Focus is everything. For the sportsman or woman, focus can mean the difference between winning gold or not. For the hunter it can mean the difference between bagging an animal or losing it. For the businessman it can mean the difference between sealing a deal and losing millions of dollars in potential income/profit. For the Christian it can mean the difference between a life of praise or a life of perversion.
The Christian heart and mind is to be focussed on God but also on the final outcome to this world. As we read in Revelation 21-22 God will create a new heaven/earth where there is no sickness, no disease, no crying or mourning or shame. This new world will be free of death - the original curse will be undone and obliterated. Even more so, the new world will have God at the centre and all believers will have the exuberance of worshipping God face to face. Everyone who’s name is written in the book of life will be there for eternity.
But when we do not have a proper focus our hearts are loaded down with anxiety. The concerns of this world, the worries of life choke the Word of God and cause it to be unfruitful. Rather than seeking the Kingdom of God we begin to seek relief from the stress, worry and anxiety of life. We seek the thrills of the world. The result is inevitably perversion. It need not necessarily be a totally depraved perversion but it will be perverted. As soon as God is removed from our heart and mind, the void will need to be filled. As soon as the focus of our heart and mind moves away from God, it is filled with something or someone else. Usually that equates to me and my needs. The resulting quest to fulfil me and my needs inevitably leads to a perversion of God’s intended goal and direction of your life.
Church has many functions. One function is to help us regain a right priority in our heart and mind. Church allows us to forget the things of this world and to be renewed and transformed in our hearts and minds so that we can worship Him acceptably in reverence and awe all the days of our life. Church is given to us by God to help us keep a right focus and if need be, to bring us back to that right focus. Tomorrow your church will gather together. Don’t miss this God given blessing.
Witness Moment
If you keep your focus on God, you’ll make the most of every opportunity. As you live in the sight of God and focus on Him, you’ll see the opportunities to share Christ in every meeting and in every ’chance’ encounter. If you lose your focus, opportunities will come and they will go just as quickly.
Prayer:
Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.
Adoration:
Confession:
Thanks:
Supplication:
- Praise God for the opportunity to meet together tomorrow. Ask God to make this meeting a glory and exaltation of His name in Christ Jesus. Pray that the Spirit would be powerfully at work in and through believers. Pray that those who are distant from God or that are rejecting Him would be converted through His grace and mercy.
- Pray that the Word of God would be boldly and faithfully proclaimed tomorrow in your church and throughout the entire city/nation in which you live. Praise God that His Word will achieve the purposes for which He has sent it.
My Additional Prayer Points
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