Where Is Your Focus?

I bet most of us can agree that celebrating birthday parties can be a lot of fun. Weather it’s for our family members, friends or even ourselves, they should be something we look forward to. But as true as this is, birthdays don’t always feel this way. Let me share a story about my most recent Birthday. It was the night before, and I was playing basketball with the youth at the local youth center I volunteer at. The night was going great, and everyone was having fun. This was when I jumped into the air like a starfish to distract the shooter. When I hit the ground, I fell over and felt something was wrong. I landed on my ankle and ended up breaking it and tearing a couple ligaments also. The next morning, my wife and kids worked very hard at making the day feel very special for me, and they did an excellent job too. Following a tasty breakfast, my kids really wanted me to open my gifts, so I did. This is when my day took a shift and I started to feel depressed. Not because the gifts were bad or anything, but I could not use them as my family had previously planned. But instead of excepting my new circumstance, I only focused on the issue of my ankle which resulted in me becoming grumpy. One moment I was joyful and the next I became very agitated, but how can this be possible? It can bring thoughts like, I am two different people, I have no control over myself and why do I keep screwing up. But not dealing with these changes in emotions, no matter the size of the problem, can really take us out. It can even bleed over into our family’s wellbeing.

One thing to know about me is I suffer from mental conditions that cause a lot of anxiety. I have been learning that anxiety has a way of enhancing our problems from little to massive. It also makes life situations a lot harder to handle. When things like this arise, how can we not be anxious and have the peace of God? Philippians 4:6-7 says “6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with gratitude, make your requests known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will protect your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

A lot of times when I am going through something difficult which can lead to an anxiety attack, I find it hard to stop the attack when it hits. This happens when I get focused on the problem rather than on Jesus. Much like Peter taking his eyes off Jesus and focusing on the waves (that caused him to doubt and have lack of faith), which is what made him sink (Matthew 14:22-33). How can we learn to stop taking our focus off the problem doing the hard times, and keep our focus on Jesus?

When anxiety hits me, it usually results in anger, frustration or depression. It seems like I can pray and pray and pray, but God does not answer. If you can associate with this, I would love to share a practical way we can take our thoughts captive before the attack gets out of control. Romans 8:5-7 says “5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

To have this peace of mind, we are told to be spiritually minded. The key into being spiritually minded is to have spiritual eyes. In Hebrew this is called, Ayin Tovah, “A Good Eye.” Ayin Tovah simply means putting other people’s needs and cares above your own. Jesus tells us the importance of this in Matthew 22:34-40. But why is this important to know and how can it help us have peace? The first step to being able to see with Godly eyes is ridding yourself of pride. Pride is looking at life through self-seeking and self-gratification goggles, all for your own pleasure. If I can go back and remove my pride from that situation, I don’t think I would have faltered the same. I would have been able to see the same situation from their standpoint instead of mine. This does not take the struggle away, but by removing my pride I would have been able to see the situation differently. Another way to think about it is this, I only got to the point of “blow up” because I got mad that I could not enjoy my birthday the way I wanted it to go. Notice all the pride in my I statement? Let’s take the pride away and see what the outcome could have been. When I started to get frustrated by focusing on the fact that Jesus was in control, I was then able to see my family was not upset by the situation at all. They were actually very happy to serve me on my birthday and make the most of the day however it looked. Because of this view I was able to see that I was the one having the issue with my ankle, no one else. I also can see how my “pride” got the best of me by thinking if I could not participate in what they had planned, I would have ruined my Birthday for them and myself. But by taking my pride out of the way, I could see just how hard my wife and kids worked to make me feel special, and they never felt cut short once. I was the only one upset at the situation. The Bible calls it removing the log out of our own eye before we can even see clear enough to address anyone else’s (Matthew 7:5). For me in this situation, it was due to pride. No matter what the root is, looking inward first is not only Gods way, but is a must to have success in making this work in a tangible way.

Living life this way is not easy and takes a lot of work. But if we really want to be like Jesus and stop letting our feelings and emotions control us, we must keep our focus on Him. Because taking our eyes off Jesus, we will all sink every time, just like I did when I started to get frustrated that I was couch ridden on my birthday.

Let me ask a question. When troubles or trials come, where is your focus? Is it focused on the problem at hand, or are you going to your loving Father in Heaven for guidance and strength? We need to remember that God has our best interest in mind for His glory, no matter what the circumstance or outcome is. When we don’t renew our mind this way, we will align with our flesh, and forfeit the peace God has for us. That is what the devil’s tactics are. He will try any way he can to get our focus off Christ and onto our circumstance or on ourselves.

I want to encourage everyone here, when you’re facing things in life, don’t take your focus off Christ. Read and memorize 1 Peter 5:6-7 “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. Cast all your care upon Him, because He cares for you.”

I am far from perfect at this myself. This is not easy in any way, and we all need to do this daily, especially in trying times. I would like to encourage everyone here, the next time you’re in a difficult situation, try not to focus on the trial at hand but rather on Jesus. Ask Him how He would want you to respond in this situation. Then check your heart. Make sure your motives are right before Jesus and your response is for His glory and not your own. By renewing our minds in this way, God will meet us every time and give us His peace in the hardest of trails.

Renewing Our Minds

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