One thing.

Lately my pastors have been preaching about focusing on our one thing. I have since seen a few other people talk about being focused and not succumbing to distractions and I feel this is a message to the global church from God. We are living in a time where it seems like we are always being bombarded with information. We are inundated with options and choices. We have access to so many things from one small hand-held mobile device. There are distractions everywhere.

One thing I wanted to point out, which is something my pastors preached, is that distractions are not always bad things. When we think of distractions, sometimes we think bad things that take our attention. Yes, bad things can be distractions. Playing your mistakes over and over in your head can be a distraction to you becoming who God is calling you to be. Focusing on the trauma and hurt of the past can be a distraction to you being healed and available to help someone else come out of that same situation.

Distractions come in many shapes and forms. As Christians we may be quick to recognise distractions in negative situations but what about when the devil throws good things at us. Christian conferences, events, celebrations and so on, are we quick to recognise them as distractions? What constitutes a distraction? Surely Christian conferences and celebrations cannot be construed as distractions, right? Wrong.

To be able to discern whether something is a distraction, you first need to know what God has asked you to do. If I have no plans and I am sitting at home with 8 hours of free time, watching Netflix is not a distraction it is entertaining. Baking a cake is not a distraction, it’s relaxing. Calling a friend and having a chat for a couple hours is not a distraction its good for me.

Let’s make it holy. Say instead I spend that time watching a couple of sermons by Bishop TD Jakes or listening to some preaching from my pastors, which is good for my soul. Praying with someone over a problem is also a good use of that time. Because I had no plan to begin with, those things are not distractions. They are good.

However, say God has asked me to read a particular book and I feel an urgency in my spirit to do it. I know I am completely busy over the next few weeks and all I have is this 8 hour stretch to do it. Doing any of the above things would be a distraction from the one thing God has asked me to do. They are not bad things, but because God has asked me to do this one thing specifically, anything that takes me away from doing that one thing is a distraction.

So in life, in order for us to be able to see where the enemy has been throwing distractions our way, we first need to take a step back and ask Holy Spirit, what is my focus in this season. Your focus from last season may not be the same as this season. There are some things I put to the side last season that God is asking me to pick back up again this season. What is my focus?

I know I am called to build God’s Kingdom and that call flows from my local church where I am planted. What does that look like? It means anything that tries to pull me out of church is a distraction. Anything thought that tries to tell me I am ill equipped or not good enough to fulfill the call of God on my life is a distraction. Anything that tries to get in the way of me writing these blogs is a distraction. Anything that tries to come in between my relationship with God and cause me to question Him is a distraction.

My one focus is Jesus. Out of that focus are certain things I have committed to do and I aim to do them. My job is also one of those things. I believe I have been strategically placed in my job for a purpose by God. Also, God says if you don’t work you don’t eat and for me food is life so I’m gonna work! But if work starts getting in the way of my relationship with God and building God’s Kingdom then something has to change. Matthew 6:33 says, “So above all, constantly seek God’s kingdom and his righteousness, then all these less important things will be given to you abundantly.”

When you know your focus, you can then see when something is a distraction. When we are distracted, we become like the 5 foolish virgins who ran out of oil. Distractions waste your resources. We have limited resources as human beings. Be like the 5 wise virgins and conserve your resources so that when our Lord Jesus comes back again, we are ready and our lamps are full of oil because we did not waste it on life’s distractions.

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.