Changing Our Focus

On Monday of this week, I woke up feeling depressed for no apparent reason. As I reflected on it later in the day, I came to the conclusion that my emotions were out of sync because I was feeling the weight of responsibilities in various areas of my life, including my job, my family, and my church. We live in a fast-paced world, and most of us have many details to take care of and many deadlines to meet. When you add the moral and economic decline of our nation, along with the increase of anti-Christian rhetoric that we now hear on a regular basis, all of these can weigh upon a person’s mind and heart. Although the details of our future have always been uncertain, we now see our society moving rapidly in the wrong direction, and the changes are particularly disturbing.  We live in a time of great distress and perplexity.

During a whirlwind of activities a few days ago, I told my husband that sometimes I just want the world to “stop and let me off.” I am sure we have all had those moments. I believe the enemy’s goal is to keep us focused on the negative circumstances of life and the frustration we feel. If he cannot keep us from being Christians, he at least wants us to be distracted so that we cannot serve God effectively.

In my opinion, two of our worst enemies are busyness and discouragement, because these can keep us from spending time with the Lord. However, if our desire is to grow in our relationship with Him, our Lord provides a way for us to turn our focus away from the harsh circumstances of life and turn our attention toward Him. We find the power to refocus in the Word of God.

Over the course of this week, I have been drawn to Psalm 34. In this psalm, many times David makes it clear that we serve a God who is willing to deliver us from the troubles and distress of life.

I sought the Lord, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. (v. 4)
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. (v. 6)
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and rescues them. (v. 7)
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. (v. 19)

The following verses of Psalm 34 especially ministered to me, because through them I was assured that the Lord’s attention is focused on me and He cares about what I am going through.

The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against evildoers, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. (vs. 15-18)

When we are down, brokenhearted and crushed in spirit—in our times of greatest trouble and distress, we can call upon the Lord. And He will hear us and will deliver us from all of our troubles! That is cause for praise and rejoicing!

I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make its boast in the Lord; The humble will hear it and rejoice. O magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together. (vs. 1-3)

Do It!

In a publication that my husband regularly receives, I recently saw the title of an article that caught my attention.  It stated, Find What God Wants You to Do and Do It!  Sometimes I think we have a vague concept in our hearts of what God wants us to do, but we don’t take the time to “get down to business” with God to find out the details of His plan.  I believe if you are a child of God, He has a definite plan for your life.  Each of us has a ministry to fulfill, even if it is not a public “standing on the platform” ministry.  Every day, there are people that our lives touch, and each encounter is an opportunity to minister.

As we study the Word of God, we discover things that all of God’s children are commanded to do.  Jesus tells us, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40).  When we fulfill the law of love, we will be living the kind of life that God requires.

For the specifics of how God wants us to live out His commands, it is imperative that we have regular communion with Him.  Many of us have prayer lives that consist of spending a few minutes each day asking God to meet our needs.  But the Christian life is about relationship, and the way we have relationship is by having communion—talking with one another.  Just as a husband and wife must have good communication to have a healthy marriage, so a child of God must have good communication with the Father in order to live a healthy spiritual life.  Of course, communication is a two-way street.  We are not to be doing all the talking when we pray.  There also needs to be a time of listening.  We do this by reading God’s Word and asking Him to speak specifically to us through it, and also by being quiet before the Lord.  In the Old Testament, Elijah heard the Lord’s still small voice giving him instructions concerning what he was to do. (I Kings 19:12-18)

Once we hear from God concerning His plan for us, the next step is to do what He says.  So many times I have failed to take the step of obedience, sometimes because I was not willing to submit to His plan and make the commitment that was required.  Other times, I did not follow through simply because of fear.

Fear causes us to feel that we don’t have the ability to do what we’re being asked to do.  But each one of us received natural gifts at birth, and God can use these for His purposes.  In addition to our natural abilities, after we accept Christ, God gives us spiritual gifts that help us to go beyond what we could do without His help.

We live in desperate times, and there are many hurting people who need God’s touch in their lives.  We can be His hands reaching out to them.  We are to follow Jesus’ example in Luke 2:49 and “be about our Father’s business.”  Let’s do it!

Transformation

Very often over the last few weeks, the Lord has brought the concept of transformation to my attention. Transformation is defined as “a change from one form to another.”  From my understanding of scripture, I believe that those who profess Christ as their Savior and Lord will have the transforming power of God evident in their lives. Becoming a Christian is not about saying a little prayer and “turning over a new leaf.” When an individual accepts Christ, he/she is totally changed to the point that life becomes completely different than it was before salvation. There is a marked difference in the before and after “picture.” Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new (2 Cor. 5:17). 

Asking Christ into your life involves repentance. The word repentance in the Bible describes a change of mind and heart so powerful that it changes one’s way of life. It is a turning away from evil and a turning to God and righteousness. If a person asks Christ into their heart and truly repents, his/her life will be totally changed as the new child of God takes a completely different direction. There will be changes in desires, habits, attitudes, manner of talking, activities, priorities, and associations. I would be concerned if after accepting Christ, I did not have a change of heart evidenced outwardly in these areas of my life. I am in no way saying that when we become Christians, we are immediately made perfect. We are still human and live in a fallen world, and are subject to errors and sins. However, our lives as Christians should reflect the fact that we have invited a holy God to live inside of us.

A beautiful example of transformation that can be examined in the natural world is the change of a caterpillar into a butterfly. A caterpillar is a worm-like creature that is earth bound. After its metamorphosis, it becomes a butterfly—a beautiful winged creature that flies in the air. Can you imagine the difference in the life and perspective of a butterfly compared to the caterpillar that it once was?

It is also important to note that our transformation does not stop at salvation. It is a continual process. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Rom. 12:2).  As we immerse ourselves in the Word of God, our minds are renewed through the power of the Holy Spirit, our thinking becomes different, and we find ourselves changing in ways we never dreamed possible. God’s desire is for us to be changed into the image of His Son. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Cor. 3:18).

My prayer is:  Lord, continue Your transforming work in my life. I want to be more like Jesus!

An Undeserved Gift

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Those of us who have been Christians for a long time often take for granted the miracle that happened in our lives as a result of Christ’s death on the cross. Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, Who knew no sin, took our sin upon Himself so that we could have His righteousness. The book of Isaiah tells us that our righteousness is as filthy rags. But God has taken away our sin and given us His righteousness. We could never accomplish becoming righteous on our own. It came about because of the willingness of Jesus to obey His Father and give His life on the cross of Calvary. The part we have in this is to accept the gift that has been given to us.

We tend to make so complicated what God meant to be very simple. The Word tells us that it is not God’s desire for anyone to perish. Salvation is a free gift given to us because of His great love for humanity. By believing in the death, burial and resurrection of our sinless Savior and receiving Him into our hearts, we have the promise of eternal life and heaven as our home.

If you already know Jesus, thank God for the priceless gift you have received. If you don’t know Christ as your Savior, accept this wonderful gift of salvation that He extends to you today.

Prayer to Accept Christ

Dear Jesus, I admit that I am a sinner, and I have lived my life to please myself rather than You. I am sorry and I repent. I ask You to forgive me. I believe that You died on the cross to save me. You did what I could not do for myself. I give my life to You and ask You to take control of it. Be the Lord of my life! Help me to live every day in a way that pleases You. I love You, Lord, and I thank You that I will spend eternity with You. Amen.

Scriptures for Reflection

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:6-8)

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved, For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9-10)

Life: A Balancing Act

Most of us have many roles to fill and responsibilities that can be overwhelming at times. Keeping everything balanced and our priorities straight is a challenge. Through lessons from life and from the Word of God, the Lord has been teaching me that the most important part of my life is who I am on the inside. I am a child of God, having accepted Christ as my Savior. When I allow this fact to be the controlling element of my life, I am able to handle everything else.

As Christians, we sometimes focus so much on what we do that we forget who we are in Christ. Don’t misunderstand me. The Bible does teach that what we do is important. James said “. . . I will show you my faith by my works.” (2:18)  But notice that faith comes first, and then the works. Our relationship with Christ needs to be our first priority. Many of us try to be good and do good things in order to make it in this life and gain entrance into the kingdom of heaven, when the Word of God teaches that it is by accepting Christ as Savior that we succeed in this life, as well as obtain eternal life.

I recently heard a teaching that made it so clear to me that, as a child of God, what I do flows from who I am in Christ. In John Chapter 15, Jesus describes Himself as the Vine, His Father as the Vinedresser, and His disciples as the branches that bear fruit. In the natural, a branch does not create fruit by its own effort. The fruit is created because the branch is connected to and receives life from the vine. In the same way, as the life of the Holy Spirit flows from the Vine (Jesus) into the branches (us), spiritual fruit (attitudes and works) are created. So, the Christian life is about being a child of God. And out of being His child and living under the control of His Spirit will flow the correct doing.

Father, help me to keep my focus on my relationship with You. Instead of trying so hard to fulfill my responsibilities by my own efforts alone, teach me to depend on the power of Your Spirit flowing through me.