Re-Focus

Every now and then I find that life, stress, work and all else can just take over and beging to blur my focus, shifting my attention from the important to the urgent; from the Godly to the worldly; from peace to stress; from holiness to sin. When I feel my vision getting blurred I know it’s time to Re-Focus.

These days I firmly believe that in life my top down priority should be:

1. God
2. Myself+God+family
3. Church family+ministry
4. Work
5. Social life+hobbies

Ever so often though in our lives these priorities gets mixed up in the wrong order. Far too often work takes over ministry or serving God, or social activities and hobbies become just an excuse and distraction from having a close relationship with God. We start to say things like but I need to pay the bills – yes but you’ve not been to church for a month, I need to work overtime – yes but your wife and kids never see you at home, I need to be at football training every week – yes but you’ve stopped coming to the prayer gatherings.

At this point alarm bells should be ringing in your mind, but sadly far too often our focus has shifted, blurred and we no longer see the danger ahead. We are driving down the highway of life at 100 mph without our spiritual glasses on and we’re heading for a crash.

Jesus said in Matthew 18:9 “And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.”

Now I don’t think you should take this scripture too literally and gouge your eye next time you look at a guy/girl in a way you know you should not, but what Jesus is saying here is: Hey! It’s better to reach heaven having missed out on that fat pay check than to neglect the kingdom work, it’s better to miss that promotion than to destroy your family because you’re never at home, it’s better to enter heaven having sought first the kingdom than chase after what the word demands from you each day.

It’s time to Re-Focus your life again.

Steve Jobs the CEO of Apple having found out he has cancer once said this in a lecture to Standford University students: “I wake up every day and ask myself the question: If this is my last day on earth, is what I am about to do today going to have a lasting impact on my life and the life of others? And I if I find that there are too many days and weeks when the answer is ‘No’ I know it’s time to change!”

How much more for us who are Christ followers? Is what we are about to do from day to day having an eternal impact for the kingdom or are we just sailing aimlessly though life. If the answer is ‘No’ then it’s time to Re-Focus and change direction.

If that job is getting in the way between you and God and the kingdom, go talk to your boss and demand a change in schedule and if he won’t listen it’s time to look for a new job.

If that oh so special person who you are about to marry is pulling you away from church and driving you towards sin it’s time to draw the line and say we’re gonna live by Godly standards or I will have nothing to do with you.

If this sports team practise is always keeping your from home – it’s time to lay it down and be there for your family. They need you!

I was attending a study at the Pastors Academy recently and the lecturer said something very true and profound: He who denies the church denies Christ!

The church is the body of Christ and if we reject the church we reject Christ.

In The Message translation of Ephesians 1:20-23 it says “The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.”

So I plead with you today. Re-Focus and fix your eyes on higher things above and not on temporary earthly things below. The reward is no other than Christ himself and everything that he has promised to you in His word.

Shalom

 

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