Focus

I'm going to tell you what it is like when you are serving two masters. Have you ever found yourself struggling to devote your time to God? Giving Him His time, to read the word, to worship, and have prayer time? Have you ever found yourself completely and utterly overwhelmed by daily tasks or simple thoughts? It's because your mind is divided. You're more concerned with the things of the world rather than the things of the spirit. I completely understand this. It is so easy to get lost in the chaos. Let's talk about the effects of not having your focus on one thing. How we can become overwhelmed and letting it will dictate our life and everything around it.

I'm going to be completely honest with you because I want you to understand where I'm coming from. A personal perspective, also a biblical perspective. My hope is you're able to identify what it's like to serve two masters and how we as believers are called to serve only one; the God Almighty.

Matthew 6: 24

"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

Jesus spoke about serving two masters. If you love one, as if you give all your focus to it, you're going to despise the other. In other words, you're going to feed the one that you're focusing on. It will revolve around your life. The other one would be in the background and used when brought up. Now, I know what the end of this Bible verse Jesus says that you cannot serve both God and money. But we can take this and apply it to our daily lives. We can change out the word money for what you're focusing on, dividing your attention between you and God. Why? Because money represents your worldly possessions.

Here is where the honesty from my part in a personal perspective comes into play in all of this. About three years ago, my husband and I were excited to find out we were expecting our second child. Shortly after that, around 10-weeks or so, we had the devastating experience of miscarriage. After everything kind of settle down, I started solely focusing on having another baby, it fogged my mind and split my focus between God and having a baby. For almost a year, I was miserable. I was constantly thinking about having a baby and how God promised me that I was to have a baby. And one day at the end of 2019, I realized that I had been focusing so much on this one thing because essentially, God kind of went in the background, I knew His promise, but was not giving Him the time. I was not giving Him my time. I realize that I had a master and that master was having a baby.

Now think about yourself and something you might be dealing with or going through. Evaluate it. Are you giving up all of your time to it? Are you constantly thinking about it day in and day out, are you having a hard time falling asleep, do you feel overwhelmed by daily tasks, do you feel angry at times for absolutely no reason, are you sad? These are the things that I started questioning my situation. I realized that I wasn't putting God first. I wasn't serving God first. I was serving the idea of having another child first and then God second. As believers, we aren't called to serve two masters. We are supposed to be concerned about things of the spirit rather than materialistic things in the world. Unfortunately, we live in a world full of sin, so sometimes it's so easy to get caught up in the things of the world. But this is when we have to step back and analyze and ask questions, am I giving this to God, am I letting Him handle it, am I letting Him guide me through the situation, am I giving my focus only to God and letting Him tell me the next steps that need to be taken? If your answer is no, then it's time for you to refocus back on God. We should not let our situation in life dictates our relationship with God.

The easiest thing you can do is listen to the enemy's lies. The hardest thing you can do is listen to God and have Him tell you what the next steps are. What's more difficult is to release it altogether. See, God will give you the desires of your heart. Have you heard of that Verse before? Because I know I have. A lot of people use that to try to get what they want. But that is not how it works; God will give you the desires of your heart if it is within God's will.

When I realized this, I understood that because I was giving all of my focus to an earthly matter, I was miserable, was full of anxiety and anger. But when I gave it to God and said, "I'm not going to let it consume my life," things started to change. I started focusing on God more and started giving Him the time He deserves because He is our creator. Once I decided to give all my worries and all of my cares to God, doors started to open. I am now in a place where God has placed me. I'm still moving in the direction that He wants me to go. Do I still think about the earthly matter, of course? I am human after all, but you know what, when I think about it and how three years later, we still don't have a second child, I'm no longer sad about it I'm no longer consumed by it because I know that it is in God's perfect timing.

Maybe you're struggling with something, going through something, you realized that you're dwelling on it more often. You say you give it to God. But in reality, you're trying to manipulate little things to get your way. It's where having a split focus comes in. It's where you're starting to step into dangerous waters because you're getting into a venerable place, in that vulnerable place the enemy can get at you. If you're not grounded in God's truth, you can be swayed easily to the other side.

Jesus didn't say the life of a believer was going to be easy. Look at all of the disciples. How they were treated, how some of their lives ended, and not excepted. I'm sure that they all thought about matters of the world, but they knew the God that they served. They stood by His side and saw the work of God firsthand. If you think about the time we are in, we can still see the move of God firsthand. But we get so lost in our thoughts and in the worries that we can easily cloud our own spiritual eyes from seeing the beautiful works of God, how He has moved in our lives, how He has saved us from a specific situation when we have let Him. But we get so caught up in everything that we sometimes forget what God has done for us. We get so caught up in our own misery that we don't listen to God. If you think about it, sometimes we can act like toddlers. We're constantly moving. We tend to forget to stop and think and listen.

Philippians 4:6

"do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

Philippians 4:6 says it all. We should not be anxious about anything because God has it in control, but He also says, "in everything," we must pray and give thanks. And in everything, we must present our requests to God. It means that before you take one step, you need to ask the Lord if this is the step that you need to take. It is a spiritual safeguard from unnecessary trials, unnecessary pain, and sorrow. I completely understand that sometimes we forget about this because we get so caught up in the plans that we have for ourselves that we tend to forget that God has a plan for our lives.

And I get it, it's so much easier said than done, but we have to remind ourselves that there is beauty in that process. There is holiness in the process, grace, truth, and promise in the process. Focus on Him, His Truth, His victory.

I write this not only to you but to me also. I want this to be a daily reminder that we need to focus on God, and we need to focus on His will and His purpose for our lives. Only He can see what is to come, the only one that can prepare you to get to that point in life. The process can be painful. But we have to remember that without Him, we would be destined for death. Without His grace, we would not have the reassurance that the things that we are going through, the things that we encounter are all for the glory of God. We need to give Him all the glory. Because through Him there is victory, through Him, there is breakthrough, through Him promises are for filled.