Focus on Focus

Dear Church,
“Why did you say that? What if they think you are being lazy? What if they don’t come back because you aren’t investing enough? Are you investing enough? What are the Elders going to say?”
 
So we just finished our series on Focus as we followed Paul through Acts 17 and 18. Two Sundays ago I was describing focus as an act of faith rather than an act of self-confidence and I mentioned only spending two hours in preparing for the sermon I preached four weeks ago. Even as I was sharing that with you the questions above began to race through my head, which means that even as I was preaching on focus I was struggling to stay focused. Isn’t it amazing how easily we can be distracted?
 
I was even tempted to make this article all about justifying the comment so that I could feel better about the questions in my mind, but that would only feed the distraction. Instead, I’m just going to acknowledge the distraction and let the Holy Spirit work through it.
 
See, one of the best ways to overcome distraction is to talk about it out loud. When we try to hide something we only stimulate fear that one day it might come out of the shadows, but when we openly share it we begin to see that there is nothing to fear. The paradox is that when we speak about our insecurities we will become more secure with ourselves and what God is doing in us.
 
1 Corinthians 4:5, “He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart.” We can’t be focused on the light of Jesus and try to keep things in the dark at the same time. So just expose what is hidden-talk about it. Jesus has good things for you in the light, and you’ll find that you aren’t the only one there.
 
In Him,
Pastor Tim