Kingdom Chat Week 6: Protect Your Focus – Follow The Right Example
Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. Isaiah 51:2
That ye be not sluggish but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrews 6:12
It is my pleasure to lead the Kingdom chat for this week, and as usual, it provides the opportunity for our teaching, exhortation, doctrine and even rebuke so we can be well tutored and fully equipped to become all that God made us to be.
We live in an era which most refer to as the social media age with rampant spread of information and even what was hitherto, “private life” is now a common public knowledge on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, tok-tok and the likes. Oftentimes, I’m amazed to see people seek opinion about important areas of their personal lives like, what to do about their marriages, raising their kids, their jobs, etc., on social media, and your guess is as good as mine about the kind of answers they do get. Isn’t it amazing that we spend heavily on insurance for homes, cars, keys, jewelries etc., but we do not think about protecting the one thing that determines our destination in life – our focus? However, we eventually become what we focus on whether consciously or unconsciously. The story in Genesis 30 of Jacob placing a branch painted with spotted colors in front of the strong and solid colored sheep while they were mating, which resulted in the strong solid colored sheep reproducing spotted sheep instead of their kind, demonstrates that our focus influences not only the kind of results we produce but also the quality of the results.
In our opening scripture, God admonishes the Israelites to look back at their prime example and ancestor, Abraham to follow his example of obedience and the kind of result he produced so they can be encouraged about their destiny and not lose focus. As believers, if we are going to experience spiritual growth and even physical blessings we must be careful to maintain our focus on the right things. Our lives will only go in the direction of our focus. One of the ways to protect your focus is by following people who themselves are examples of who you want to become or where you want to go. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:33 told the Corinthians not to be deceived, because bad company corrupts good behaviour.
We all mostly have good expectations from this year and while some are already getting the results, some are still hoping or waiting for results. It is important to answer the question, where is your focus? Have you thought about the fact that, if a farmer does not plant crops in his farm, something will still grow on it – weeds. So, we have a responsibility to determine what direction we want our lives to go this year. You cannot afford to surround yourself with the wrong examples. Look back on the architectural plan of your life and compare it with where you are now, are you an example or in the process of what or where you thought about yesterday? If not, then find out why.
Make a decision to be intentional about your choice of relationships, the books you read, the kind of songs or words you listen to, cutting off unproductive activities. Your choices will make up your habits, and ultimately your destiny. Therefore, protect your focus by surrounding yourself with the right materials (resources) that are relevant to your desired goals. This is the reason I love this community because it is directed at helping you build yourself with the right examples to be the best that God intended for you, functioning in Kingdom principles. Make the choice to participate in the Studies that are coming; take the courses in the community; take advantage of mentorship by reaching out to the Pastoral care team; engage on this platform and be a change agent to produce proof of the Kingdom of God in your own world.
Discussion:
Are there areas of your life that you are looking to improve on this year? What are some of the strategies you plan to achieve these improvements?
I understand these may be personal answers, however you can share your thoughts on helpful strategies that can help someone achieve their goals this year.
I look forward to your comments. Cheers!
- 9 Replies
@michael This is so true. A mentor once said to me “surround yourself with people that protect your focus.” It didn’t take long for me to see how that not being intentional about your focus can be very detrimental to your destination.
The friends we keep, media we consume, and how we spend our time all can lead us to our desired destination or move us further way from it.
I totally resonate with this truth. Personally, I have made the decision to stay far away from people who are not going the same direction I am going so as not to be pulled by the gravitational force of their lives. I have also desired to consistently set my mind in God’s word and the dreams He is putting before me. That’s how I protect my focus.
Thanks a lot @phil4krist for the insightful response. Thats quite true because I noticed that if you are a very efficient person, people will want to involve you in everything even when it goes against your vision and mission in life. Everyone also wants to be around you. To protect our focus, we need to learn to say, “No” and cut down our engagements to get the BEST results and not just the GOOD results. I see why Paul stated that all things are lawful to him but not all things are necessary.
Strategies is maybe spend little by little with the Lord’s Prayer and do some volunteering to interact with people God’s wants you to.
I don’t know if that makes sense or not.
I think that makes a lot of sense because it is the little things that make up the big picture. the more faithful we are in the little the better capacity we have for more to be added to us.
Hi Minkee. That’s a very important question and we actually have a blog on self discovery which can help answer this question to a good extent. You can check out the blogs section of the app.
I believe being the best version of ourselves starts with the question you just asked which leads to self discovery. Then like Paul states in Phillipians 3:13 that he is constantly rediscovering himself, by forgetting the past and consistently pressing forward to achieve/become the big picture that God has called or shown him to be. We must be ready to be malleable by God through obedience to his instructions so we can be melted and moulded (transformed) into His own picture of us which is always a bigger picture than we could ever imagine for ourselves.
For me this year, one strategy I can share that has added immensely to my growth is to read more books and even search for and watch videos that pertain to any particular area (whether spiritually or in my career) I want to develop in and I am amazed at how much knowledge I have been missing out on. Someone said that all you know is not all there is to know and realizing that is the key to personal growth and development.
Log in to reply.