Where’s Your Focus?
by Tanya Person
Recently, when we were driving home, there was a beautiful sunset. I wanted to capture the memory, so I took a picture with my phone, through the front window of the car. I was so disappointed with the results! You could barely see the sunset, but the squished bug on the window showed up very clearly!
God spoke to me through that picture. It was something He’s spoken to me many times over the years: “Where is your focus?”
Do you know the things you focus on become all you see, and it’s very hard to see anything else? If I hold my thumb up, and focus on it, anyone on the other side can be completely blocked out by my thumb. If I focus on the people beyond my thumb, my thumb becomes almost invisible.
As a mum, I can focus on my kids, my work, or my husband. Sometimes I focus on my problems. What am I going to feed the family? How am I going to pay this bill? Our problems can be overwhelming when we look at them! We can even spend time praying about them, “Oh God, my problems are so big! I don’t know how You’ll ever manage to solve them! I know You must be able to, but I just don’t see it!” We might not pray those exact words, but many times that’s what’s in our hearts. And we feel we have no faith.
I find that if I first focus on Jesus, all the problems become less significant, and the things I need to do for my family and work fall into place. Look at the pattern Jesus gave us to pray, in Matthew 6:9, ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name’. The focus is first on God - who He is and where He is. He’s in heaven, above everything! Only after giving God the glory He deserves, do we then move on to praying for His kingdom to come and His will to be done, and then for our daily needs.
Let’s put our focus on Jesus first in our lives, knowing that, as we do, He’ll direct our steps and He’ll take care of our problems and those things that try to hold us down.
Prayer: Lord, forgive me for the times I’ve allowed my problems to overwhelm me and become my focus instead of You. Thank You that You’re bigger than my problems! Please help me to re-focus on You, and put You first in every area of my life. Amen.
Tanya Person Tanya and her husband, Jim, were missionaries to Hungary for over 18 years. They have worked with Ellel since 2005. After serving in various positions with Ellel in Central and Eastern Europe, God led them back to the United States, where they are now serving with the Ellel USA team. They have a passion to see leaders restored, the church discipled and walking in God’s fullness of life and freedom, and for mentoring the existing and developing team. Tanya also enjoys crocheting and knitting in her free time and has written some children’s picture books.
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