Yet we don’t see ourselves as capable enough to do anything in our own strength, for our true competence flows from God’s empowering Presence. He alone makes us adequate ministers who are focused on an entirely new covenant. Our ministry is not based on the letter of the law but through the power of the Spirit. The letter of the law kills, but the Spirit pours out life.” 2 Corinthians 3:5-6 TPT.
God’s loving faithfulness is our best focus. Doubt yourself, doubt your friends, doubt your relatives! People have their own agendas. But please don’t ever doubt God – believe in His goodness. Make that a fixed point in your heart and belief system. The enemy comes at all of us with trumped-up charges that supposedly prove that God doesn’t love us, and He doesn’t care when we are in pain.
When that doubt sneaks up on me I deliberately remind myself: “God is good. He is always faithful. The bible has loads of stories that illustrate His faithfulness.” He doesn’t have to prove He is faithful to me, His book firmly establishes that fact. So I go and read the Psalms, or one of the parables of Jesus. Let’s deliberately choose to bring our focus back to Him first, above everything else.
Children expect their parents to always understand them. But adults mature, and they actively comprehend that we are all different. Our parents are human, and we can all be sidetracked by our own needs. However, our Heavenly Father, God, is always for us, and we can quite simply, lose sight of His goals. We need the Holy Spirit’s help, strength, wisdom, and His input to help us to see our Heavenly Father clearly. Not to mention everybody else in this world!
If you’ve ever read the books of Kings or Chronicles you will find God never ignores the things that are bad. He has no problem calling bad things, BAD. However, He also always clarifies what is really going on, and He goes to the heart of the matter. Let’s choose to grow up enough to realise our perspective is not the only one, nor is it necessarily the right one! The perspective that really matters is HIS. We need that.
Almighty God made a covenant, an agreement with His people, the Israelites. Sadly, often all they could see were the benefits He supposedly owed them. They were obsessed with themselves, their comfort, their victories. They only thought about the things that would benefit them if they followed Him. They forgot He is Almighty God, Maker of heaven and earth. Father God will not be weighed up and measured by our measly little opinions or fall for our hissy fits. He’s God. He doesn’t need us – He chose us – and we absolutely need Him!
When our focus is on ourselves, everything else blurs into insignificance. We can no longer see the hurting, dying, lost people around us — and those people could be members of our own family. The Body of Christ needs to stop thinking of Jesus as just a supplier and see Him as our Commander in Chief! Sometimes we don’t, or can’t see the answers to our prayers because, as James clearly tells us … “…we are asking amiss.” We say: “God rules the world” on Sunday, and then go home and act like a despot demanding that everyone else suit our needs, comfort and moods, on Monday. Whatever happened to servanthood?
Often we want to escape from the very things that can teach us humility, patience, or long-suffering. We can become so focussed on ‘me, my feelings, my life, and my family, ‘ that we can’t see anything else. The second we start to look UP and outwards, we are standing in the Lord Jesus’ shoes. He always looks toward His Father, that’s why He is radiant! And He also looks outwards – toward all of us. Everything He did, said or suffered He did for us. Perhaps over time, we’ve focussed for too long on who the bible says we are, and not nearly enough time on WHO HE REALLY IS.
Let’s start voluntarily correcting our course, and focus on what really matters – HIM! Bye. 👋
