Focus

Have you ever wondered about the things you focus on everyday? Do you focus on easy tasks or devote all your attention to the hard ones? Do you focus more on the end of the day so that you can FINALLY be done with school or work? Do you look forward to when your kids go to bed so you can have peace and quiet, or do you look forward to when you get to spend quality time with them? All are good questions to ponder because they make you look at what you really want out of your day. I know that I hope for tons of things to come out of my day but the things I want are usually the things I am going to do and that is just how it is. We can spend forever thinking about what would be ideal or what would be good but until we actually go after it then we will never be able to obtain it. Can you focus on a goal for more than a few weeks, a few days, a few hours, a few minutes? I know that there are somethings I just lose focus of doing either because I forget or I just simply do not want to remember and so I never get around to doing, or when I am doing it, it is very easy to get sidetracked. I realized tonight that there is so much more I hoped for out of this blog for myself and I have simply not obtained it due to lack of focus. I still do not read my posts as I said I would, I have not yet started a daily journal asking some of the questions I have asked, and I have put the focus on others more than myself. I am not saying that I want to be more self-centered, I am just saying I need to take care of myself more than I have and I need to benefit from my daily readings just as much as anyone else. I am writing these for my own benefit and I have not benefitted as much as I would have liked to.  I have focused too much on people seeing a change (somewhat) on the outside of me and not so much on the inside of me. I will get to what that means in just a bit.

2nd Corinthians 4:18 states, "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." In my evaluation of my blog, I have only fixed my eyes on what is seen. People tell me it is great what I am doing because I am devoted to what I am doing and I have truly made this a devotional in which I seek to grow everyday. Sure it is great and people can see what is going on (I am fairly transparent) so people can see my growth. I think people still only get to see an external change by me posting and small internal changes by being devoted and learning to trust God everyday. My focus should be on myself internally and allowing myself to be transformed from the inside out. Just posting a devotional everyday and seeking God does not make me a "Good" Christian. It allows people to see that I am dedicated to what I believe and I want to search deeper, but until I experience a full change on the inside with what God wants to do, I have not done what this verse says. This blog will go down after a few years or so (if that) but the change that is made inside of me and others as a result of this blog will last for eternity. If I only stay fixed on this blog and trying to make an effort to post everyday but I only do it so people will perceive me as a devoted person, then I have failed in the purpose of the blog.  God did not send his only Son down in order for me to post a blog everyday about how great he is and then go around and live 6 out of 7 days a week for his glory. He sent his ONLY SON down for me to be transformed for his Kingdom and to transform others for his Kingdom, he has called me to live 7 days a week for his name and to push myself to the max. Challenges are good and they cause you to push yourself and I have done a poor job at pushing myself to the next level. True devotion is not being content with just posting everyday, true devotion is going to the next level and not accepting failure in Christ. If I set my goal for the semester to get a 3.0 every semester and I was okay with that then what change would I experience? We cannot set ourselves on the same goal over and over, there has to be more, there is something greater we can achieve. If our goal is to get to heaven, that is great, but if we are okay with that, then that is sad. We could set the bar higher by saying we are going to take every opportunity we get to reach out and extend the Kingdom of God for everybody, go to the extreme, go all out, do not hold back. It all comes back to focus on goals and what we want to get accomplished. How far am I willing to go to change my life COMPLETELY and share with others what God is doing in my life? I have posted my trials but I have not been able to say I have had much spiritual growth as far as special things God has done because I have not let him do much. I do not measure spiritual growth as a whole based on the amount of special things God has done in one's life but I am just saying in that area I have not achieved much growth.

We cannot look to tomorrow has not yet arrived but we can hope for a new day in which we can make thins new and go after God full force. We can start today and make today history and when tomorrow starts, we get to write history again. Would it not be cool to be in the history books for starting one of the biggest religious revivals and revolutions this planet has ever seen? One that spans the globe with 100s of countries, billions of people, and hundreds of world leaders? What is stopping us? Who has ever told us we cannot? Is that not what the great commission called us to do? "Therefore, go and make disciples of ALL nations." We cannot say we are waiting to hear the word because the word has already been spoken, the question is how high will we set the bar?

I hope you all had a great Friday and will take the rest of the night to be productive but relax at the same time. I am still praying for all of you and if you need anything just let me know. 

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson