With a whole year ahead of you it can seem as if the horizon is quite vast. It can look either exciting or overwhelming depending on your point of view, but regardless, there is much to take in. Those little squares on your calendar long to be filled in, days begin and end and the future desires to be defined in the here and now. Trying to take it all in is almost too much.
So, here I am in the year 2017, embracing the holy unknowing, the mystery and what lies ahead. As I was thinking about a word God wanted me to hold onto this year, I was also in the middle of finishing a Bible Study and writing a review for it on Amazon. It came to me as I was writing, the Bible Study was the prep for what God wanted me to know about this year. The review for, “HIs Last Words: What Jesus taught and prayed in His final hours,” was the trigger for what is important in this New Year. I was sharing in the review that the study was, “…not only in title, but in content, about Him. All about our Lord and Savior. The focus is on Him.” Well, there you go. That is what this year is going to be about. IT IS ALL ABOUT GOD.
The word FOCUS then is the way in which I will do this. To FOCUS is to pinpoint what you want to see clearly. You then, by no other choice, let what is in the periphery fade. God is who I will keep my eyes focused on. I will let all that is trying to pull me away, or detour me, or distract me, fade to fuzzy.
What is it that you are focusing on going into this New Year? Is it on something or someone other than God? FOCUS. What if Moses, Nehemiah or Paul would have lost FOCUS? Regardless of time, hardship, years of struggle, naysayers, battles, discouragement, beatings, hunger, attack or trials, they held their gaze on the One who is worthy, despite what it meant for them in this world.
The world is full of stuff that fills the periphery. Don't let any of it pull your FOCUS off God. It takes work to stay focused on something. So we need to be ready, we need a plan and we need to be diligent in keeping our eyes on Him. You will get tired, your eyes will hurt and you will want to look at something else at some exhausted point, but don’t. He is all that we need. The vast horizon of the New Year is upon us, let us narrow our view to what is important, let us not look to and fro but fix our eyes on Jesus. And not surprisingly, that becomes all the clarity we need.
Psalm 16:8, “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”
