April 20, 2010

Focus

When I’m driving if want to avoid something in the road the first thing I have to do is focus on an area that is away from that object. Invariably if I focus on the object itself I’ll hit it dead center. I think something similar happens we’re overwhelmed with the worries of life. If we start dwelling on the attacks of Satan and his minions we’re going to run into them every time. Just think how much we’d save a on spiritual realignment if we’d just keep our focus on Jesus.

1 comment:

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----You are so right. When you think about what the mind and emotions are, this principle becomes clear and easy. They are like a screen upon which your life plays a moment at a time, continually mixing what is happening currently with archived film clips that have played before. Only to what your attention is given can get played upon the screen, and only that can be archived for future play. There is no way clip B can play if clip A always plays, even if there is a desire to play clip B, for only one clip can play at a time.
-----When I was working my way out of a manic-depressive cycle, I realized that certain ideas, attitudes, and feelings were the materials of the cycle. Even recognizing and pondering them played them. And although there was a certain need to be aware of them, it was only to recognize them as what not to play and to identify their opposites as what to play. Once the healthy ideas, attitudes, and feelings were identified, it became more important to play them than to contemplate the ills of playing their destructive counterparts. So there had to be an actual cessation of playing clip A and an actual onset of playing clip B. After playing clip B for a number of years, my archive of film clips became mostly of it.
-----Jesus sits as both a resurrected human and God beside our Father in heaven. He also dwells in our hearts as the Spirit. He is the nature of truth, and the knowledge and wisdom of the Word. In as much as He is the beginning and the ending, He is about all things. Nothing can avoid His effect. Therefore focus upon Him applies to everything that has happened, is happening, or will happen in our lives; it is kingdom. Although the focus portrays Him beside the Father as a backdrop to everything else playing upon the screen, that background image only invokes a sense of His kingdom coming into place in our lives. That He is the nature of truth invokes a filter against falsehood being played or archived. Be certain, it merely invokes the filter. We must learn the nature of truth well for it to filter our film clips well. The production of those clips carefully using the knowledge and wisdom of the Word is their filtration. For knowledge and wisdom are the substance of Him. Truth is their relation only to what is proper in any of our life’s circumstances. So if we are to focus upon Him, we must focus upon the proprieties of our lives as defined and filtered by the Word. Then we can actually begin to see Him in the mosaic He makes of our archived film clips, and we begin to feel ourselves being built into His holy temple as His kingdom proceeds to develop in who we are becoming, from one degree of glory to another. It all happens as simply as, moment by moment, snipping each clip A from the film reel and leaving it on the cutting room floor while playing each clip B upon the screen, until That Day when He will edit the whole archive for us.

Love you all,
Steve Corey