However, the whole witness of Scripture and redemptive history tells us that even when they are more frequent, miraculous, instantaneous transformations are always exceptional (rare) in this age, not normative. Most of our healings will be experienced through the relatively slow processes with which God wonderfully and wisely equips our bodies. And most of our deliverances, including the abilibity to defeat your distractions, will be experienced through the relatively slow (at times frustratingly so) processes with which God wonderfully and wisely equips our minds and souls—replacing habitual responses of belief in deceptive promises and condemning accusations with habitual responses of faith in the true promises and gracious acceptance of God.
We talk a lot about the habits of grace at Desiring God, because routines build and shape human character, skill, affection and creativity. Scripture teaches and history reinforces that habitual routines of Bible meditation, prayer and church fellowship are God’s primary gracious means of our transformation. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither are we. You can defeat your distractions slowly, incrementally, painstakingly, brick by brick, day by day, over time—at God’s speed.
What Distractions Tell You
Now, God does want us to be delivered from the fragmenting effect of fruitless distraction (Luke 10:40). He wants us focused on what’s most important (Luke 10:41–42). But it’s very unlikely that we will receive a quick fix, because there is more going on in distraction than we often realize. In fact, we have a lot to learn from all that is happening in us when we’re tempted to be distracted.
First, distractions frequently tell us what we love and trust and fear. We gravitate toward desires we crave and away from fears we wish to avoid. Listen to what your familiar (habitual) distractions are saying. In what are you seeking joy? In what are you seeking shelter? What are you trying to escape?
Distractions also tell us where we formed poor habits earlier in life that we’ve not adequately addressed yet. Some bad habits are due to growing up in broken family systems, and some are indulgent habits we formed in youth or adolescence for which we must now be mature enough to take responsibility.
Distractions can also tell us biological realities we must deal with: ADHD, OCD, chronic depression, bipolar disorder and other maladies. Medication supervised by a skilled physician can be of significant help, but we also need to actively cultivate new habits to mitigate the effects of a disordered biology.
What are your distractions telling you? Record them as you notice them for two or three weeks. You will not fight them successfully until you know what’s fueling them. Distractions fueled by different disordered loves or fears or biology or plain old bad habits require different habitual battle strategies.
Trained by Constant Practice
Healthy habits are strategies. If resolves are our objectives (desired outcomes), habits are our strategies. Or to use a different metaphor, the engine of our resolve must run on the tracks of our habits. Resolve can only travel as far as the tracks of habits have been laid.
Hebrews 5:14 says that very thing: “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” That verse helps set our expectations. Spiritual maturity is the goal; constant practice is the means.
