Day 4- The Wisdom of Focusing

Bible Reading: Matthew 14: 22-33

Have you ever used a cheat code? Isn’t it interesting what a cheat code can do for you? It’s amazing how a cheat code can make a game or task so much easier, and propel you way beyond the literal walk through that everyone else is entangled in and struggling with.

Life is often very intense, with so many things calling for our attention, and if we’ll be honest, that’s a huge ask on us. There’s seemingly always everything to do, everybody to please, everywhere to go, all at the same time. 

Today, we want to share a cheat code that will simplify our response to the demands coming from all sides.

Ready? 

The cheat code is that you learn to refocus on Jesus.

Christian wisdom tells us that a right focus in life starts from getting your focus on Jesus right. A rightly focused life is a life that is first of all rightly focused on Jesus, and then finds all expressions out of that focus.

A focus on Jesus must not be a historical event for a Christian. It’s not just about the day you got born again or sought Him for some big need in your life. Jesus is not just the one you looked to and found life. He is the one you look to and find life.

Ask Peter- he was getting focusing on Jesus right in one moment and was walking on water, then when he began to focus on the winds and waves, he began to sink. Trust me, in walking on water, there was a lot happening. He was getting his steps right, getting his pace right, getting the right balance, shutting out the noise, and so on. Maybe a few more things in your context- he was not worried about the news in the build up to the election, he was not freaked about about the dollar rate, he was not walking in hurt or offence at the friend that let him down or broke his heart, he was living stronger than the power and hold of sin, he was not overwhelmed by need or a lack of resource, and you can go on and on. 

But he wasn’t even thinking about all that- he was simply focusing on Jesus!

There are always these two million and seven things to be getting right in life. Your mind needs to be focused, you need to stay loyal, you need to be loving in hard places, you need to stay enthusiastic and consistent, you need to stay alive and full of wonder… Christian wisdom teaches us that it’s in Jesus that we can get it all right.

In our reading today, Peter shows us that our problem is never the winds and waves that surround us, it’s our lack of focus on Jesus.

The devil seems to have a clue on this and so he will do all that he can to take your focus off Jesus. He’ll make everything else seem important and urgent. Having a quiet time of prayer and meditation on God’s word will always seem like a big ask. Spending data on church services or content will many times seem like a task. A church life group will seem unimportant. So we stay busy trying to hold a hundred things together- largely unsuccessfully- because we miss the one thing that can lead us to hold all hundred together.

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5 NKJV

Do you really believe that? That in Jesus we are fruitful in all things, but outside of him we can do nothing!

Jesus will teach you to love. He will create a compelling working in you by the power of the Holy Spirit to love even the unlikely. He will revive your enthusiasm and sense of wonder. He will fill your heart with true confidence and hope. No one is ever truly focused on Jesus and is sorrowful and disloyal and all that.

I still believe that the Christian life is not just about a ‘spiritual life’. Focusing on Jesus gives us the wisdom for everything about life- I believe that it is through Jesus and my relationship with him that I’m building my marriage and raising my kids right. Who says walking with Jesus doesn’t play out in building career or relationships and all that? Of course it does!

Today, I invite you to the wisdom of refocusing on Jesus! I invite you to make that your intense passion for the rest of the year. I invite you to think about systems and structures that incline you towards a Jesus focus and how you can enhance them, as well as destroy systems, structures and conversations that distract you from a Jesus focus. Think about it in all the practical ways- status updates, social media, who you chat up or hang out with, and so on.

My prayer for you is that the rest of this year will be more deliberate and more fruitful for you you set your focus right.

Something To Pray
Pray today that you will constantly see Jesus above the storms and noises of this day and age.

Tolulope Moody