FOCUS

The Pastor’s Quill

December 20, 2009

        
          There is an old hymn that has these words: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” Focus is something that we must continually maintain if we are going to achieve a desired result. So, wouldn’t it stand to reason one of the greatest attempts of the enemy of our souls would be to “distract” us from our focus?
           Look, I am human just like you… so, I am writing from personal (way too personal) experiences in these matters. I have experienced in my own life and witnessed in other people’s how sometimes “distractions” can totally offset our lives.
          “Distractions” are an interesting, multi-colored, multi-arrayed group of beasts. They come in “good” situations and they come in “bad” situations. Neither of these HAVE to be debilitating distractions in our lives—UNLESS—we allow them! For example, a “good” distraction that tends to hinder people’s focus would be “LOVE.” Love is a beautiful thing. God wants everyone to LOVE and BE LOVED. It is not His will that anyone would be alone. In fact, the Bible itself states that “GOD IS LOVE!”
          However, many times I have seen couples “fall” in love. Why do you think they call it fall? Usually, when you fall there is something BAD happening—accident, injury, pain, and embarrassment in the fall. Hmmmmmmm. Maybe I should start counseling people to “Walk, wide-eyed into love.” Nonetheless, I wish I had $1.00 for every time I had seen good, dedicated, Christian men/women “fall” into love, become mesmerized in the hub-bub, and lose their focus on life and godliness.
          I pray that all of us at CWOC would keep our focus. There are things that happen—both good and bad—that will have a tendency to distract us. Life will do that all the time. May we daily begin our journey with the heartbeat of the words quoted from the hymn above—“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” Focus takes energy, discipline, and desire. Show the enemy of your soul that your desire to please the heart of your God is greater than the enemy’s desire to thwart you. FOCUS!
  
 Pastor Tim Hodge