Stay Focused…in everything you do!
Devotions this week based on the Message: “BELIEVE: Week 14: Single-Mindedness”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Randy Frazee entitled, “BELIEVE.”
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
God has a sense of humor.
This week our theme has been “Single-mindedness”…staying focused on the Lord.
I pray I am working to stay focused on the Lord, but this week has been anything but easy to stay focused…on anything! I am realizing how easily my focus can be altered…as evidenced by a missing devotion from yesterday (Thursday) morning!
Our church is doing renovations and updates and we are extremely grateful to the Builders for Christ Volunteers that have been working…but to keep them working I keep running for supplies!
I am writing this at our winter conference in Houston…which has proven to be a winter conference with freezing rain, sleet and snow in Austin which in Texas meant covering plants Wednesday morning and making sure anything that could freeze didn’t! I woke up yesterday morning and took 1.5 hours to decide whether to hit the roads or just not go to conference. Our closing devotion leader was not able to come so I was asked at last minute to provide a closing devotion today for our conference.
So yes, I am a bit distracted.
But I hope I am still focused.
Because in all the things I am doing by intention or reaction, I want to stay single-minded. I don’t want the tasks of life to distract from the purpose of life.
In everything I do, I desire to do the will of God to the glory of God.
Don’t you?
But don’t you have those weeks where you are pulled in many different directions?
So how do we keep our single-minded focus?
Remember the Lord’s encouragement: Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Let every activity that fills your schedule be a reflection of your love for the Lord. If you can’t do it with love in your heart to the Lord, perhaps it’s better left off the schedule.
Remember God’s promise from our key verse, “Seek first the kingdom and his righteousness and ALL these things will be added to you as well.”
Perhaps there are things that are taking your time that are getting in the way of your relationship with the Lord. Maybe it’s time to de-prioritize them. Maybe there are things in your schedule that you do because your heart is overly worried that God won’t provide. Maybe it’s time to remember the promises of God.
Perhaps the way to stay single-minded is to be reminded of these two things:
a. In Christ, God has already taken care of our BIGGEST need…Salvation. He has done what we never could and given to us what we could never earn. He has solved the problem of sin and provided us an eternal solution in Jesus.
So with the argument from the greater to the lesser, if God has already taken care of our biggest need, can he not also take care of our smaller needs? Absolutely!
b. Christ, as we put him first for our biggest need, will take care of our smallest needs as well.
Enjoy your day and your weekend…whatever is on your schedule, keep the Lord first and see him fulfill his promise to you to care for your small needs even as he took care of your biggest need.
Apply: Reflect on your activities this week. What helped you stay focused on the Lord? What hindered? Throw out the things that hinder and do more of the things that helped!
Prayer: Lord, thank you for taking care of my biggest problem of sin and giving me salvation. Thank you also for your gracious hand that opens and satisfies all my little needs as well! AMEN.
Stay focused…Labor for the Lord!
Devotions this week based on the Message: “BELIEVE: Week 14: Single-Mindedness”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Randy Frazee entitled, “BELIEVE.”
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
Not in vain.
Some days it just doesn’t feel worth it.
The house you cleaned up is dirty again. The laundry you just put away is back in the hamper. The presentation prepared for work, not accepted. The practice you put in to make the team wasn’t enough. The volunteer effort you gave…no one said a word of appreciation.
Perhaps there are days where you feel like King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes: “Meaningless.”
One works hard, only to retire and see your job filled by a college graduate. A company you poured your life into closes. Your degree you spent hours earning, didn’t do any good to get a job.
And the list goes on.
Every earthly aspect of our life can very much feel meaningless because it is all temporary. We seek to make a difference, leave a legacy, or make a significant impact. But in the end, what will your obituary say?
Did your life have meaning and purpose or just fade into nothing?
Life lacks significant meaning and purpose if I am just living for myself or for earthly accolades. Where significant meaning and purpose come is when I live life for God’s purposes and to God’s glory. The Apostle Paul wrote:
1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
The reason that Paul can give this encouragement falls on the heels of the reality of the resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus is dead, faith is dead. Life loses its meaning and purpose. Yet when we have the hope and reality of Christ’s resurrection, it gives us something to live for because we are living not just for this world, but for an eternity with the Lord.
What is done for the world is temporary. What is done for the Lord is eternal.
So if you really want to have purpose and meaning and significance, live and labor for the Lord.
Labor done for the Lord is not in vain.
Here’s what that looks like. You may not make the team, but your effort was a witness to your faith in the Lord. Your presentation may not be accepted by your boss, but your integrity is a testimony to who you really work for. If it seems like your tasks are purposeless, when your focus is to serve and glorify the Lord, everything you do has significance and nothing you do is in vain.
So enjoy your Wednesday…give yourself FULLY to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Apply: This whole week is God’s Spirit changing my focus on living for self or that which is temporary to that which is eternal. How is this giving deeper meaning to your day?
Prayer: Lord, help me each day to labor for you and remember that my labor for you is never in vain. AMEN.
How do I stay focused on the LORD? Every day do the work of the Lord!
Devotions this week based on the Message: “BELIEVE: Week 14: Single-Mindedness”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Randy Frazee entitled, “BELIEVE.”
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
“I wish I could serve the LORD more.”
So do I.
But the context of this statement was an individual who was laden with guilt that they weren’t at church helping with projects on the church campus. Certainly allocating a portion of your time to be involved in your local congregation is important. Serving together is a wonderful blessing of your church community.
However, after a bit more conversation, the reality was this person was perceiving that the only place to do the work of the Lord was in the house of the Lord.
Here’s the truth:
Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Staying focused on the Lord is realizing each day is an opportunity to do the work of the Lord.
WHATEVER you do…
What is on your schedule today? Eating breakfast? Give thanks to the Lord for food to begin the day. Headed into work? Remember you are first serving your Savior, then the people and customers you work with. Going to school? Give thanks for your mind and the opportunity to learn. Do your best not for the grade, but to use the gifts you’ve been given to the potential for which God created them. Doing chores around the house…laundry, cleaning, yard work? Thank God for the clothes to wear, the house to clean and the beauty of his creation in your own back yard.
The point? Go through each day seeing whatever God has put in front of you as an opportunity to serve the Lord. Each day, wherever God has you that day, is an opportunity to do the work of the Lord.
Do it ALL in the name of the Lord Jesus…
As a Christian, there are not somethings or some ways we serve the Lord and something and some ways we don’t. EVERYTHING we do is an opportunity to show our love for the Lord and the people he’s put around us.
So yes, volunteer and serve at your local church – it’s part of being part of that community. However, a way to stay focused on the LORD is to know everything you do each day is an opportunity to do the work of the Lord!
Apply: What IS on your schedule or ‘to-do’ list today? Write it down and jot next to it…”to the glory of God!”
Prayer: Lord thank you for today and all you’ve given me to do. Help me to see everything I do today as a way to serve and honor and give thanks to you! AMEN.
Stay focused…a little Word every day!
Devotions this week based on the Message: “BELIEVE: Week 14: Single-Mindedness”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Randy Frazee entitled, “BELIEVE.”
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
Do you easily get distracted?
Here’s some interesting data: from “You Can Get Focused (Hint: Put Down That Phone),” Caren Osten Gerszberg writes:
The average person’s mind wanders 47 percent of the time, according to a 2010 Harvard study, so nearly half the time you’re doing one thing, you’re thinking about something else. Add the 24-hour news cycle, the barrage of social media and the countless distractions for those working from their bedrooms, backyards and walk-in closets — a number that has more than quadrupled from 8.2 percent in February 2020 to 35.2 percent in May 2020, according to research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas — and it’s no surprise that people are struggling to focus.
“Some would argue that human attention, not money, is the most valuable commodity there is,” said Angela Duckworth, the author of “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance,” and the founder and scientific director of Character Lab, a nonprofit that connects researchers with educators. “It’s the ultimate scarce resource.”
Studies say an average person spends 2.5 hours a day on social media and 4.25 hours a day on television – and more the older one is!
I recently heard someone say that the problem we have today isn’t the lack of information, but that we have too much information.
We are bombarded from every direction with news, pictures, videos, projects, work, school, home chores and more. The opportunity for distraction is HUGE!
So how do we stay “single-minded” focus on the LORD in an arena where distractions are plenty? This week we’ll explore some suggestions and promises from the Bible to give us both some “HOW” as well as some “WHY.”
Here’s one place God encouraged people to start. Just be in the Words of God every day.
Deuteronomy 6:6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
God knew even people in Moses’ day would be distracted. He wanted them to keep his words at the forefront of their day, their conversation, and their homes. It was an encouragement to make his words part of their everyday routines. He wanted his words to embed in their hearts and lives so they could carry them wherever they went.
How would this look for you today? A verse of the week for your family? A conversation on the way to school? Reading a chapter when you sit down for breakfast or dinner? A picture on your wall as you come in your door which has a Scripture verse? A small hanging from your rear view mirror?
What was the promise that God gave his people to encourage them to stay focused on him and his commands:
Deuteronomy 6:17 Be sure to keep the commands of the Lord your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you. 18 Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors, 19 thrusting out all your enemies before you, as the Lord said.
20 In the future, when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?” 21 tell him: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 Before our eyes the Lord sent signs and wonders—great and terrible—on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. 23 But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land he promised on oath to our ancestors. 24 The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. 25 And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.”
This was a blessing for the people of Israel…God promises you blessing too as you keep him first. Find a way to do it today!
KEY VERSE: “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)
Apply: What is one way you can start today to put the Word of God in front of your heart every day to help you stay focused on the Lord?
Prayer: Lord forgive me for the ways my heart and life are distracted from you. Help me with your grace and Spirit to stay focused on you every day! AMEN.
Studies referenced:
https://www.statista.com/chart/15224/daily-tv-consumption-by-us-adults/
How do I study my Bible?…Do you have a plan?
Devotions this week based on the Message: “BELIEVE: Week 13: Bible Study”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Randy Frazee entitled, “BELIEVE.”
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
“Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.”
Generally true.
While one can “fly by the seat of their pants” or “be spontaneous,” a plan provides clarity, direction and a focus. We have plans for school. We have plans at work. We have plans for something we build. Why? Because we desire a certain outcome and work towards that.
Let me encourage you to do the same for you Bible study.
Tip #9 Plan out a method of Bible study.
Perhaps the challenge is the infinite plans that can be created to study the Bible. However, just pick one. A random approach can be difficult as it may be challenging to get a flow of thought and determine context if you study the Bible by randomly choosing what you are going to read.
Perhaps choose a book of the Bible. Choose one you know and one you don’t and work through them. Reading through a whole book at the time gives a sense of progression through the book. Have a journal or make notes in the Bible. Another way to approach study is topically. Pick a topic and then look at all the passages in the Bible that deal with that topic. Online Bible sites like “Biblegateway.com” or “YouVersion.com” are helpful tools to search on different topics.
As you are reading, you may journal or think through S.O.A.P. This is a way to get more out of what your read. Simply put, here it is:
S- Scripture – choose the section of Scripture you are reading (verse, chapter, book)
O- Observation – Simply observe things about this section. Ask the “reporter’s questions”: Who? What? Why? When? Where? To Whom? Notice repeated words or phrases. Note what questions it creates (future Bible Study topics!).
A – Application – What is the truth God is bringing to you? How does it affect your life? What does it lead you to confess? What does it teach you to do or not do? What impact does it have for you.
P – Prayer – Perhaps the most important to pray through and about the words of Scripture. Let your prayers be molded by what you read!
This method will help you with the last tip of the week:
Tip #10 Meditate on what you read.
Psalm 1:1-3 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
The Bible is unlike any book you’ve ever read. Therefore we don’t read it like we would read a novel or a newspaper. You want more than simple knowledge of what it says. You want to use what it says — to apply what it says to your life. Focus on every word. Ask yourself questions like, “What do these verses tell me about God? What does this tell me about myself? What here makes me happy — or sad? How does God want to use this portion of his Word to change me to be more like him?” Throughout the day, turn that portion of Scripture over and over in your head. As you study, don’t be afraid to take notes or write in your Bibles. It helps reinforce what you’ve read. And don’t be afraid to come to your pastor with any questions you might have.
So there you have ten tips on getting more out of your Bible study. I pray you picked up one or two new ones to help you grow in your knowledge of and love for the Word of God. May God bless your study of his Word. May it equip you with the tools you need to get through this life. May it fill you with joy as you realize you have eternal life!
Apply: Email me at pastor@crossandcrowntx.com the tip that you are going to try in your Bible Study. Also send me tips that you have used to make Bible study more fruitful in your life.
Prayer: Open our eyes to see the wonders of your Word! AMEN.