The mind of man is notoriously fickle, and distractions too easily keep him from whole hearted service to God. Even serious Christians feel the strain caused when their desires to offer God more spiritual and well-pleasing sacrifices are hindered by remaining sin and vanity of mind. Furthermore, obtaining freedom from distractions in religious duties is very difficult. Some think lightly of the disease and imagine the cure needless. Others are discouraged from striving against distractions because they think it is impossible to overcome them. In this book, Nathanael Vincent convincingly demonstrates how everyone ought to attend upon God, recognize Him as Lord, and serve Him without interruption. In helping us to see the weight of our obligation, Vincent provides an abundance of pastoral guidance and encouragement. This book equips readers to detect distractions and deal with them. It also motivates them by showing the benefits that pertain to a focused pursuit of glorifying God.
Endorsement
"Attending upon God without Distraction is a practical and experiential Puritan masterpiece on a vital but often neglected subject of the Christian life. It invites and exhorts us to a close life with God through Christ, and shows us how to attend upon God as our Savior and Lord, without being drawn away by a host of distractions. Various cases of conscience, cautions, directions, and challenges are addressed with biblical and practical winsomeness and forcefulness. In some ways, this book seems even more applicable in our hurried and harried day than in Nathanael Vincent’s own day!"
—Joel R. Beeke
Contents
Biographical Introduction
The Epistle Dedicatory
To the Reader
PART ONE: Everyone Ought to Attend upon God
1. What Attending upon God Is
2. What Attending upon God Implies
3. Various Kinds of Attending upon God
4. Why We Ought to Attend upon God
5. Reproofs for Those Who Reject Attending upon God
6. Exhortations for Those Who Reject Attending upon God
7. Directions and Consolations for Attending upon God
PART TWO: Attending upon God Means We Should Look upon Him as Lord and Serve Him
8. How God Is the Lord
9. How God’s Lordship Should Impact Our Attending upon Him
10. Reproofs and Advice for Those Who Don’t Attend upon God as Lord
PART THREE: Attending upon God Should Be without Distraction
11. How the Heart Is Distracted
12. How to Attend upon God without Distraction
13. The Evils and Distractions and Benefits of Avoiding Them
PART FOUR: Cases of Conscience and Applications of Attending upon God without Distractions
14. Cases of Conscience about Distractions
15. Cautions and Expostulations about Distractions
16. Directions to Remedies against Distractions
17. Advice for Avoiding Distractions in Religious Duties
18. Terrors of Distractions and Encouragements to Believers
