Jon Petts

Tag: Distraction

  • Overcoming Spiritual Distraction

    Overcoming Spiritual Distraction

    The Ice Cream Strategy

    Andrea and I learned early on in parenthood that distraction is a masterful child management tool. If you have ever tried to navigate a public park with a toddler, you will recognise this scene, which has its parallels in the realm of spiritual distraction.

    (This is the second instalment of The Devil’s Playbook. If you have not yet read the foundational audit on how the enemy operates, you can read part 1 here.)

    Scenario A

    Child: “I want an ice cream.”

    Mum: “You cannot have one, you have just had a big chocolate pudding. You will be sick.”

    Child: “Please? Just one?”

    Dad: (Tuning in late) “Er, no. Ice cream makes you… fat?”

    Child: “Has Daddy had an ice cream?”

    In this scenario, logic is failing. The “target” (the ice cream van) remains firmly in the child’s sights.

    Scenario B

    Child: “I want an ice cream.”

    Mum: “Oh look! There is a slide and some swings!”

    Dad: “I wonder how high I can push you on that swing!”

    Child: (Eyes shifting) “Swing!”

    By the time the child is flying through the air, the ice cream van is a distant memory.

    Distraction Definition:

    A distraction is any thing, action, or state that diverts attention away from a primary task, goal, or focus, often resulting in diminished productivity or mental confusion.

    In parenting, we use it to steer children away from unhealthy options. But in the spiritual realm, the enemy uses it to steer us away from our destiny.

    The Anatomy of a Distraction

    There are always two elements involved in this “play”:

    1. Your Desired Focus (for example, your Kingdom mission, health, or deep relationships).
    2. An Undesired Focus (for example, the doughnut shop next to the gym).

    As adults and professionals, we rarely grow out of this.

    We are constantly tempted by things that bring quicker, shallower results. God has plenty for us to focus on, but much of it reaps rewards we cannot instantly see. Our spiritual enemy, however, has a playbook full of “instant” distractions intended to throw us off course altogether.

    What is the Desired Focus?

    Our ultimate role as believers is to love God, love people, and make disciples. If I were to distil that role down even further, it is summed up perfectly by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount:

    “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness…”

    Matthew 6:33, NIVUK

    Note that Jesus says “Seek first”. There is not a “second”. For everything else in your life, you have two options: put it second or throw it out altogether. Or make an idol of it.

    There is an old joke about a man who pleaded with God to bring his gold to heaven; when he arrived, Saint Peter looked inside the man’s bag and asked why he had brought a lump of pavement.

    The only things of eternal value are those done with a seeking-first-the-kingdom attitude. Everything else is a distraction.

    The Forensic De-clutter

    What does seeking the Kingdom first actually look like in a professional or personal life?

    Here are some examples:

    • Decision Making: Every choice runs through a filter: What will honour God best?
    • Career Choices: A house move or job change is less about the salary and more about the “Kingdom fit”. Is there a solid church nearby? Does this job sacrifice my godly commitments?
    • Family: Success for your children is not measured by exam results or high paying jobs, but by whether they have a heart to serve God.

    Your spirit agrees with this as you read it. But your flesh, the untamed part of your nature, might be making excuses. This is exactly where the enemy’s playbook opens.

    The Three Hooks of Distraction

    In 1 John 2:16, we are given three categories of distraction that the world and the enemy use to hook us:

    For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, comes not from the Father but from the world.

    1 John 2:16

    This is one of those verses we might skim over, or just see as a list of bad practices. But it holds a powerful key to understanding temptation and distraction, because we see these three mechanisms at play in the Garden of Eden during the first ever sin, where it all started. And amazingly, we also see Jesus face and defeat these parallel hooks during His temptations in the wilderness.

    At the core of every hook is an attack on identity, tempting us to forget who we are and what we already possess in God.

    Let us unpack how these ancient traps operate today.

    1. The Lust of the Flesh (Physical Cravings)

    This hook is about making yourself feel good without including God. It is the “counterfeit blessing.” It is the urge to satisfy a legitimate physical or emotional need in an illegitimate or impatient way, often by forgetting our identity as fully provided-for children of God.

    “The woman saw that the tree was good for food…” (Genesis 3:6, NIVUK).

    Eve was surrounded by a paradise of permissible food, yet the serpent planted a seed of doubt about God’s provision. Her physical appetite for this one forbidden thing was awakened. She forgot her identity as someone who already possessed everything she needed and chose to bypass the clear boundary God had set for her protection.

    Consider the story of Esau in Genesis 25. He came in from the fields completely exhausted and famished, saying to his brother Jacob,

    “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (Genesis 25:30, NIVUK).

    Driven entirely by his immediate physical craving, Esau forgot his identity as the firstborn heir. He swore an oath,

    “selling his birthright to Jacob” (Genesis 25:33, NIVUK),

    trading his entire future inheritance and spiritual blessing for a single, temporary bowl of soup.

    Looking to Jesus in Matthew 4, we see a completely different response to physical desperation. After fasting for forty days, He was genuinely starving. The devil approached Him with a direct attack on His identity:

    “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread” (Matthew 4:3, NIVUK).

    The enemy challenged Him to use His divine power to satisfy a legitimate physical craving outside of God’s timing. Jesus knew exactly who He was. He refused the counterfeit blessing, choosing to trust the Father for His provision rather than catering to His flesh.

    In the professional world, this manifests as greed, power plays, or taking shortcuts to satisfy an emotional craving for success or security. It is the leader who completely sacrifices their marriage and physical health to hit a quarterly target, trading foundational blessings for a temporary bowl of professional validation.

    When we feel the pull of the flesh, we must fix our eyes on Jesus. He reminds us that our identity is not found in our immediate comfort or success, but in trusting the Father for our daily bread and long-term sustenance.

    2. The Lust of the Eyes (Instant Appeal)

    This hook involves the quick-fix solution that ignores long-term consequences. It is surface-level satisfaction and the temptation to acquire whatever looks appealing in the moment, rather than waiting for what God has promised.

    “…and pleasing to the eye…” (Genesis 3:6, NIVUK).

    The narrative in Eden continues by highlighting the visual allure of the fruit. The serpent used this superficial, aesthetic appeal to distract Eve from the deadly reality of God’s warning. The sheer visual temptation overrode her memory of the consequences. She saw something shiny and new, forgetting the boundless beauty of the garden she already inhabited.

    In Genesis 13, Abraham and his nephew Lot realised their herds were too large to share the same land. Abraham gave Lot the first choice of territory. Lot

    “looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan towards Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the Lord” (Genesis 13:10, NIVUK).

    Lot chose based entirely on immediate visual appeal, completely ignoring the deeply corrupted culture of Sodom that came attached to it. He lost sight of his identity as part of Abraham’s chosen family line, a choice that ultimately cost him everything.

    Fast forward to the wilderness, and we see the enemy attempt a similar visual trap with Jesus. The devil took Him to a high mountain and

    “showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world” (Luke 4:5, NIVUK).

    He offered them to Jesus in exchange for one act of worship. It was the ultimate visual allure of immediate, bloodless victory. It was a shortcut to the crown that completely bypassed the suffering of the cross. Jesus rejected the visually stunning solution, remembering His identity as the suffering servant who would redeem the world God’s way.

    When our organisations abandon a solid, steady mission to chase a new toy, a flashy project, or the latest tech trend simply because it looks impressive we may be chasing what looks good to the market right now, but are we ignoring whether it aligns with our core mission.

    We overcome this by fixing our eyes on Jesus. He teaches us to look past the instant visual appeal of a shortcut and focus on the joy set before us, choosing the difficult but enduring path of purposeful, mission-driven work.

    3. The Pride of Life (Reputation)

    This is the focus on how others see you, where you rank amongst them, and the intoxicating belief that you are the sole architect of your own success. It is the ultimate identity theft.

    “…you will be like God…” (Genesis 3:5, NIVUK).

    The final trap in Eden was the promise of elevated status. The serpent convinced Eve that God was holding out on her. Here lies the great tragedy: Eve was already made in the image and likeness of God. She possessed the highest identity possible for a created being. Yet, in her pride, she grasped at a counterfeit version of what she already had, desiring to be her own ultimate authority.

    King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is a prime example of this hook. Looking out over his magnificent empire, he said to himself,

    “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30, NIVUK).

    He forgot that God had granted him his kingdom. In that very moment, his arrogance brought severe judgement. He lost his mind and his human identity, driven away to live like an animal until he looked up and acknowledged Heaven’s rule.

    Returning to Jesus in the wilderness, we see how He handled the temptation of status and reputation. The devil challenged Him to throw Himself from the highest point of the temple, saying,

    “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down” (Matthew 4:6, NIVUK).

    This was an invitation to create a public spectacle and forcibly prove His divine status to the crowds. Jesus refused to perform for reputation. He remained completely secure in His identity without needing a flashy public display or human applause to validate His worth.

    In the boardroom, this translates to chasing the approval of peers or the status of a title over the substance of your service. It is the leader who makes decisions based on PR opportunities rather than what is best for the team. When the pride of life takes root, the business simply becomes a monument to the leader’s ego.

    The antidote to pride is again fixing our eyes on Jesus. Though He was in very nature God, He did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage. Instead, He made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant. We must root our professional identity in how well we serve others, not in how highly they praise us.

    When Are You Vulnerable?

    The enemy waits for specific “weather conditions” in your life to run these three plays.

    • When you are low on energy, you are vulnerable to the lust of the flesh. You naturally want an easy fix. In these exhausted moments, you would rather “snack” on a minor distraction or a counterfeit comfort than do the heavy lifting required to put on the full armour of God.
    • When God seems silent, you become highly susceptible to the lust of the eyes. You are tempted to chase something visible and immediate, reaching for a shiny, surface-level solution rather than waiting patiently on His timing.
    • Finally, when you are isolated and without fellowship to keep you in check, the pride of life easily takes root. It is in that vacuum of accountability that your ego begins to whisper, “I can do this on my own.”

    Our Counter-Play: Fixing the Gaze

    A compass representing the need for Kingdom leadership focus and spiritual guardrails.
    A leader’s primary defence against spiritual distraction is not more effort, but a constant recalibration of their spiritual North.

    We have established that the ultimate course correction for these three hooks is to fix our eyes on Jesus. However, in the daily grind of the professional world, that phrase can sometimes feel abstract or overly spiritual. How do we translate that into practical action? Let us focus on a specific directive Jesus gave regarding where our attention should be focused.

    “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33, NIVUK)

    The key to defeating distraction is found in that second half: “…and all these things will be given to you as well.” The hooks of the flesh, the eyes, and pride all prey on the fear that we are missing out, that we lack provision, or that we must build our own empires. But your Heavenly Father knows exactly what you need. When we put Him first, He provides the rest.

    To keep your eyes practically fixed on Him this week, consider implementing three simple Standard Operating Procedures to protect your focus:

    1. Prayer: Bring Him into every moment, not just the strictly “spiritual” ones. Pray before the difficult client call, during the commute, and whilst making operational decisions.
    2. The Word: Stick to a consistent reading plan. Do not just read it; listen to it. Let Scripture set your baseline reality before the inbox dictates your day.
    3. Fellowship: Do not give up meeting with people who keep you in check. You need peers and mentors who will ask the hard questions and hold you accountable.

    Remember, we are here to win.

    The devil is simply a fallen angel, and his playbook is entirely predictable once you recognise his strategies.

    By understanding his hooks and implementing the right counter-plays, you can navigate your professional life with clear vision and undistracted purpose.

    Next week, we look at the second “D”: Doubt – The whisper of “What if?” and how to answer it.

    Who is Jon Petts?

  • The Devil’s Playbook (Reclaiming your Spiritual Focus)

    The Devil’s Playbook (Reclaiming your Spiritual Focus)

    I was almost sold

    When Andrea and I were young, newly married, and fairly impressionable, we went along to a meeting in a hotel that promised a free holiday just for attending. All we had to do was sit through a presentation first.

    By the end of the evening, we were convinced. It all made sense, and we were ready to sign up for something that would cost us every month for a long time.

    I remember holding the pen, just about to sign, when something didn’t feel right. I couldn’t quite explain it, but it was enough to make me stop. I backed out at the last moment. The salesperson didn’t hide his disappointment—and probably had a few choice words he kept to himself.

    I was almost sold.

    Looking back, I could see that I had been led through a process in someone else’s playbook. What has this to do with reclaiming your spiritual focus?

    The Playbook and You

    Have you ever felt like the world is constantly trying to sell you something? Telling you what you don’t have rather than what you do have? Have you been sold on something before and not realised it was happening?

    A good salesperson can easily take you on a journey and before you know it you’ve committed to a purchase.

    Maybe you’ve been in sales yourself and know what it takes to get inside someone’s head.

    What is a Playbook?

    The term ‘playbook’ (apart from ‘play book’ being used in the theatre and dramatic arts to mean a book of plays) originally meant a notebook containing a sports team’s strategies and plays.

    It’s now used in other lines of work and means a set of tactics frequently employed by anyone engaged in a competitive activity.

    Most sales companies’ playbooks will introduce the company goals and vision. But they will also consider the following:

    • The persona and mindset of their target audience. “Sales reps have to get inside the buyer’s head to sell” (Zorian Rotenberg, insightsquared.com)
    • The buyer journey – the steps your prospect will usually take before committing.
    • Sales process – what it takes to make a sale – call methodology, pitching the product, usual buyer questions and your answers, suggested conversation flow, call and email scripts, sound bytes, objection handling.

    In a sporting setting, the coach will spend a lot of time analysing the opposition, looking for weaknesses in their play, and devise a playbook accordingly. They might consider:

    1. What are our strengths?
    2. Which of these strengths will the opposition already know about and be prepared for?
    3. What are their weaknesses?
    4. Where are they likely to be strong in the next game?
    5. What else is going on for them? (e.g. key player dropped / injured, tired or energised from recent games, current morale, predicted weather conditions, etc.)
    6. How can we utilise the above to maximise our chances of defeating them?

    Now, imagine a spiritual enemy looking at your life, your family, or your organisation and asking those same questions.

    Strategy meeting
    The enemy may have a playbook to keep you from moving forward but by reclaiming your spiritual focus you can run with God’s play!

    Does the Devil have a playbook?

    Absolutely. Here are some verses from the bible that illustrate this, and I’ll unpack how they work later along with more about reclaiming your spiritual focus in this and future posts…

    For we are not unaware of his [Satan’s] schemes.

    (2 Corinthians 2:11)

    Do not give the devil a foothold. (Ephesians 4:27)

    For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)

    Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

    The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)

    Satan has a plan. He is a strategist of the “dark world,” looking for an opening. But we must remember: he is only a fallen angel. The all-powerful, all-loving God of the universe has a playbook, too.

    We just have to be both aware of the devil’s schemes and aligned to God’s.

    Let’s first look at God’s playbook and that of our enemy, considering our place in God’s playbook…

    Reclaiming your Spiritual Focus: God’s Playbook

    God has plans we don’t know about.

    He knows the plans he as for you.

    We know that they will prosper us and not harm us, that they are plans of hope and with a bright future. But there are lots of details he chooses to keep from us.

    Look how he told Abraham to go to a land he would show him after he’d committed to the long journey. He had a playbook for Abraham’s life but only revealed it one step at a time. And think about how he told his disciples not to worry about how God will carry out the end times. The Father knows the future. You don’t have to.

    But despite there being numerous plans in God’s heart that are unknown to us, we can still see the headlines of God’s playbook since the beginning.

    So what does God’s overall playbook actually look like? In the broadest sense, it’s already in motion. 

    1. Rescue.

    First, there’s the rescue of humanity—done. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). This is the defining moment in history, the foundation everything else rests on. 

    2. Return.

    But the story isn’t finished. Jesus will return—pending, but promised. “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). 

    3. Reckoning.

    And when he does, there will be a reckoning. The devil’s end is already written: “And the devil, who deceived them [the nations], was thrown into the lake of burning sulphur… They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:10). 

    4. Reign.

    And then comes the part that’s easy to overlook, but changes everything—we’re not just spectators in this story. Those who belong to him will reign with him. “He will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15), and “If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us” (2 Timothy 2:12).

    So… great. Off you go then, God—we’ll just sit here and wait for Jesus to come back, shall we?

    Not quite.

    We’re not on the sidelines watching it unfold—we’re on the pitch. 

    We’ve been given a position to play, and it’s not complicated, but it does require intention.

    Our Position in the Playbook: Our 3-Point Play

    We’ve been given a position to play, and it’s not complicated, but it does require intention.

    Here’s a 3-point play I believe God wants us all in on:

    1. Love God.

    It starts here: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27). That’s not just a nice idea—it shapes everything. It shows up in worship, in communion, in serving him, in obedience, and sometimes in sacrifice.

    2. Love people.

    Flowing straight out of that, “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Luke 10:27). In practice, that looks like doing life with others, showing genuine care, and bringing that love into your workplace, your neighbourhood—wherever you find yourself day to day.

    3. Make disciples.

    And then there’s the outward call: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15–16). This is Jesus’s great commission, and it involves every believer. We’re not just making converts to a religion—we’re helping people become wholehearted followers of Jesus, baptising them and teaching them to live his way.

    Because God’s plan is so vast and our position in it is so vital, the enemy is extra hard at work. 

    Reclaiming my Spiritual Focus meant not signing the contract!
    Reclaiming my Spiritual Focus meant not signing that contract!

    The enemy’s playbook

    Over the next few weeks, I want to explore the specific tactics he uses to get us off-track.

    We will be looking at:

    Distraction

    Shifting our gaze from the Kingdom to the temporary things in front of us.

    Doubt

    Attacking our identity and God’s character, undermining what we know to be true.

    Despondency

    Using disappointment and delay to wear us down until we feel like giving up.

    Division

    Breaking the unity that gives us strength when we stand together.

    Defilement

    Drawing us into compromise so that we slowly blend in with the patterns of the world.

    Running our Play

    Let’s go back through the five points in the enemy’s playbook and see something important: when we are working from God’s playbook, the response is always ultimately the same.

    The enemy may have multiple plays, and this list isn’t exhaustive, but we don’t need a different answer for each one. We just need to stay anchored in the same response.

    As Hebrews 12:1–2 puts it: “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith…”

    Here’s how we run our play:

    Defeating Distraction

    Distraction is often subtle—it doesn’t usually announce itself as something dangerous, it just quietly pulls our attention away from what matters most.

    We see this even with the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane. They were heavy-eyed and overwhelmed in the moment, and as a result they missed the weight of what God was doing right in front of them. When the world offers its own distractions we must keep our eyes fixed on the Lord.

    The fix? We keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.

    Defeating Doubt

    Doubt rarely begins as full unbelief—it usually starts with a shift in focus.

    Take Peter walking on the water. His failure didn’t start when he stepped out of the boat, but when his attention moved from the Savior’s command to the storm’s roar. The moment the waves became more “real” than Jesus, doubt began to take hold.

    The fix? We keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.

    Defeating Despondency

    Despondency often builds slowly, through repeated disappointment and delayed hope.

    After years of suffering and failed attempts to find healing, the woman with the issue of blood had every reason to give up. But in a moment of faith, she reached out—realising that a single touch of the King was worth more than a decade of human effort. Despondency dies when we stop looking at our list of failed solutions and start looking at the only answer—Jesus.

    The fix? We keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.

    Defeating Division

    Division creeps in when our identity shifts from who we are in Christ to categories, preferences, or camps.

    We often spend our energy building fences around our denominations and differences, but at the foot of the cross, those labels quickly become irrelevant. Jesus is returning for a unified body defined by its devotion to the groom rather than loyalty to a specific banner. When He is our central focus, the walls we’ve built between one another naturally begin to crumble.

    The fix? We keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.

    Defeating Defilement

    Defilement usually doesn’t happen all at once. It happens through gradual exposure and shifting attention.

    The world is messy, and if we spend all day looking at the mud, we’re eventually going to get some on us. Sanctification isn’t just a matter of trying harder. It is a byproduct of being so captivated by him that the allure of the shadows loses its grip on our hearts.

    The fix? We keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.

    We fix our eyes on Jesus

    The devil might know your weaknesses.

    He might play on them.

    But we know his.

    It’s Jesus.

    This is how we reclaim our focus.

    I was praying for someone who had a relative who was severely oppressed and there was a sense that this was not just a natural problem. We were in a static caravan. The door was closed but not locked. I began to pray about the cross. I was thanking God out loud for his sacrifice, for the crucifixion, for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As I got to the end of my prayer the door flew wide open and slammed shut. There was a sense of calm from that moment on.

    So that’s the playbook.

    God has a story that is already in motion—rescue accomplished, return promised, reckoning coming, and reign secured. The enemy has his plays too, and while they show up in different forms—distraction, doubt, despondency, division, and defilement—they are not new, and they are not final. 

    And in the middle of it all, we are not left guessing what to do. Our response is not complicated, even if it is not always easy: we fix our eyes on Jesus. Again and again, in every situation, that is the play we run. 

    Because when our focus stays there, everything else begins to fall into its right place.

    Next time, we’ll take the first of those enemy plays—distraction—and look at how it quietly works its way into our lives, and how we learn to recognise it before it takes hold.

    Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

    Who is Jon Petts?