Set 

One of the baseball plays my father loves to run is having the runner on base attempt to steal a base while the other team is not paying attention.

As a kid, I remember watching him give the sign to his player, and all of us held our breath as the player waited for his moment to sneak a few feet off the base and take off running. When it was successful, you could see the dejection of the other team that they had let this player slip by them.

As a fan, you often wonder what caused the other team to be so distracted that they missed the opponent running behind them. Maybe they were thinking ahead to the future and the next pitch they were going to throw. Perhaps their mind was on a past error they had just made. Either way they were not focused on the present and it caused them to miss what was happening right in front of them.

In the book of Revelation, God is trying to prepare us for the second coming of Jesus. He implores us to be alert because we do not know the time or place that Jesus will come. Part of being alert is being aware of our sin and repenting. We also need to be alert to all that is trying to distract us from God.

God warns that if we are not alert and are distracted by the world, we might miss what God is doing in front of us. It’s easy to focus on the past or the future and forget what is happening now. God wants us to be present and watch for Him as He constantly moves in our lives.