Focus

I like it when God sends a “coincidence” across my path. For the record, I don’t believe in coincidences. Things happen for a reason. We don’t always, in fact often, know why. But when we know and trust God, the why doesn’t matter.

Today in my quiet time,

I was in Romans 8 again, and I passed through 8:18, and the word “consider” stood out. Years ago, I memorized Deuteronomy 8:18 (coincidence?). In it, the word “remember” is prominent. It struck me that the two words are related. I love word games, word plays, all things involving words. So I began to dig a little.

In Deuteronomy, we’re told to “remember the Lord your God for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth,” a current promise. In Romans, we’re encouraged to move beyond the present to our eternal future, “suffering…present time…glory to be revealed,” a future promise that changes our focus from today to tomorrow.

When I was learning to fly a small plane,

my instructor drilled into me the importance of focusing on “everything” going on inside and outside the cockpit. That could be interpreted as an oxymoron. But it was meant to keep my eyes moving across sectors in the sky and my instrument cluster and not get locked into any one thing.

The Christian life is like that.

We are to remember a lot of things; the past blessings, God’s promises fulfilled in our lives, our sin and the cost of the gift of forgiveness. But, as Paul tells us in Philippians 3:13,14, “…forgetting what lies behind…I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” We are never to forget what Christ has done for us by His death and resurrection. But God has plans for each of us that include looking outward to see the “white fields of harvest” and be ready “in season and out of season” for seed planting.

What are you focusing on today?

Is it mostly self-centered stuff, or have you made the transition to being on the lookout for opportunities to share what Jesus has done for you? You know it’s a choice, right? Thanks for reading.