By: Sandy Mittelsteadt, Valley Ag Voice
Going to the eye doctor is necessary if you need glasses to help your eyesight. You sit in the chair for your eye exam, answering the doctor’s question of which one is better, and then receive an eyeglass prescription. You pick out your glass frames and come back in a week to pick them up. When you walk outside with your new glasses, you realize that your focused eyes are now seeing things clearer.
As an educator and mother, I am constantly talking about “focus.” If focus is the foundation for success in learning, wouldn’t focus be important for success spiritually?
If we lose sight of our faith and become distracted, we don’t “see” God clearly. Jesus never lost his focus; Hebrew 12:2 states:
“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 is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
In Philippians 3:13-14, Paul tells us: “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
This is urging us to follow the focus of Jesus. Don’t let bills, irritation with others, or pain in our bodies prevent us from focusing on the supernatural spiritual realm, which holds our deliverance, prosperity, and healing.
Don’t be like me and get caught up seeing the things with worldly eyes and questioning the goodness of God, seeing the bad in a situation, and being distracted from God. Instead, I need to remember that in 1 Corinthians 1:30 it states that Jesus Christ has made our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption and that we should “glory in the Lord.” A mug I bought from a company called Our Lord Stylehas these quotes on it:
I can give glory in the Lord when I focus on what He says. When my focus is on God, I realize that He is greater than any circumstance and He is with me at all times.
The Apostle Peter has a story I would like to share. You can see it detailed in Matthew Chapter 14:28-32 where you’ll find Peter in a boat on the Sea of Galilee. At night when the boat is being tossed on the waves, Peter sees Jesus walking on the water, and he calls out to Jesus:
“Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And He said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And, when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.”
As long as Peter focused his eyes on the Lord, he was able to do something that defied natural laws; he was walking in the supernatural. When Peter began to look at the natural things taking place around him (the waves and the wind), he lost his focus on Jesus, and as a result, Peter began to sink, which caused Jesus to have to reach out and catch him, in order to save him.
We all know what it is like to be in a storm. But in our future storms, let’s remember that Jesus is the answer to our problems. Let’s not lose our focus and take our eyes off Him.
Prayer: May I focus my eyes on Jesus and may He give me clarity of vision to “see” his will working in my life and His love for me.
Note from the author:
This article was based on a sermon preached by one of my teachers, Tom White, at his church, Lighthouse Four Square, in Taft, California.
