Proverbs 4:25: “Let your eyes look directly in front of you and let your gaze look straight before you.”

Distraction is something we need to take seriously. Procrastination is not the thief of time; distraction is the thief of time. The thing that should take you one hour ends up taking you two hours because of distractions along the way.

Moses wrote, “Teach us to number our days so that we may apply our hearts to wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). The core problem is not just “managing your time.” The problem is: in the time you have, how do you avoid being pulled away by shiny things? How do you stop convincing yourself that distraction is actually good for you? How do you stop telling yourself the story that, “If I am distracted by this, if I am doing that, it is actually part of the good”?

There is a way you tell yourself that distraction is part of the good. No, it is not part of the good. “Oh, maybe I am going to miss out on something.” No. “Let your eyes look directly in front of you.”

Why do you think we need to be told, “Let your eyes look directly in front of you”? Because our eyes want to dart around. Shiny objects here and there. So I do not agree that procrastination is the thief of time. I think distraction is a major issue—distraction and the way we justify it.

And what is going to distract you more than the device in front of you? The phone, the latest releases of entertainment. I am not trying to pour water on entertainment, but I am saying: be aware of the distraction—or maybe the “need to gist” and get updated.

We have the charge: “Let your eyes look directly in front of you; let your gaze look straight before you.” You may tell yourself, “I need to be informed of what is happening around me. I need to be updated.” How much will you be updated? How many things do you want to know?

Let your eyes look directly in front of you. Set your agenda. Let your gaze look straight before you. Do not take this to mean, “Just be a soldier.” Take it to mean: distraction is an issue in your life and in my life, and it is not something you are going to solve easily. It is something you must first be aware of: “This is a distraction.” And you realize, “What I am supposed to do in four hours, I am doing in sixteen hours, because I keep getting distracted along the way.”

Let your eyes focus. Whatever is going to steal your attention, steal your focus, is from the devil.

When you read the parable of the sower, the word was sown; then “the evil one comes and snatches what was sown in his heart” (Matthew 13:19). That sounds to me like you were not focused during the word session. I was there, you were there, we both sat down. But when the pastor was preaching, I was not focused for ten percent of the time. That is it: the devil came and stole the word that was sown.

This person is not the one who understood the word and rejoiced for a little while. No. For this person, the word barely landed. He was present. If they ask, “What did they say?” he can give you an idea. He was present, but the focus was broken. There was a task at hand—to listen to the message being preached—but the enemy came and stole.

And someone is going to say, “Let us pray against all the birds of the air, against the evil, so they will not come and steal.” It has to be the individual. That is what I think. The individual needs to be aware that this operation of the enemy—to make sure you do not focus—is ongoing and is not going to stop. We need to watch out for it. To be able to say, “I have just been distracted,” and begin to repent: “I did not hear the last three minutes preached. I did not hear anything, because my attention was grabbed by other things that the enemy convinced me were more important—or that I convinced myself were more important—than whatever that person was saying.”

And it is so important when it comes to the word of God, because we are supposed to “humbly welcome the message implanted within you, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21).

God bless you.