Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Proverbs 4:25 (NLT)
If you’ve ever been to a professional basketball game, you’ll notice that something interesting occurs when the opposing team is ready to shoot a free throw. Typically, the fans for the home team will begin shouting, waving their arms or holding up signs to get the person to miss their free throw attempt.
In our lives, there are always things competing for our attention. Specifically, the enemy (satan) will use these distractions to try and get us focused on anything other than our goal (what lies before you). As an example, let’s say that you set a goal to pray for at least 5 minutes per day. As you approach your prayer time you’ll often find things, like the crowd in the stadium, trying to distract you from your goal. Suddenly, the telephone begins to ring (no one has called all day), you start thinking about all the chores you need to do or errands you need to run, etc. Don’t be distracted by the “fans” on the left or right as you focus on your goals. The bible tells us to fix our eyes on the goal that is in front of us. Don’t get distracted!