Focus

Anne Graham Lotz – I want to take my focus off myself and focus on God. It is like setting your spiritual compass so no matter which way you turn during the day, whatever comes up, then my thoughts go back to Him and whatever He said that morning.

Charles Swindoll – Vision is the ability to see God’s presence, to perceive God’s power, to focus on God’s plan in spite of the obstacles.

I had this dream one time about a camera. It was the lens of the camera, really. I was trying to take a picture but did not put the lens on the camera, so I could not see very well what I wanted to take a picture of. I put the lens on, but still could not see, so I put the lens into focus to see more clearly.

When we use a camera that requires a lens, we sometimes have to adjust the focus. Nowadays, we have smartphones that adjust the focus for us for the most part. Sometimes we also need the flash on so that when we do take a picture, we ensure to capture everything in the shot and it will not be too dark.

Matthew 6:22 says, “Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light.”

There are times we need to adjust or put into focus and turn the light on so our perspective on life is clearer, and other times we are aware and can autofocus/adjust quickly and be set to go.

How about this, have you ever been talking to someone, and you are trying to follow what they are saying, but it does not make sense to you, so you sit and think about it to try and make sense of it? That is what happens to me when someone tries to explain math to me… I am trying to focus on it, but I struggle to really understand what they are saying.

I am pretty sure this happens often to everyone when it comes to conversations or when learning something we have never tried to learn. We either are not focused on what is being said or we are focused on something that was said, so we are not catching the rest to understand the whole conversation. Something gets lost in translation.

1 Corinthians 2:9 says, “That is what the scriptures mean when they say, ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.’”

We can get lost in our perspective of knowing what God has for us as well, and we cannot fully grasp and understand what God has prepared for us. This is why his timing is perfect, so when we are ready and can understand, He will tell us clearly; we just need to pay attention and set our focus on Him.

Lastly, how many times have you been reading a book and had to re-read the same sentence about four times, and you still don’t know what you read? Me – A lot. So, I will just put the book down and read again later when my focus can be more set on what I am reading than whatever else is happening in my mind or eyesight…

2 Corinthians 4:18 says, “So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”

Distractions, not only of thoughts but also of what we see, can keep us from focusing on what we are meant to be paying attention to. As the scripture I just read says, we need to fix our gaze on things above, as what we focus on now will not always be here, but the things in heaven will be.