FOCUS

In Acts 3: 1-10, Peter and John met a lame man at the entrance of the temple.

This man was crippled from birth and was a regular at the temple gates alongside other beggars.

On that day he was expecting to receive alms from Peter and John but they insisted that he give them his full attention and look at them.

He grudgingly did so expecting to receive something from them. What is your expectation? Who are you expecting to receive from? Where is your attention directed?

To see does not necessarily mean to give attention. You can see something or someone but not give your attention to them. Seeing is unintentional but to look is deliberate. If your eyes are open you will see even the things you don’t necessarily want to see.  

The next level and most impactful next level is to focus your attention by deliberately looking. Peter and John wanted this lame man to go beyond seeing into looking at them. He was in the presence of God but he wasn’t looking so he was missing it.

Don’t see God as normal. Be deliberate in your approach and look at him with an expectant heart. The Bible says we should ‘look’ not at the things which are seen but focus on the invisible as they are the foundation for what we can see.

Peter and John had the power of God to heal latent in them but this lame man couldn’t recognize it. He considered them part of the regular people that passed by him daily. When he eventually focused on them, they gave him what he couldn’t have gotten anywhere else. He was healed of his lameness.

Look to God, don’t fix your eyes on your problems, fix your eyes on Him.

Peter in scriptures walked on water at Jesus’ command because he fixed his eyes on Jesus.

At some point however when he took his eyes off Jesus he began to sink…

Stop sinking, stop struggling, stop drowning.. Put your focus back on Jesus!  

The Bible says we should look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Jesus looked at the joy set before him and despised the shame of dying on the cross. He is our perfect example.  

Jesus’ journey to the cross was traumatic and painful but he wasn’t focusing on that, he was looking at the purpose his death would serve and the joy awaiting him in heaven when his assignment was complete.

When God wants to change a person’s life, He changes their perspective, what they look at and focus on.  When God wanted to commission Jeremiah for the work he had apportioned for him, He changed his perspective, how he saw himself.   

Jeremiah felt he was just another youth with nothing special going on but God renamed him and called him a prophet to the nations.

What you look at and focus on is what you become.

I encourage you to put Christ and His finished work at the center of your focus.

You will experience the miraculous as you focus on God in Jesus name.

In His Love,

Nike