Living a distracted life, a life that is aimed wrong or not aimed at all, expresses that God and his priorities are not supremely important; something else deserves our attention. That’s the definition of idolatry. These events from Paul’s time in Philippi are a good case study in focus, living an undistracted life. Few of the things that Paul does here are a rule that is always to be followed or even that he himself always followed. But everything was a moment-by-moment adjustment to shifting and surprising circumstances with his focused objective of proclaiming the gospel always in mind.
This 4-week series is centered on Intentionally living on mission as we’re connecting with Jesus, the church, and our community. Clearly seeing that God wants to work through us, we are invited to intentionally get in the game. We don’t have to clearly know all of the details of the game plan to answer “Now what?” We can trust our captain and just take the next step. With the actual race in view, we can fend off distractions and stay the course. And even when others misunderstand, we can stay on message, trusting God alone, who is the one who changes even unwilling hearts. In the Book of Acts we see Paul and the early disciples challenged in ways we are familiar with. We can be encouraged to live Intentionally, as they did.