Staying focused

Written by Myles MacMillan.

Revelation 3:14-18 (NIV) – “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

Distraction is probably one of the most powerful tools of the enemy. Many people in this world are so totally distracted with their day to day lives that they completely miss out on God. In many cases these people are living good lives and doing good things but they are so busy that the thought of God learning about Him rarely, if ever, crosses their minds. People can go for years like this with maybe a passing thought at a funeral of a friend or family member and before they can dwell much on the thought it's back to the rat race all over again.

As Christians, we are not immune to this danger. It's easy to get caught up in our jobs, commitments, daily activities and hobbies and maybe we pause for a couple hours on Sunday to acknowledge God but then it's back to the routine. Living like this is what I call keeping your faith in maintenance mode. This type of faith is stagnant, non-progressing and it’s not the kind of relationship God wants to have with us. Hebrews warns about this type of stagnant faith.

Hebrews 5:11-14 (NIV) – "We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."

One of the key statements in this passage is from verse 11. The writer says that the audience no longer tries to understand. They are not committing themselves to growing in their relationship with God and following His commands in their daily lives. In our world today, as we seek to be more fully committed to God, we need to let Him more fully into our lives. He should be our reason for living and anything else we can accomplish is a bonus. It's been said that if you're too busy to serve God then you're too busy and I think these words are very true. Like many teachings from the bible, this is much easier said than done but as Christians we need to be committed to growing in our faith daily lest we be charged with the same crime as the Laodicean church from Revelation 3. Let us seek the true gold from God (found in His word) so we can be transformed into who we need to be for Him (Romans 12:2).

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