Distractions

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

DISTRACTIONS

Acts 16:16-18

16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved." 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.

NIV

At first, this slave girl with the spirit by which she predicted the future would be good, although what spirit, other than God, knows the future? However, this spirit was not of God, for it was used to make money for her owners. It could be possible because Satan was once Lucifer and lived within the presence of God Most High, and may have been privy to some of what was to happen on earth. Lucifer would have known Jesus before He came to earth; in fact, he came to tempt him when Jesus was in human form. So then the spirit in the slave girl came from Satan, with some knowledge of things that would happen. Even though, by the spirit, the girl knew Paul and Silas were servants of the Most High God and kept shouting those words for days, it became a distraction from Paul's message about salvation through faith in Jesus. We wonder if there are distractions today from the message of salvation through faith in Jesus. There is no doubt that distractions exist in the world; in fact, there is open opposition to faith in Jesus. Do distractions exist within the church? Certainly, there would be no evil spirits bestowing gifts on believers, but could we be distracted by religious or man-made traditions? Paul turned and cast that spirit out of the slave girl in the name of Jesus, and at that very moment, it left her. Trouble for Paul and the others would follow, but the point is that the name of Jesus has power over all spirits of distraction. Evil will always attempt to persuade believers to look to themselves, to their works, or to their traditions instead of the truth that we are saved by grace and grace alone. Evil will always attempt to distract believers with pride in their spiritual greatness. We must be vigilant against those spirits of distraction that could show up attempting to cause discontent, dissension, division, or pridefulness. Sure, we can get involved in many things, even our occupations,  in general life itself, without becoming distracted in spiritual matters. However, when it comes to our spirit, nothing can overshadow having faith in Jesus. We must be willing to cast out anything that distracts from faith in Jesus alone.