring down, is it a continuation? Or are we just dropping it, pulling it up, dropping it and pulling it up for a few, you know, because we're just so distracted. And the brother Pastor Tim Ross was going on the other side of it was that, you know, if you were out and you were just in a boat and whatever, and a big storm came, you would anchor down. You like, you know, you even try to rebuke it, no, no, no, you know, and start speaking to it and things like that. But he was like, oftentimes the devil doesn't— the enemy doesn't work like that. He doesn't just always hit you with a big storm. It's the subtleness that drifts us away. And so we have to be very careful and make sure, like I say, in this fast-paced, attention-grabbing world, that we don't get so distracted and caught up in the day-to-day life that we do not plug into God and lose sight of our true purpose, our true purpose in life. Because he knows, he knows, he knows how to help us run our race. And we have to keep our eyes focused on him. So let's make— let's prioritize Christ, man. I don't care if it's just starting out with 5 minutes a day, you know. Like I say, I try to do 3 times a day for sure, not out of religious routine or nothing like that, but it's just a plugin that I just practice. And then a lot of times it's longer, sometimes it's shorter depending on what I'm doing and things like that. But nevertheless, I want to prioritize God, but not like I say, as a as a religious routine where it's just like program— like programmatic. Like, I'm just like, Lord, thank you, thank you, let me see another day. Every day I'm getting up and kind of just saying the same prayer, and it's just robotic where I don't even believe it. No, I'm talking about truly communing with him, just like I come here with my wife, my kids, my family, and so on. Because in closing, and if I walked in this house, you know, and I only talked to my wife like once a day, skip 3, 4 days, hit her with a text here, you know, just call, hey, love you, don't say nothing, you know, go to get her food, don't get her food, and it's just all this type of stuff. And vice versa, it's going to be some problems. I'm sure she's not putting up for that. And like I say, vice versa, I wouldn't even be putting up with like, we're— you're not communicating with me, you're not talking to me. And so, you know, and I think we just take God for granted because of his grace and mercy that he gives us. And so this episode, like I say, man, it's hitting me. So Another reason why, you know, we become Christians and, you know, good Christians or whatever you want to say, and but we keep these and maintain these bad habits is because we are too distracted. We're too distracted to plug into him and him to help us live out his will in our life. So ask yourself, just start charting or whatever, keep up with it. Are you too distracted for God? Are you too distracted for God to teach you His ways and teach you how to live a victorious life in the way He predestined. Hey, what's up? I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to the Student Life Podcast today. If this content has impacted you in any kind of way, please take some time to share it on your social media feeds. And also, if you want to connect with me or just learn more about me, go over to www.timothypratt.org. Once again, thanks.