Pull Forces

“…As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you...”

II Kings 2:6

How easy is it to distract you?

If you have been encouraged to keep your eyes focused on something or someone, how quickly can you be enticed away from that attention by another affection?

Specifically, if we are told to keep our eyes focused on Christ, then how much pull from the world is required to avert your eyes?

In industrial settings there is sometimes a quality requirement specified for two joined components in an assembly called “pull force”. Often product specifications will designate the minimum pull force those components

must be able to resist before coming apart.

Yep, you know where this is headed, what is the minimum pull force required to pull you away from your focus on Christ? Would that focus fail with a minimum tug; perhaps measured in ounces? Would it fail with the exertion of a couple hundred pounds of opposing force? Would it hold up after tons of force was applied to break that connection? 

Elisha faced, and passed, a huge test. Elisha had asked for a double portion of the anointing that Elijah had. His mentor and father in the faith, Elijah, had made a promise to him found in verse 10 of 2 Kings and chapter two: “…yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours – otherwise not.”

Listen to what happens next in verses 11 and 12:

“As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more.

Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart.”

I don’t know how we would measure it but there is no question that there was a huge “pull force” exerted to distract Elisha but it failed. He saw Elijah taken from him.

So what?

So, how easy are you pulled away from your devotion to Christ?

Is your walk daily distracted with detours and diversions

or is it marked by single-minded devotion? 

Ask God today for that purposeful and persevering tenacity that follows despite the things that would pull your eyes away from Him.