Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Shifting Your Focus

It has been a while since I last posted on my blog, but that is about to change.  You see, I have had a wilderness season that has taken my focus away from who God called me to be!  In the early hours of this morning, a dear friend and sister in Christ sent me a New Year's text that included a word from God that said, "Change your focus and take it to another level!" To be completely honest, I did not really want to concern myself with what God was saying because I hadn't been really "feeling" Him lately.  I guess the fact that I reached my 16th "born again" birthday might have had a little something to do with it :-) maybe I'd reached my rebellious teenager stage and didn't really care to hear what "Dad" had to say...In any case, when I received this text from my friend it was absolutely "A Word in Season"!  What it made me realize was that I had changed my focus over the past couple of years.  I have opened doors in my life that I thought long closed! (side note...I guess the Apostle Paul would say that there is a very big difference between closing a door and "considering yourself dead...") Whatever the case, those words from my dear sister, "change your focus" helped me to see that I had in fact lost focus. You see, in my effort to go after the things that I felt like I "deserved," I shifted my focus in a way that changed me!  I entered into relationships that were not "reciprocal" and by that I mean I was the one doing the giving, the pouring into, the making adjustments and compromises!  That is not what God wants for us, it is not what He asks from us; "Come near to God, and he will come near to you." James 4:8 CEV; "Be humble in the presence of God’s mighty power, and He will honor you when the time comes." 1 Peter 5:6 CEV.  Both these scriptures imply a reciprocal relationship.  God our Father says, if you come near to Me, I will come near to you...and when God draws near to us He does not come just to come, as I Peter 5 demonstrates!  We find evidence of the reciprocal relationship between us and God throughout the scriptures, "Do what the Lord wants, and he will give you your heart’s desire." Ps. 37:4 CEV; “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God..." Deut. 28:1-2 NKJV.  There are so many more examples in the word of God about the exchange that takes place between us and God.  So what does any of this have to do with changing your focus you might ask, well I have an answer for you...You see, when we take our focus off of God, the relationship is no longer reciprocal, God doesn't change, He doesn't stop being God but we are no longer meeting His needs!  God created man because He wanted fellowship, He wanted sons and daughters and even though He always does His part, when we don't do our part, we hurt him!  Can you imagine that?  We hurt God, the Omnipotent, all powerful Creator of all things!  The same thing happens to us when we enter into relationships that are not reciprocal.  Our focus becomes so much about someone else and their needs that we fail to see that we are being hurt!  If we are not saved, we become hurt and damaged and we carry this baggage and it spills over into other relationships.  If we are saved, these relationships create distance between us and God, it fills us with guilt, and causes us to doubt God's love for us!  So dear ones, this VERY long blog today is about doing a spiritual "eye exam"  see where your focus is, have you shifted your focus from God the Father?  Has this shift in focus caused you to enter into relationships that are not reciprocal?  If so, allow the Holy Spirit to show you this, let Him work in you and allow Him to cut off those things, relationships, people that draw out of you without ever pouring in to you. That's what I plan to do!  Remember my dearly loved friends, look to our relationship with the Everlasting God as our template, there is ALWAYS an exchange of mutual benefit in good, positive relationships!  I love you all, and we will talk MUCH MORE in 2013!

1 comment:

  1. This truly a ready word in due season for the body of Christ,for whatever reason we seem to have lost focus and forgotten our purpose,and as you may have noticed in my post we are hearing the same thing,out of the mouth of two wittness. keep up the good work.

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