Week 7

Lets talk about focus.
Lately I have been extremely convicted about what my focus is and what is should be. What my focus should be is Christ. What is my actual focus? Lately, everything except Christ.
My focus should be on Christ because when I don't keep my eyes completely focused on Him and His plan, I miss out on what He has in store for me.
I'll explain in this way:
So you are at a shooting range, and you are looking down at the target and focusing on where you want the bullet to end up. As long as you are focusing on the target, you are accomplishing your goal pretty well, the minute you take your eyes off that target or switch your focus even for just a second, you miss.
See where I'm going with this?
If I take my eyes off God, I miss the target. I fall into sin; I fall back into the lifestyle God has been protecting me from, I become a person I don't want to be and I miss out on what the Lord has in store for me. I miss the target, the goal, the end point, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Since coming to Chicago, the Lord has been teaching me a ton of things. Things about myself, things about Him, things about His people, His kingdom and my future with Him.
I think this is the hardest lesson to learn.
Why? Because keeping my focus completely on the Lord means that I'll have to stop focusing on other things. Meaning, things that I have been focusing on are pushed aside. Meaning goals I have set for myself may never happen, because they are not in the Lord's plan. See, when my focus in on the Lord it means that I give my plans to Him and focus on Him, His kingdom and His plans for me. And sometimes our plans don't mirror the plans the Lord has, which is hard.
This is where that trust thing comes in again. I need to TRUST in the Lord, TRUST that His plan is better than mine, because it is. I need to TRUST that once I focus completely on the Lord, He will take care of me and provide for me. I need to TRUST Him completely and this is the ultimate act of trust for me, changing my focus, opening my hands, putting my plans in the trash, looking up the Lord and saying, "OK Lord, whatever you have for me, I'll do."
Once I focus, trust, believe and become satisfied in the Lord and the Lord alone, I open myself up to what the Lord has planned for me. I can either go ahead and fall into the Lord's plan or I can turn around and walk away from the Lord.
Although the Lord's plan may seem scary now, a life without Him is even scarier, so I will walk into the unknown with the Lord, trusting Him to guide me.
I can trust in the Lord's guidance because He has been faithful in the past and He will be faithful in the future.
So here I go.