Focus

It is the day before Thanksgiving, and social media is blowing up with people saying what they are thankful for in their lives.  And this is a good thing.  After all, the bible says that a thankful heart is the ticket into the courts of the Lord. “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise.” Psalm 100.  And at this time of year it is easy, even expected for us to keep our eye trained on our blessings.  When our focal point is sharp, when our minds are clear and our circumstances give us space to ponder the excellence of God’s presence in our lives.

But, friends,  next Monday I go back to work.  The pressures and commitments weigh in.  The human strife and brokenness of our world take a toll.  It is here, when I most need to be in those courts with the Lord that I lose my thankfulness.  It is here when I lose my focus.

What then do we do when our focus is skewed?  When it is hard to see the forest of thanksgiving for the trees of our circumstances?  How can we practically reorient our focus?

Jesus was always very clear about the what and who of his focus.  The what was ALWAYS obedience.  The who was ALWAYS his father.  Even when the circumstances were tough.  Look at his temptation in the desert for a minute.  Jesus was fasting for 40 days – he was being spiritually obedient, but, physically, he was hungry.  And the devil tried to use those physical circumstances to convince Jesus to serve his own needs instead of the Father’s.    Of course, Jesus took the better way.  He looked to God’s word, and he overcame that temptation with the truth and shot that devil down.

Friends, how many times have I looked at the lovely white page that the Lord has given me only to focus on some real or imagined speck in the center?  More times than I can count.  But  I have become convicted that reorientation is not always about gritting my teeth and  forcing my eyes to turn AWAY from the speck.  Turning away from the negatives in our own strength can be difficult to sustain – an un-doable task.  Rather, the bible says to look up-to turn toward the father. Shift our focus to him.

Take a look at 2 Peter 1:5.  It gives a good laundry list of ways to turn toward divine character – ways reorient our focus practically to the will of the father. And it is a relatively simple recipe.  But the first and main ingredient is Faith. It is the stock of this divine soup, the starting point from which God builds his character in us.  And it is the one ingredient we cannot muster ourselves.  We have to ask for it – wait for it – receive it. Renew your faith, renew your focus.

So, sweet ones, on this most thankful of holidays,  I know you will enter those courts of the Lord full of singing, full of thanksgiving and full of praise.   My prayer for you is that, after the turkey is eaten and the family has gone home, the Lord will renew your faith and give you a focus that will allow you to continue, with a thankful heart, to “will and to act in order to fulfill his good purposes.” Phil. 2:13.