MAINTAINING THE RIGHT FOCUS

1 Kings 11:1-12:19; Acts 9:1-25; Psalm 131:1-3; Proverbs 17:4-5

“Now King Solomon loved many foreign women…. The Lord had clearly instructed the people of Israel, ‘You must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods.’ Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway. … And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the Lord.”

“The Lord said, ‘… Ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying to me right now. I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again.’ ‘But Lord,’ exclaimed Ananias, ‘I’ve heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem!...’ But the Lord said, ‘Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel.’”

“Lord, my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty. I don’t concern myself with matters too great or too awesome for me to grasp. Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself….”

Solomon, in all his wisdom, was not wise enough to avoid the perils of indiscriminate sex, and it led him away from the Lord. In his old age, he could not sustain his focus. Ananias, in his obscure humility, was blinded by understandable prejudices and nearly lost the Gentile world its greatest apostle. He maintained his focus, but it required some fine tuning to be in harmony with the Lord’s. Neither man was perfect. The difference between them ultimately came down to simple obedience. One man thought he knew better than God. One man trusted that he did not. All of Solomon’s incredible riches and glory eventually faded and were stripped away. Ananias left behind arguably the greatest legacy of any Christian, for without Ananias, there would have been no Paul.

Faith is like that. It usually comes down to a single question. Do we think we are wiser, or better informed, than God? Then, there’s the follow-up: why? In reality, those of us who think ourselves wiser or better informed than God are just the worst at trusting God. We have not put ourselves at risk for Him, so we do not appreciate His wisdom or the depth of His understanding. In a word, we have never let Him save us, or we have allowed ourselves to forget that He did so. We have lost the divine focus.

Where did this penchant for focusing on myself instead of the Lord come from? Spiritual dimensions aside, it’s just embarrassing and frustrating as a practical matter. My personal track record of decisions is nothing to write home about. Without Jesus, I know I’m not wise or knowledgeable enough to deal effectively with life. My best decisions always come when I finally decide to reconcile and submit to asking the Spirit for help. By now, that ought to be my first choice every time, but it’s not, and I’m not sure why. No disobedience is intended. I don’t mean not to follow Christ. (Well, OK, sometimes my disobedience is very deliberate, to be honest.) Certainly, I never plan to sabotage myself. But I do. I wander off on my own and pretty soon am lost and isolated. Only one conclusion makes any sense. Unless we are intentional about actively seeking out and following the Spirit’s Will and plan for our lives, we will mess things up. Inspiration does not come from osmosis. It is the result of diligent seeking and purposeful compliance.

Consistently looking for God and following His Will and plan can grow to be a habit, an instinctive reaction to every challenge we face. We just have to work at it. We never will if our main desire is to establish our self-sufficiency. Independence is a curse when it is not given back to the Lord. The greatest freedom we have is the freedom to come back into God’s presence and give Him ourselves. Only as we commit totally to Him will we have the strength to follow Him and claim the blessings of obedience.