The Problem of Attention – Focus on God – Purity 1569
Purity 1569 01/30/2025 Purity 1569 Audio Podcast
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Good morning,
Today’s photo of a dirt and gravel trail leading through a forest of Adirondack pine trees comes to us from yours truly as I captured this peaceful moment while walking along the Rush Pond Trail near Queensbury NY back on September 9th, 2023.
Well, It’s Thursday and I am sharing this forest pathway scene as a visual reminder to get on or to stay on the path of Christian Discipleship, where every step further is a step closer to God and a step closer to becoming the person He created you to be.
As I was looking at today’s photo, I marveled over how dense the forest was and how, even though this was an established trail, it still takes a certain amount of faith to follow it. The unspoken promise of any trail is that it will take you someplace worthwhile but although the established trail can assure us that others have come this way before, we don’t know if we will be able to handle it or that we will enjoy it as much as others have. We won’t know unless we walk it.
Similarly, the path of Christian Discipleship is the narrow road that Jesus invites us to follow Him on, but unless we actually decide to follow Him, we will never know the challenges or rewards we will encounter.
Part of the Disciple’s path of following Jesus is sanctification – turning from our sin and trying to become more like Jesus in the way we live our lives. That means problem solving in a whole new way as we follow Jesus’s example to implement spiritual practices and connecting with our Father God to gain strength, wisdom, and help that comes from Him.
When we take on the problems and try to change our lives, there are two errors we can make in terms of where we place our attention. The first is having a lack of attention – where we fail to examine our lives and see the overall picture or the small details of what we are doing automatically – those mindless tendencies and behaviors that prevent us from progressing. We see the problem but don’t recognize the root causes that are causing our problem. In this orientation, we may cry out to God to help us but are doing nothing to change the way we live because we aren’t making changes. So, problem one is a lack of focus on the problem and what contributes to it.
Error number 2 that we can make when we are seeking to overcome is to focus too much on the problem we face, and we go about trying to fix things all by ourselves – a way that has not worked before. In recovery circles, they call this “insanity” – doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results. This is the reason we need God to help us – He can help us to take our focus off of our problems and to begin trusting Him to help us find the way to freedom. If we focus on the problems we are trying to solve too much, we may lose hope. But if we focus on the One who can help us to overcome, we are filled with hope. So, we have to be balanced on doing what we can to unpack our problem. We have to examine our lives for blind spots and implement changes to solve things, but we also don’t want to be hyper focused on our problems where we lose our focus on the Lord.
Speaking of focusing on God, the Charles Stanley devotion for today addresses that topic. So, I am sharing it on the blog to encourage all of us to look past the obstacles in life and to focus on the One who helps us to overcome them. Charles Stanely writes:
“Are You Focusing on God or Obstacles?
God is able to overcome any problem we face.
God told the Israelites to go and possess the land of Canaan. The people needed a place to thrive as a nation, and He chose an exceptionally good land for them.
So, at the Lord’s direction, Moses sent 12 men to survey and spy out the area. What a surprise when 10 of them returned with unfavorable, alarming stories. Most of them could see only the obstacles. However, Caleb and Joshua were positive they’d “surely overcome” (Num. 13:30)—that was because they were focused on God’s promises rather than obvious difficulties. Their confidence was based on the Lord’s words to Abraham: “To your descendants I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7).
The rest of the Israelites didn’t share the two men’s faith—tales of giants and fortified cities scared them. Ordinarily, those would’ve been obstacles worth fearing. But their omnipotent God had proven He could overcome anything: He’d parted the Red Sea to facilitate their escape and fed them in the desert.
Focusing on obstacles distorts our vision. Then problems loom so large we can’t see to take the next step in faith. But if God has called us to do something, the reality we need to see is this: He’s already planned a way around, over, or through any barriers that might lie on the path to fulfilling His purpose for our life.” – Charles Stanley
Amen. Stanley really causes us to see a wonderful insight into how we are to address trials and to deal with the problems of our lives.
If we become obsessive about all the obstacles we face, or on doing everything just right, we completely forget about God and His sovereign will to help us and to set us free. We forget that God is for us and knows the end from the beginning – He has already worked out how we will overcome. All we have to do is trust Him and keep following the Lord until He shows us the way. When we walk this way, doing what we can and trusting God to do the rest, we can find peace in the midst of any trial.
Recently, someone I know who was facing an uphill battle to restore his life has been enjoying the fruits of “doing what is right and trusting God to do the rest. It has been a struggle to stay on that path and as he has walked it out, he wasn’t getting immediate rewards or recognition for the changes he made to his life. In fact, at times it seemed that things were getting worse!
But he remained faithful and now after several months of sustained effort to make things right in his life, he was shocked to receive some positive feedback and is marveling over how people who were opposed to him have finally praised him for growing.
That’s God! God was working on this man and the people in his life – while he was doing what he could – and now my friend sees the goodness of God and the wisdom of looking past the obstacles and focusing on God and His way.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/.
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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.
(While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )
This morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Humility (Pride).
1 Timothy 1:15–17
1 Timothy 1:15 (NASB) It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.
Today’s verses are the first of three passages of scripture that fall under the twenty-first point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Humility (Pride).
21. The apostle Paul, a mature Christian, highly gifted, and successful in his calling, remained hu amble, setting an example for all of us to emulate.
Today’s Bible verses show the humility of the Apostle Paul and teaches us to always keep our salvation in perspective. We were sinners worthy of judgement, and it was only because of Jesus’ coming into the world to save sinners that we have been saved.
Paul doesn’t try to hide His sinful past from anyone. He knows what he has done and knows that it was only faith in Christ who saved him. Paul no longer took pride in himself because of he knew he was a sinner saved by grace. The same goes for us and so we should humble ourselves and share this good news with others who desperately need it.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from “Day by Day Along the Way” By Jay E. Adams.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Adams’ books for your own private study and to support the late author’s work. This resource is available online for less than $20 at many sites.
Day 68
The righteous guides his friends, but the wicked misleads them. – Proverbs 12:26
We all give advice. Is the advice that you give good or misleading? Both intentionally and unintentionally, wicked persons give poor advice that misleads people. You will receive such advice from TV, advertisements, business associates, and friends. Do you take into consideration the source of advice you accept? You also give advice, and it is either true or false. Do you think twice before advising another? Is it biblically-based or not? You also guide by example. The same questions arise about your lifestyle. People are always watching you—so you are being an influence, consciously or unconsciously. Does your influence guide well or mislead others? Such matters are not indifferent. A true guide knows where to go, how to get there, and the best and safest route. Sometimes your advice, verbal or otherwise, can lead people to or away from Jesus Christ. Take heed, then, to guide well.[1]
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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
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[1] Jay E. Adams, Day by Day along the Way (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 76.
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