focus

I don’t see as well as I used to. I need glasses. In fact, I should be wearing glasses the entire time. But I don’t. I only wear them when I read.


If I don’t wear glasses and I am reading something that is small in print – I can’t see - my eyes are out of focus.

Focus.

Focus is a big, big word in our walk with Christ.

We need focus in our relationship with God.

As long as I stay focused on Christ – I am walking with surety and safety.

But it’s when I get my focus off of Christ that I get into trouble and need to make adjustments.

Both Jesus and James bring this out in the Sermon on the Mount and the book of James respectively.

They both mention this important thought:

You can’t walk in two directions at the same time, you can’t operate in drive and reverse at the same moment, and you can’t focus on light and darkness simultaneously.

Staying in focus is a challenge for everyone.

We must all admit that every day we get busy, we get stressed, and we sometimes get overloaded in life!

The result is that we can find ourselves focusing on the negative.

Or we lose focus on what is really important.

Or focusing on people instead of God’s power.

Here’s what I know:

As a follower of Christ, I don’t look at the world through natural eyes, but with supernatural vision. I am to look at the world through the eyes of faith.

Pastor James writes in James 1:6-8, “But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.”

What does God require of me in order to stay focused?

Faith.

Hebrews 11:6 tells us that, “without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that He exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Hebrews goes on to say that the children of Israel couldn’t enter into the promise land because of unbelief.

They didn’t keep their focus on God.

It is true that God didn’t allow them in because of their sins – but their greatest offense was that they couldn’t keep their focus on God their provider.

I would suggest to you that no matter what we face, we must focus on the Word of God; we must focus on what God has promised.

There are over 7,000 promises in the Word of God.

He says yes and amen to every promise He has made to us.

Also, our focus must be on the Spirit of God and not our flesh.

Paul writes in Galatians 5:16, 17, “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.”

Flesh – Spirit. They work against each other. Oppose one another.

They fight one another. Every moment of our lives.

You have heard me quote this a couple of times: “we aren’t physical beings going through a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings going through a physical experience.”

The main point is this: our physical man will perish, but the spiritual man will last forever. We must focus on building up the Spiritual man, and letting the carnal, fleshly, worldly man be conquered by the Spirit of God within us.

Here is what I know: “Wherever we operate the most, is where we will live.”

The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

We are in a spiritual battle; we don’t win by natural devices but spiritual armor.

Paul states that if we mind the things of the flesh, or constantly take care of the flesh, we will become fleshly, if we mind the things of the Spirit, or constantly take care of the Spiritual man, we will become Spiritual.

Also, our focus should be on the cross and not ourselves.

Someone once said that our sins can be washed away by the blood, but self must be nailed to a cross.

Great statement.

We all struggle with this, we all at times are selfish, in the flesh dwells no good thing.

We pray, “Not your will, Lord, but my will be done.”

Here’s the daily question: Am I going to look at things from an eternal perspective or a temporary one?

Is my focus going to be on the here and now or the then and there?

If we lose sight of the cross, everything will get out of focus. We will all be like the man who said, I will build bigger barns but didn’t realize that his time on this earth was up.

Thank God for the cross!

It is at the cross that our flesh dies; the cross is where self is emptied.

We can all admit that the cross isn’t a fun place; the cross isn’t an easy place, that is why so many are offended by the preaching of the cross because their flesh cannot receive it. It is still foolishness to the Greek and a stumbling block to the Jew.

Jesus told people the only reason you follow me is for food or to see miracles. When He started preaching the cross, drinking the cup of suffering and shame, at that time many disciples left him.

Finally, I must focus on the soul rather than security.

Jesus said in Mark 8:36, “what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and lose his soul?”

I would suggest that we keep our focus on our eternal soul. If you gain fame, fortune, financial success, but lose out with God, then it is of no profit to you.

As someone once said, “If you arrive in heaven with nothing you are in better shape than someone who arrives in hell with everything.”

How focused are you today?

I encourage you to focus on God.