1 Corinthians 7:35 [NLT] ‘I am saying this for your benefit, not to place restrictions on you. I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible.’

DAILY READING; 1 Peter 1; Jeremiah 31-32; Psalm 134

The Crusades were a series of religious wars fought between Christians and Muslims in the medieval period.
In 1202, a fourth crusade was initiated to re-capture Jerusalem after it fell into the hands of the Muslims. Armies were gathered from across Europe for this purpose. A nominal leader of the crusade was Boniface of Montferrat.
However, while on the way to their mission to Jerusalem, Boniface decided to make a detour to visit his cousin, the king of Germany, known as Philip of Swabia.
This proved to become one of the costliest detours in history. Boniface’s decision to veer off from his main pursuit of recapturing Jerusalem led to a chain of events that would eventually affect Christianity negatively.
While at the court of his cousin, Boniface met Prince Alexius IV Angelus, son of the emperor of Byzantine. This prince begged Boniface to suspend the crusader’s mission and help him to regain his throne from his enemies, promising to pay an enormous amount of silver and gold in return.
Enticed by the offer, Boniface convinced most of the crusaders to abandon the mission to Jerusalem and head to Constantinople which was the capital city of the Byzantine empire.
Boniface and his men arrived in Constantinople in April 1203 and helped to reinstate Prince Alexius on the throne. However, they were enraged to later discover that the prince was unable to fulfill the payment of wealth he had promised them.
In retaliation, the crusaders chose to attack and plunder the city, despite the fact that Constantinople was the world’s largest Christian city at the time and mainstay of Christian power in the East. They stripped the city of its treasures and historical arts.
This action of plundering and destroying Constantinople infuriated many people in the surrounding Christian towns. This bitterness against the Christian crusaders made the people to later accept Islam as their religion. This eventually led to the collapse of Christendom in the region and in the long run facilitated the expansion of Islam right into the heart of Europe.

Though the crusaders were originally on a mission of recovery to the holy land, by giving room to distraction, their mission was aborted.
In seeking God’s kingdom, how we handle distractions will be the key to victory, and blessings!
Avoiding distractions is one of the most important decisions we can make in order to accomplish our mission in life.
The truth is that you are not supposed to engage in every conflict. Your time is too valuable and your destiny is too great to get baited into battles that don’t matter. Rather face your front and set your focus on your divine purpose.
If you’re going to reach your highest potential, you have to avoid the things that are not part of your mission and vision.
Understand that your assignment on earth has an expiration date, your life time is not unlimited. The realization that our time is fast going should create a sense of urgency in our pursuits.

Many of us have been called to great assignments but allowing unnecessary detours on the journey is threatening to abort that vision. Especially in these last days, our focus should be on building a powerful relationship with God that will lead to a life of wonders, rather than allowing ourselves to be distracted by frivolities and mundane things that won’t even matter a year, a month or even a week from now.
Indeed there is need for soberness so that our place will not be lost in destiny.
We must realize that in these end-times the tempo of distractions are now at an unprecedented level on the earth. At this time, the enemy is releasing his greatest temptations and weapons of mass distraction to derail many from their divine call in life.
As believers, our destiny is under serious contention this is why we can no longer afford to entangle ourselves with things that have no eternal value.

Therefore in this season, let our main focus be on the pursuit of God and His kingdom. Truly as we seek God’s kingdom first, we will enjoy divine restoration on all sides as every other thing will be added unto us.

PRAYER: Lord, Please enable me to maintain the right focus in life. Help me never to give room to distractions but rather to keep pursuing after You and Your kingdom so that everything else will be added unto me in Jesus Name!
QUOTE;
Everything that ultimately has a glorious ending usually has a humble beginning. WORDBITE 222