Dis-Traction, I

Proverbs 4:²³ “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”

For you to move forward, make progress, and gain ground in your life this year, you need traction. We spent the last two days going through the fundamentals. To help us understand that in the areas where we are just spinning and spinning, all we need is traction. And one of the key things that the enemy does to prevent us from having traction is to introduce ‘Dis’. The prefix ‘Dis’ is to negate. The enemy brings ‘Dis-Traction’ so that we cannot move forward. Distraction is the force that negates traction, it dissipates energy.

Remember the example of the car with its tyres stuck in the mud? The energy of the car is primed and revving, but it is dissipated so it does not produce traction. Distraction dissipates energy. Distraction, someone says, is extreme agitation of the mind or emotions which inadvertently leads to lack of progress in life. So, when the enemy wants to distract you, he brings things that will agitate your mind, make you restless in your emotions, and inadvertently prevent progress in life. Motion and progress require traction, and that is why the enemy brings distraction.

Next, we will look at a couple of common Dis-Tractions. The first is Bad Attitudes. We mostly don’t see a bad attitude as a Dis-Traction because it is covert. But when you step back, you will see that every time you have a bad attitude, it takes over your life, and you cannot move forward. A bad attitude is a huge Dis-Traction. Some time ago, I was reading about a man whose friend invited him to fly on his private plane. And while in the cockpit of the plane, looking at the different gauges and their names, he noticed a gauge labelled attitude. ‘Attitude?’, he said, ‘I do not want to fly in this plane because if they can make a mistake with labelling a gauge, definitely mistakes have been made in the engine. I just do not feel safe on this plane because that gauge was definitely supposed to be labelled altitude and not attitude.’

His friend laughed and said, ‘The gauge is actually correctly labelled. It is attitude and not altitude.’ ‘Really! So, what does that mean?’ he asked. ‘That gauge tells you where the nose of the plane is, whether it is facing up or down. The attitude of the plane will tell you if the plane is rising or descending’, his friend responded. Isn’t that so true with us? When some people have a bad attitude, they put their noses in the sky literally. But that creates a negative effect on humans. When your nose is in the sky, you are coming down. But when your nose is down, you are going up. Your attitude determines your altitude. It determines whether you are rising or descending.

Prayer: Father, help me pay attention to the attitude of my heart, in Jesus Name. Amen!