Focusing on God

Hey, y'all!

I hope you all have been well and flourishing in the Lord since the last time we "met" via blog!

I'm going to open today's post by asking a simple question: Do you have trouble focusing?

I don't mean focusing on your work, your school, or your family; I mean focusing on God. God is to be the primary focus of our lives. As Hebrews 12:1-2 tells us, "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (NKJV) Christ died for us and now we should live for Him. Our love for the Lord should be leading us to focus on loving God and living for the Lord Jesus Christ.

But how can you to tell whether you are focusing on God? Here are some questions to help us evaluate our focus:

When that handsome guy sits next to you in church, are you able to focus on God during the service?
When your daily life seems to involve running in five directions at once, are you able to focus on God during the busyness?
When your boss wants you to turn in more projects by the end of the week than you could possibly handle, are you able to focus on God during the stress?
When your husband is running late, your kids are screaming, and supper still has to be cooked for everyone, are you able to focus on God during the chaos?

Let's stop and think for a minute...all right, how many of us are realizing right now that we don't focus on the Lord as much as we should? No hand-raising is necessary. Just an honest, quiet evaluation of your focus will do just fine (though if you'd like to raise your hand, go ahead). I know I personally don't focus on God enough. Many times, especially those weeks when I have too much to do, I find myself distracted from the real focus of my life. As a result, I stress over everything, I'm physically and mentally exhausted, and worst of all, I'm spiritually off-balance. Last week and this week have been weeks like that for me, and I know y'all can relate. We all go through rough patches in our lives; times when everything seems to get out of hand. It's times like these that we desperately need to remember our focus. If we start to focus on things other than the Lord, we are going to find life hard and the temptations we face overwhelming.

How much easier it would be, if we remembered the focus of our lives. If only we would remember that the Lord works everything for the good of His children! If only we would remember those sweet words, "Be still, and know that I am God..." (Psalm 46:10a, NKJV)! If only we would remember to focus on the One who is meant to be focused on!

This has not only an everyday application, but a special holiday application as well. As we prepare the menus for Thanksgiving and Christmas, as we plan the parties and the celebrations, as we buy the presents and deck the halls, we should keep in mind Who the focus of the holidays is to be. The focus should be on the Lord. He blessed you with the many blessings for which you are being thankful. He took on human form through the Incarnation, so that He could live a sinless life and die on the Cross to atone for the sins of His people. If we take away the true focus of the holidays (and our lives in general), we are robbing God of His proper glory and we are robbing ourselves of the joy of focusing on the One who died for us.

Have a blessed (and focused) week!
Love y'all!

Trust Issues....

Hey, y'all!

Today, I want to talk about a rather uncomfortable issue for me; the issue of trust. Trust issues are something that many people struggle with, including me. Quite honestly, I can't pinpoint why. My family is great, my friends are amazing, my puppies are the most adorable ones in the world, so why do I have trust issues?

Maybe it's because I've given my heart away to several guys when they didn't earn it (and some of them didn't deserve it). Maybe it's because when I was young one of my close friends "abandoned me" (though all she really did was move on). I just don't know why I have problems trusting others.

What I do know is that I wasn't made to live this way; I was not made to live in fear of being hurt. I was not made to live in fear of being ridiculed and embarrassed. I simply have come to my breaking point. I cannot, I will not, go on living in this fearful manner. It's ungodly and damaging to my spiritual life.

It's damaging to my spiritual life because I am essentially saying, "I don't trust God with relationships enough to let Him control what happens to me and what other people do." That is an ungodly attitude, if I've ever heard one! Paul says in Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (NKJV) Instead of fearing the future, what I should be doing is thanking God for the present and trusting that, because of His goodness and love for me, He will not allow anything that doesn't in the end turn out for my good to happen! Now, this doesn't mean that you will never get hurt. We are all sinners, so even Christians will sometimes hurt other Christians. We may even not mean to hurt each other, but we still do, whether we mean to or not.

The promise of Romans 8:28 also doesn't mean that if your best friend suddenly finds someone else to spend her time with, eventually she will become your best friend again. God does do that, but He doesn't promise to always do that. He promises that no matter what happens, it will be for your good in the end. The circumstances may have changed a big part of your life, but there is always a reason. You will prayerfully grow closer to the Lord through the tough time. And additionally, you may become closer to another friend, whom you never would have gotten to know as well had your best friend not taken a step back.

As human beings, we were made to have relationships with one another. Most of us are not made to stay in a room by ourselves all the time and never see anyone else. I know I can't. I'm a very social person, even though I'm extremely shy, and staying by myself for too long would drive me crazy! Yet oftentimes because of my fear, I am afraid to speak with others or even smile at someone. My personal shyness cuts me off from people; my shyness comes from fear and lack of faith. Fear and lack of faith harm my relationships with God and with other people

Relationships are a blessing from the Lord, but they do involve big steps of faith. Faith that the other person won't betray your trust, and faith that, if they do, God will take care of you, no matter how much the broken relationship hurts. Faith is a gigantic step, but it's a gigantic step in the right direction.

So, no matter how scary it may be to talk to a new person or say yes to that cute guy when he asks you out on a date (assuming he is a Christian, but that's for another post), you should step out in courage. No matter what happens, God is there with you. "The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore." (Psalm 121:7-8, NKJV)

I would love to hear your thoughts on this! God bless you and always remember, "Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6, NKJV)

Love in Christ,