Some tennis players say they grunt as they hit the ball to distract their opponent so they can’t tell how hard the ball is being hit. By distracting their opponent they hope to gain an advantage over them. Distraction is also a tactic Satan uses. He deceives us in believing God does not see or care what we do; by doing so, we often continue our wicket behavior but reap the outcome of our actions. Long ago ancient Israel rationalized that God did not see or care what they did. We then read this in Jeremiah chapter 5, “‘Because the people are talking like this, my messages will flame out of your mouth and burn the people like kindling wood. O Israel, I will bring a distant nation against you,’ says the LORD.’” “And when your people ask, ‘Why did the LORD our God do all this to us?’ you must reply, ‘You rejected him and gave yourselves to foreign gods in your own land. Now you will serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.” God holds us accountable when we rationalize that God does not see or care what we do. Yet when they humbly admit our faults and turn to God by faith in His Son, God gladly forgives us and cleanses us from unrighteousness and guilt.
