Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
6/28/2021
"What is your focus? Sunday’s Prophesy"
"Get focused on me. Not family. Not work or the mountains that assault you. Stay keenly focused and you will begin to see with spiritual eyes and with a spiritual heart. Where do you gather your help and encouragement from? My sheep hear my voice not the dozens of voices going around inside your head
Be still and hear me. Be still and see my handwork all around you. There are miracles happening all around you. Be still and you will see them. You are a spirit man still living in the pit of this sinful world. Be still and open your spiritual eyes to me at a new level. Stay focused. You will be encouraged in my word and by my work, small and large in the people in your church community and even those who don’t know me.
My work and my answers are evident if you will open the eyes I remade for you. Be still and enter into my spirit covering there is no other. Come on home".
This was my first Sunday back in church and it was a bit overwhelming for me. Worship was incredible. The sermon was impactful and God’s spirit was so strong. I feel I had been focused on God, but trying to get back into a partial work schedule so soon after Covid Pneumonia has been a challenge and the results frustrating. "Stay Focused on me!" How easy is it to slip 5 to 10 degrees and how long will it take that trajectory to show itself damaging or weakening to our focus?
“There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired.”
While the above quote sounds like something our parents and grandparents probably didn’t experience, that is actually from the book, The Great Gatsby by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1925.
Even in the 1920’s, people’s lives were hurried, distracted, and hectic. But truly nothing like today with so many and every electronic thing seeking our attention. NOW. So how do we stay focused?
1. Begin the day with God Jesus used the word “abide” or “remain” in John 15:1-11! How much clearer can his instructions be?
“Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” John 15:1-11
2. Pray without ceasing.
3. Limit the distractions
We need to keep a clear space between us and God. You can’t keep your eyes on what you can’t see, physically or spiritually. When your eyes drift just 15% you are already 45 degrees out of a direct line of sight. In our spiritual lives, when we fill the spaces between us and God with all kinds of conveniences and distractions, it becomes very difficult and even impossible sometimes to see where the Lord is leading us and see with Spiritual eyes.
4. Serve God
In Matthew 6:24, Jesus teaches, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
5. Remove sin from your life
This could have been the first point in the list. Hebrews 12:1 says, “Since we are surrounded by so many examples of faith, we must get rid of everything that slows us down, especially sin that distracts us.” Do not be deceived. Kill the sin or it will kill you spiritually, physically, or both.
Hebrews 12:1 tells us that “We must run the race that lies ahead of us and never give up,” and the next verse tells us how to do that: “We must focus on Jesus, the source and goal of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2). In watching the Olympic trials I am in awe of their discipline and focus even at their young ages.
Can we really succeed with anything less?
Will you pray with me one hour this week that you will get still before God and ask him to take the scales off your eyes and unstop your ears so you might hear God more clearly? If you will use the aforementioned focus it will draw you back home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjAwIxUQjrI
Your Wings Lauren Daigle
Excerpts are taken from an online article from Gene S. Whitehead "5 steps to staying focused on God"
