Love Letters预览

Stay Focused

“But when you ask, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.” James 1:6

Let us keep our eyes on God’s promises, not on the storms.
As we walk with God, it is certain that we will experience both rays of sunshine, and cloudy days. During the cloudy days, our eyes must constantly stay on Jesus, and on the promises in the Word. We are not promised that we will only have good times. John 16:33 tells us that as long as we are in this world, there will be tribulations; but there’s hope- in Jesus we have peace and victory! God does not promise rosy times 24/7, but He does promise that He will never leave us (Hebrews 13:5). There are times when we have prayed and prayed, and things seem to go from bad to worse. But we must keep our focus on God and on what He has promised - we cannot let what we see in the natural discourage us. When we lose focus on God, discouragement comes in; and the most natural thing to do is put focus back on ourselves or on something other than God.

Any time we step out in faith, our focus should be on God and His promises. Peter knew that he was about to take on a humanly impossible task by walking on water- but he obeyed Jesus’ Words to ‘come’, and he stepped out on the water in faith (Matthew 14:22-33). Peter then did the natural thing- he looked around him and probably thought- ‘what am I doing walking on water?’ The storms took his focus away from Jesus and he began to sink. Many of us have walked in Peter’s shoes. When we allow the circumstances of life to affect us, we take our focus away from Jesus.

Every time we choose to uphold God’s promises in our lips and hearts despite contrary circumstances, we are exercising our faith; we are calling the enemy’s bluff; we are giving God room to do what only HE can do! Discouragement is bound to lurk around, but we can resist it by focusing on God’s Word and allowing it to take root deep down in our hearts so that nothing else takes our attention. 

PRAYER/CONFESSION: Dear Lord, I know that there are many things around me that can cause me to be distracted and discouraged. Help me to keep my eyes on you, even if things around me do not look like they are going right. I ask you to give me the eyes of faith; so that I can see what you see, and make your promises a reality in my life. You reward those who trust in you, and this is what I choose to do.