Changing Focus
Proverbs 4:25-26 “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.”
How’s your focus? Focus is one of my weak spots, and it is kind of funny because when I was born, I had terrible vision, and focus was my weak spot then too. But through therapy and eye exercises, I got better at focusing.
It is that way with our lives too. Maintaining focus takes some work on our part. Sure not everyone, there are some focus superheroes out there, but I’m figuring it wouldn’t be a point in Proverbs if it weren’t kind of a thing for folks, right?
Where we focus directs where we move as well as how we move. Focus on worldly success and that will be the structure on which decisions are made. Focus on the pain in our lives, and we will make decisions based on that pain. It can get complicated.
BUT if we focus on Jesus! POW! Big difference! Matthew 11:29-30 Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
So how to focus on where Jesus would like that attention? The Bible is full of things. I think Matthew 22:37-38 gives us the perfect focus “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Keeping our minds on these answers will take us a long way in focusing to love like Jesus and live like that.
With Jesus we give and receive comfort, not consumption. We find hope and healing. We proceed with actions that are also hope-filled and healing. That is the lens I pray you find today and every day.
You are loved!