Strategy 2: Your Focus

Look into the lense and focus over there. Zoom in a little. Do you see it? What do you mean it’s blurry? Sigh, is the manual focus on again? Just switch it to automatic. Have you ever tried to operate a camera with manual focus? If you don’t know what you are doing then everything will be blurry. But, with just a click of a button or a flip of the switch, ta-da, everything is now in focus. Your image is crisp and clear. The image we are talking about today is your life. Are you walking around through life in manual focus? Does everything just seem blurry, like you can’t quite understand your purpose, follow your path, or get the right perspective?

Strategy 2 is all about making that switch, getting us out of manual and into automatic focus. You see, our enemy wants us to focus on earthly and physical things. He loves to get us to focus on, well, us. He highlights how unqualified, how unequipped, or how incapable we are. But, it was never about us. It’s all about how qualified, equipped and capable our God is. Just take a look at Romans 8:28 if you need a reference. We are predestined. We were picked long ago, before we breathed our first breath God picked us. And another thing the enemy tends to get us to focus on is, well, them. We so lost and caught up on focusing on everyone else. Trying to win the approval of our boss or trying to catch up to the “Joneses”. Galatians 1:10, can help us quickly orient to whose approval really matters. You see, some how we have got to find a way to keep our focus on God and not let the lies of the enemy shift our focus to things beneath. One way to think about manual focus, is man trying to twist all the knobs and turn the dials based on his view point, what he can see. All the while the enemy is using smoke and mirrors to alter what is seen. Where as automatic focus, is man releasing control and shifting his viewpoint upward towards God. The enemy loses his power. He can put up all the mirrors he wants, but we aren’t looking at them. Once we shift our focus, then we should be able to see things in light of the finished work of Jesus. We will see things with a kingdom perspective, able to not look at the physical, but focus on the spiritual.

In this strategy Priscilla talks about minimizing our distractions to increase our focus by cropping out what we don’t need. Before we get to praying we are going to do some introspection and take time to answer to big questions to figure out what we need to crop out of our image, so we can focus on what matters most.

What is the enemy distracting you with to keep you from focusing on God? Once we can identify it, we can spot it easier and the next time the distraction comes we can quickly refocus on Jesus. Is it possible that you have made an idol of something? Have you placed something before God in your priorities? Is it preventing you from focusing on God or fulfilling your God given purpose? Priscilla talks about false ideologies and temptations, but what about idols. Things that take the place of God as the most important focus and priority in our life. Whatever we treasure more than God or whatever drives our thoughts and actions. Matthew tells us in Chapter 6:21 that where ever your treasure is your heart will be also. Think about some common idols: self, relationships, approval, success, wealth, food, or, comfort. Are any of them standing between you and God? Jonah 2:8 reminds us that “those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.” Maybe these aren’t your issue, but please know that the enemy wants you distracted and focused on anything that will come between you and God. It doesn’t have to be bad either. Maybe. it’s exercising. Every morning you wake up and exercise for an hour, before getting ready and heading out the door. You are focused on becoming the fittest version of yourself. After all 1 Corinthians 9:27 instructs us to train our bodies like an athlete. God also tells us to put on the whole armor of God, to meditate on his words day and night, and to never stop praying. The latter will not only draw you closer to God and help you focus on him, it will also get you into the best spiritual fitness. So, I ask you, what’s got your focus?

Once you get it identified then you can prepare your weapons, put on the full armor of God, and align your aim on the target for a direct hit. You can reorient, shift your perspective, narrow your focus, and follow your path. You can get above the smoke, break the mirror, and lift the curtains. You cropped out those things that have been distracting you and now you can turn on your automatic focus. Automatic focus like Philippians 4:8 and Colossians 3:2. These two verses tell us what our thoughts should dwell on. They help us narrow our focus. So, go over and read them, then get to praying.

1. If you haven’t already, go read strategy 2.
2. Pray that God reveals to you what’s got your focus. What is keeping you from looking straight ahead at him? What has the enemy made you believe was worth fighting for that has shifted your focus from Jesus? What is distracting you in the physical and not allowing you to focus on the spiritual?
3. Do some research. Search for some bible verses to add to the one’s Priscilla gave us in the book. Search for bible verses that specifically speak to your areas of struggle.
4. Start crafting your prayer strategy. Get specific. Think about what automatic focus means to you and how you need help flipping that switch.
5. Pray, fervently. Adding and taking away from your prayer strategy as you see fit.
6. Last consider typing it up and printing it to hide in the places where you tend to rely on your manual focus the most. Use this prayer as an automatic focus button, that you can push as often as you need to, every time your focus is off and your surroundings start getting blurry.

Now, Strategy 3: Your Identity.