Stay Focused On Jesus!

Stay Focused on Jesus!

Colossians 3:1-2 "So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

Today’s prayer point to help us get ready for this weekend's healing service is “Focus on Jesus Christ.” This is a tough one.  It may sound simple, we may all look at that and think we do a good job focusing on Jesus.  I mean we pray each day, right? Good question, do we pray each day?  How often do we pray?  Is it once a day for 5 minutes, is it anytime we think to do it during the day, or is it only when someone we know asks us for prayers? I am sure it is a combination of all of that for all of us.

The question with this verse is, do we seek the things above, are our minds on Jesus, or are our minds on the things of this world?  Because we live in this world, I am not sure if it will ever be possible to have our minds on things above all of the time.  However, it is possible to spend more and more time thinking about the things in heaven and less and less time thinking about the things in this world.  How do we do this though?  How do we focus more on Jesus and less on this world?

What we spend our time doing is what we will spend our time thinking about.  For instance, Tony and I just started watching a new TV series called Homeland.  It is about a Prisoner of War that was in the middle east for 8 years and then was found and returned home to his family.  Today, all morning I could not stop thinking about this show.  I went over in my mind the various episodes we had watched, what I knew already, and what I was trying to figure out.  Of course, it ended on a cliffhanger, so you are left wondering what will happen next.  My mind has been so preoccupied with this show because we spent the majority of the day Sunday binge-watching it.  We worked hard outside for several hours before it got hot outside and then were wiped out and decided to watch TV for the rest of the day.  This show is on my mind because I spent so much time with it recently.  

The same can be true with our Lord.  If we spend our time focused on what is of Him, He will be what we can’t get out of our minds.  Does this mean that we need to spend all day at church, or reading the Bible?  No, it doesn’t.  It does mean that while you go throughout your day, you can still have your focus on Him. For instance, when you are having your morning coffee and breakfast, you can be having a conversation with the Lord.  You can talk to Him as if He is sitting right there with you.  When you are driving into work, or wherever you need to drive to you can do several things to keep your focus on the Lord.  One thing you could do is to talk with Him.  

The second thing you could do is to listen to praise and worship music either on the radio or on an app like Spotify.  You could pray for all those you know who are suffering and need the Lord’s help.  You could listen to an audiobook that helps you grow in your faith.  You could listen to a podcast that helps you keep your focus on the Lord.  There is so much you can do while driving to keep your focus on the Lord. You can also do these same things while you go about any tasks throughout the day that don’t require a lot of thought, such as household chores, outside work, etc.  

Another way you can increase your focus on Jesus is to have an attitude of gratitude. When we think about how grateful we are for all that we have then we remember why we have all that we have. This brings to mind who is responsible for giving us everything.  Our focus is turned to the Lord. When we focus on gratitude we are focusing on what is good in our lives instead of focusing on what isn’t great in our lives. Also, gratitude helps us focus on what God is doing for us and is giving us, instead of focusing on what we don't have and what He isn’t doing for us.  

One saying that I love and I think goes along great for today’s message is, “What if, instead of focusing on how big our problems are, we focused on how big God is?” I love that because it is so true.  Another way to focus on God is to think about Him first when we encounter a problem.  How many of us think of everything else before we think of God?  Think about your thought process when you encounter a problem.  Most of us, first get upset, then we wonder what we can do about it.  Next, we try to do all we can to solve this problem ourselves.  If we can’t we enlist the help of those around us.  We rack our brains trying to think of who can help us and how they can help us.  Finally, when we have done all we can do and our problem has not been solved yet, then we turn to the Lord and ask Him for help.  Does this sound about right?  

If, instead of thinking about what a big mess we got ourselves into, we thought about how amazing God is at getting us out of crazy situations, then we would be able to save ourselves a lot of stress and worry.  We would probably also save ourselves some time.  What if, instead of trying to do all we can before going to the Lord, we went to the Lord first?  What if we went straight to the Lord and spent some quiet time with Him asking Him what we should do and then listening for His answer? Think about how much time you could save if you didn’t have to trial and error your way through solving your problem.  Imagine the Lord showed you the solution before you even tried anything.

The last line in the verse above says, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” What you spend your time doing is what you will spend your time thinking about.  If we want to think more about the things that are above, we need to spend our time doing things that bring that to mind.  If you spend all your time doing things of this world, then your thoughts will be about this world.  Often it is not what you are doing it is the subject matter.  If you are listening to music, is it of this world or above?  If you are reading books, are they of this world or above?  Where could you make small shifts in your life to be thinking more of what is above than what is here on earth?  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we love you and we want to think of you all day every day, show us how.  Please put on our hearts any way in which we could be more focused on you.  Please put on our hearts any ways that we are focused on what is of this world instead. Lord, you are amazing!  You are Lord of Lords and King of Kings.  You are the almighty one and we ask all these things in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to meeting you again tomorrow. In case you missed the announcement the other day I will be hosting a retreat from Oct 7-9th and the focus of the retreat will be to pour God’s love into you.  CLICK HERE for retreat info.  Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

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