Focus Changes Everything

        It is very easy to lose focus and then to put one's focus on the wrong things.  Recently I realized how my focus drifted off of what God would want me to do and onto what "I wanted."  As long as I was not "sinning," I thought that just doing what I wanted to do was fine.  Recently I realized that when I do not focus on what God would want, then my focus is off.  When I focus on myself and put my wants ahead of everything and everyone else, I am actually adopting a pretty serious selfish and rebellious attitude towards God.  When we surrender our lives to God and then focus entirely on what we want, we are not really living for Him.  In the last few months the time I spent focused on what "I wanted," I felt pretty miserable.  I was trying to do my own thing and thought I would be happy.  God gives us things to enjoy.  If we turn them into our main focus in life and seek them out of selfish pleasure, we do not find the joy that God wants us to have.  When we seek God first and then have opportunity to do things that we enjoy, we find joy from Him in them.  We approach them with a grateful heart and recognize Who gave them to us.
        On the flip side when we seek enjoyment of things for purely self-centered happiness -- the happiness we get is short-lived.  In the end we are left empty because we were doing it only for ourselves.
        God created us to be in relationship with Him (Acts 17:27).  As we stay connected with Him, we find joy even in difficult experiences.  It is a lasting joy.  We find joy in doing what is right.  This is the kind of joy that lasts.  We might not always "feel" like doing the right things (many times I don't) but when we choose to do it anyway, we find true life -- the life God designed for us to live.  We cannot do what is right on our own.  Left to ourselves we will always choose the wrong things (Rom 3:10-12, Is 64:6, Rom 7:18).  Yet as we ask Him for strength and do the right things, we find joy and strength (Rom 8:5-8, 12-15).
         I am so thankful for those in my life that have been willing to gently point out my wrong thinking on things and point me to the right way.  Left on my own, I wander hopelessly.  Many times recently I have had to confess my wrong heart attitudes to God.  I am amazed by His promises to forgive (1 Jn 1:9).  He is not a strict drill sergeant who is waiting to hit us over the head whenever we mess up.  Instead, like the prodigal's father, He joyfully welcomes us back (Luke 15:24).  God has given His Spirit to His children: to live in us, to convict us of sin, and guide us to what is right (Jn 16:13).  He reminds us of God's Truth (Jn 14:26).  When we choose to walk on the right path once again, He brings such peace for the journey (Jn 14:27).