Published by admin on 03 Oct 2006 at 08:29 pm
FOCUS
As we go through our daily activities, which seem to become more demanding every day, we have to stay focused on the task at hand, or it’s pretty easy to get distracted. Have you ever been reading a newspaper and a fly buzzes in your face, then you look back to what you were reading and you had to find your place again? Well, that’s how the devil operates. You will be praying, for example, and the phone will ring, or you’ll suddenly have to go to the bathroom, or the doorbell will ring. and by the time you get back to prayer, it’s like, NOW, WHERE WAS I?? The same thing applies to Bible study, you’ll be deep in study, and suddenly you remember something that seemingly MUST be done right NOW! Is that God? Most likely not. God never interrupts Himself. Remember that.
I have yet to sit down to study or pray without something coming up to distract me. And just like you, I’ve taken the bait too many times. But the Lord spoke something to me to help me, and it will help you, too. When you pray or study, shut the world out. I mean, unless the house is on fire, just ignore whatever it is that wants to interrupt your prayer or study. Whatever it is will wait. And if it won’t wait, let someone else take care of it. Only the devil would not have you feel that way. He always hits your “priority button”. And if it wasn’t high priority, the devil wouldn’t be trying so hard to get your attention, would he? But let’s keep in mind here, whose priority is most important? God’s, or the devil’s? The devil wants to get your attention off of God, and the sooner the better!
I’m sure if the Lord Jesus suddenly appeared to you, and you were talking with Him, and your cell phone rang, you’d probably ignore it, wouldn’t you? On the other hand, if you were at work and the boss called you into the office, would you finish your conversation with your co-worker first before going into his or her office? I think not. The most important thing at hand would be your focus. Well, your quiet time with God is the most important thing at hand, I don’t care what else is going on around you. Why is it then, that so many other things seem to come first? Why is it that God gets whatever time we can spare Him, rather than the world getting whatever time we can spare it?
Well, let’s call it focus. Like Jesus said in Luke 6:45-46,”A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things I say?” When we keep our focus on why we’re here and what our mission is, we bring forth good treasure. But when we let the cares of this world come in and distract us from our lifeline, which is God, we bring forth corrupt treasure. And then, as we progressively allow our quality time with God to slip away due to the pressures of the world around us, we suffer the consequences.
People ask me why God doesn’t seem to answer their prayers anymore. So the first thing I do is answer their question with a question. How much time are you spending with God? What is your focus in life; the world?, or God? Wherever we minister, we find backsliders. What is a backslider? That is someone who left their former place of fellowship with God. I’m not talking about unbelievers here. I’m talking about people who were once on fire for God, even those in ministry. But the cares of the world, and persecution that arose for the Word’s sake came, and slowly, their fire went out. Now, I’ve never met a Christian who told me they just couldn’t wait until their fire went out so they could be stone cold again. But yet I see it a lot.
Your walk with God is like a fire in your fireplace. Get a good hot fire going, and after a while you have a good hot bed of coals. If something comes up and don’t get to throw another log on the fire right away, the bed of coals will still keep things hot for a while. And when you put a new log on, it catches fire right away and you’re back in business. But neglect that fire for a week, and guess what happens? Those embers become cold with no new fuel to burn, and pretty soon all you have left are cold gray ashes. And that’s right where some of you are right now. You didn’t mean to let the fire go out, but somehow, one distraction led to another, and you didn’t take time to pray or study, and now the desire to do so just isn’t as hot as it once was. What happened? You lost your focus. But don’t get discouraged and give up! If you’re backslidden, slide back!!
Get things back in focus. Remember when you just couldn’t pray or study your Bible enough? Remember when God was the joy of your life, no matter what happened around you? Remember what the “honeymoon” was like with the Lord? Hey, who said the honeymoon had to ever end? It sure wasn’t God! I’ve seen people who got married and when they drove off from the wedding, you could hardly tell who was in the driver’s seat, they were so close to each other. But that same couple ten years later? Well, she’s sitting against one door, and he’s sitting against the other one. Who moved? Who lost focus? I guarantee you one thing, it will never be God moving away from YOU! So go figure.
When you see someone wearing glasses, what comes to mind? They can’t see very well without them. Why? Their eyes can’t properly focus, so they need some help to see clearly again. Maybe their eyes are so far out of focus as to be “legally blind”. For those of you who wear glasses, when you put them on, doesn’t everything become clear? My eyes used to be so bad I’d tell people I had to keep a pair of glasses on my nightstand to see to find the ones on my dresser! If you’re like that, life without glasses is a blur, and you might stumble into things that you can’t see and get yourself hurt. Or worse yet, you might drive into something or someone and get you and them hurt or killed. With them, you can see clearly to avoid obstacles and stay on a safe path. Well, my beloved friends, think of God’s Word as a pair of glasses, to help you get things in focus and see clearly. Without God’s Word, you’re blind as a bat like the rest of the world, no matter how long you’ve been a Christian.
Just being a member of the Body of Christ is not enough. You have to have focus. How far can your head safely lead the body if it can’t see? And how can you see if you are blindfolded or distracted from what you need to be looking at? The coming of Jesus is at hand, and brother or sister, and if you’re going to go with Him when He comes, then you’d better be focused on Him like your life depends on it. Because it does.
When Peter was walking on the water, he did just fine as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus. And like what happened to him, the devil will surely tell you, Hey! You can’t walk on the water when it’s windy! You see, Peter didn’t know that until the devil distracted him. He was just minding his own business walking over to Jesus. But once Peter noticed the storm around him, he sank.
So how about you? Are you sinking because of distractions? Get your eyes back upon JESUS! Remember: FOCUS!