The Tortoise And The Hare

The whole forest showed up to watch the tortoise be humiliated by the longlegged hare

On your mark, get set, Go: They’re off, like lightning the lean longlegged hare leaped into the lead

The hare ran ahead a ways, then decided since he was so fast and tortoise so slow, he would take 40 winks, so he did. Then waking up he saw tortoise only 1\3 of the way .

Breathing a sigh of relief, the hare decided he might as well have breakfast too, and off he went to munch some cabbage he had noticed in a nearby field.

A carrot here, some cabbage there, a nap here and 40 winks there, and all of a sudden he wakes up to see tortoise nearing the finish line, Like a bolt of lightning the hare ran but it just wasn�t enough the tortoise stretched out his neck and won the race by a nose.

Some would say that the tortoise won because he just kept plodding away, slow and easy, In one sense of the word that is true,

but what really made the tortoise the winner in that race ( was the hares over confidence and inability to disregard distractions).

The hare had all the advantages, and he had all the strengths, and that was his downfall,

the hare believed himself to be so strong and so fast that he could entertain distractions and still win the race.

The genius of distractions is that satan uses your strengths against you, The fact that you feel yourself strong enough to entertain distractions and still win the race,

But you can�t.

This story is usually viewed from one side or the other, as though You are either the slow steady purposeful undistracted tortoise, or the fast overconfident undisciplined easily distracted hare.

But God almighty would have us understand that like the Hare we have all the advantages, we have been redeemed by the blood, we have the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, we have the Word of God, and the name of Jesus, We have the power and the privilege of prayer.

*Then like the tortoise we should move through life in a very purposeful, disciplined, and focused manner.

Let us realize tonight that we have everything we need to fight the good fight of faith and run the race and win, But we must not become distracted.

The key to fighting distractions: = (Don’t )

Like thoughts, distractions need your attention to grow, If you feed them they grow and become stronger, if you ignore them or refuse to feed them they die.

What is the answer? = (Stay focused on Jesus )

Pro 4:25 Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. 26 Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.

Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus Said: Lu 9:62 No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

No man is effective in Kingdom work while his mind is occupied with earthly things.

Distraction leads to division, when we are divided we become unstable (Rueben was strong but he was unstable). When one is unstable they are undependable, undependable becomes unfaithful, unfaithful becomes unconcerned and unconcerned becomes unrelated = disconnected.