May 16, 2023
…you will find that anything or nothing is sufficient to attract his wandering attention. You no longer need a good book, which he really likes, to keep him from his prayers or his work or his sleep; a column of advertisements in yesterday’s paper will do. You can make him waste his time not only in conversation he enjoys with people whom he likes, but also in conversations with those he cares nothing about, on subjects that bore him. You can make him do nothing at all for long periods. You can keep him up late at night, not roistering, but staring at a dead fire in a cold room. All the healthy and outgoing activities which we want him to avoid can be inhibited and nothing given in return, so that at last he may say…“I now see that I spent most my life doing neither what I ought nor what I liked.”
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
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(Note - This quote is written from the perspective of a demon instructing another demon on how to manipulate us.)
Satan has much more powerful distraction tools today than newspaper advertisements, though they are effectively the same. Do you have any habits that consume your time while providing nothing in return? The enemy loves to see you spending your time doing things that are neither productive nor enjoyable — don’t give him the satisfaction! Instead, strive to be: “making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” (Eph. 5:16)