Focus

I came across this picture a while back while scrolling through Facebook.

It is a simple enough drawing but it really showed how what we are focused on affects us. One prisoner can only see what’s hindering him, while the other is looking past the bars to the beauty that’s on the other side.

And I thought, man what I a good representation of our spiritual lives. When all we do is look at the negatives, look at the hindrances, look at the trials and hard times, of course we have a bleak outlook. Just like the Israelite spies that came back from Canaan with a negative report. There was a beautiful land in front of them and all they saw was fortified cities and giants.

We know that God had a plan to give the Israelites the land of Canaan. It didn’t matter that there were walls or giants or whatever in the land; God was going to clear it out for them. All they needed to do was look past the obstacles and focus on their God and things would have been very different.

What hindrances are you looking at? What sins have easily entangled you? Maybe it’s time to shift your focus from the problems to the solution.

Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. (Hebrew 12:1-2)