Daily Dose of Encouragement: Focus

You must rise above your circumstances or else they will swallow you up.  Even when there is no brighter side of things aside from the fact that God is God, look to these things.   It is not unfair to say that we all too easily belittle the one everlasting truth of who God is and His role in our past, present, and future. If anything, God should be the one and only thing we need to put things into perspective and see the good in the bad.  Yet many times this tends to be the last thing on our list.  After we have tried to find happiness in all the things that surround us in the world, it is then we grudgingly turn to God and say “well at least You’re still here.” But wait, what do we mean “at least?!” That is probably one of the most ignorant statements we humans could say.  As A.W. Tozer simply puts it,“Trying to be happy without a sense of God’s presence is like trying to have a bright day without the sun.”

 God should not be the last One we call upon, nor the One we see as our backup plan when all our plans go awry.  No, He should always be at the forefront of our minds, and as Steven C. Chapman puts it, “our magnificent obsession.” Not only in the good times, but also through the trials, when His blessings become disguised by the sin of the world.  Quite frankly, God’s blesses are not always evident by earthly standards, and we must always be on the look out for them.  It is our job to distinguish them throughout the turmoil we may face, and we can do this by keeping Christ at the forefront of our consciousness, heart, and soul. God gives us a perspective like none other.  It is not something that can be taught, explained, or merely happen.  No, it is something that by His grace, He allows through the various promises and truths provided in His word.   Therefore, in order to rise above all that we may experience in life, we must constantly be immersed in scripture, praising God regardless of the circumstances, and talking to Him through prayer as if He were right there next to us.  After all, when no one else understands what we may be going through, God always knows exactly our pain, hurt, sorrow, and temptations (Hebrews 4:15; Psalms 139).   Even so, He remains high above the roller coaster ride that is life, including the mountain top experiences where it feels like things could not get any better, as well as when you have fallen into the deepest pit of despair and cannot rise up by your own doing.  Ultimately, no matter how high or low you are,  God allows us to overcome and see the blessings in the seemingly awful and rise above when everything around us tells us it is unfeasible.  We must remember that nothing is impossible in the hands of our Redeemer (Matthew 19:26).  However, this statement means nothing until we have placed our focus solely on Him, not allowing the things of this world to distract us.  No one said it was easy, and more than likely we will try to have the best of both worlds, dipping one foot into earthly pleasures, simultaneously keeping the other in what we have called “our religion.”  Yet this will never work, and will really only leave us more frustrated with our situation.  Instead, we must give Christ are all, keeping our focus solely on Him as He makes everything fall into place (Matthew 6:33). 

Proverbs 4:18 “The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.”