Attention Deficit Disorder
Today’s Verse:
Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way. ~Psalm 119:37
One of the challenges of parenting babies and toddlers is keeping their attention focused. Little kids tend to be distracted easily. Learning to focus is part of child development and training. In some cases, children who have difficulty focusing are said to have attention deficit disorder. In a spiritual sense, some Christians find themselves pulled in different directions due to spiritual attention deficit disorder and a lack of right focus when it comes to God’s Word.
We see the peril.
“Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity.” The word “vanity” means “emptiness, worthlessness, falsehood, and lies.” Another way of considering the meaning of the word “vanity” is the deceptions of the world. While our God is all truth, we must be reminded that Satan is a liar. Satan wants you to believe that the apples on every tree are good to eat when, in reality, some of these apples have worms. Eve is an example of someone who beheld the vanity of Satan and succumbed to the temptation of eating from the forbidden tree. Satan wants you to think that every new idea is a good idea when, in reality, some of these ideas are misleading and wrong. One of Satan’s misleading vanities is that in order to reach the culture, we must conform to the culture. This means changing the church music to appeal to the flesh. This means practicing less church, less conviction of the Holy Spirit, wanting more contemporary teaching topics instead of the entire counsel of God, and a compromised Christian lifestyle. When we fixate our eyes and thoughts on faddish vanities, we eventually believe that these lies build the church and build up Christian lives. In reality, the accepting of these vanities results in worldly Christians, empty lives, and a society that that is not being changed by the gospel.
We see the prayer.
The psalmist recognized that he was distracted by these lying vanities. He recognized that he was trying out the different fads, only to realize that he was crossing over forbidden lines. He recognized that he was ensnared by the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life; and he needed help quickly. So, we see a two-fold prayer. First, he asks God to turn away his eyes. He was asking God to give him a mechanism by which he would turn away his eyes from beholding or gazing on these vanities. Lot and his wife were told not to look back at Sodom. Job made a covenant with his eyes that he would not look upon a maiden. We must turn away our eyes from lustful distractions and turn our eyes upon Jesus. We must look so intently on Jesus that the center of all our attention is on Him and nothing else. Second, he prayed for God to quicken or revive him in the ways of God. He prayed that he would be revived to stay in the old paths. He prayed that his way would be God’s way.
We see the performance.
“Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.” He realized that he fell into the entrapment of spiritual attention deficit disorder. He prayed for God to revive him in the unchanging and steadfast ways of God. He desired that he would be solidified in the Word of God. He wanted firm convictions that were biblically based. Instead of being unsettled and flippant about his belief system, he sought God’s help to stablish the Word in his life. He no longer walked as a double-minded man who was unstable in all his ways. He moved forward, having his convictions firmly settled in God’s Word.
Has your focus become faddish and trendy, instead of being steadfast in the truth? Make a decision to be firmly established in the ways of God.
Have a steadfast God Morning!
Bible Reading Schedule: Psalm 46-50