Often, when one reads of the early church or stories of the fathers and their walk of faith in their time, one almost jumps to the conclusion that they had it easy in their day because the distractions in their day weren’t as abundant as it is in our days. While I’m tempted to agree with the argument… scratch that, I actually agree with this argument, come to think of it, just having a smartphone alone and its myriads of applications are sufficient enough to persuade one not to engage in a love walk with God, and we’re yet to even begin to scratch the surface of the distractions in our day, so maybe our claims have some merits.

I know that some of you reading this right now are nodding your heads in agreement, but hold on for a bit, and let’s investigate what God has got to say on this matter, but before I let you in on His opinion. You might perhaps be wondering, does God have a say in matters like this? I am pleased to announce to you, Yes! He does. After all, His Word had this to say about His person —

the High priest who is touched by the feelings of our infirmities — Hebrews 4:15

Before I let you in on God’s thought, what is the main aim of distractions, and why does it always show up in our attempt to cultivate a relationship with God? The answer to this question is found in the flesh; distractions are a product of the mundane leaning of our irredeemable flesh, and every time our redeemed spirit attempts to superimpose the realities of redemption on the flesh, the flesh puts up a fight through distractions, and it does this by robbing us of any ability to engage in the love walk through vocations such as prayers and study of God’s word. The more these redeemed vocations are lacking in one’s life, such a person inevitably leads a life inconsistent with the redemption his spirit has entered into, and flesh, through the agency of distractions, gets such a person to keep enacting in his members the protocols that lead to sinful living. Having understood this, it is time to introduce you to God’s thoughts on the matter;

Moreover, the law entered that thus offense might abound, but where sin abound, grace abounded much more — Romans 5:20 (KJV)

The big question here is, how does the above scripture correlate with the argument above? The word translated grace in the verse above means “Charis,” and this describes a case where God is extending Himself toward an individual, when you combine it with the word translated into abounded “hypereperisseusen,” which loosely means overflow, the passage now reads this way;

Moreover, the law entered that thus offense might abound, but where sin abound, God overflowingly extends Himself into you much more — Romans 5:20 (Emphasis Mine)

Now, back to addressing the big question, one thing that jumps in your face as you read that passage of scripture is that God didn’t see a need to address the abounding sin, because He has given us something infinitely greater that will cause us to rise far above it, and that is Himself and all of His corresponding attributes in an overflowing measure.

To put it in contemporary perspective, imagine a situation where a wave of financial inadequacy or sapa is happening and a very rich person, one who’s on the Forbes Billionaire list for some reason, knows you and hands over to you one of his debit cards, informs you of the amounts of money on it, and gives you an unrestricted licence to use as much as you want as you deem fit. If such a person continues to live in penury or lack, it’s no longer the billionaire’s fault, and it’s also not because the lack is extremely powerful, it’s simply a result of doubt, lack of knowledge, or even both.

The analogy above is the same way God sees us when we struggle with sin and its vices because, in His mercies, He Had given us all the grace to rise above the mundane trappings of sins, He told us that:

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence— 2 Peter 1: 3 ESV

So, my dear friend, the next time you find yourself complaining about the perils of committing to God in a generation like ours, also remember what His divine power has afforded you; a life of victory over sin, its attributes, its master, the devil, and all the demonic minions. His divine power lets us live perpetually above by leveraging the overflowing extension of God and His attributes or His abounding grace in our lives.

Shalom

Pastor Nonso Orji