Shift Your Focus

Devotional Reading: I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Psalm 34:4 ESV

One of the worst consequences of fear is that when it strikes it causes us to assume the worst. We fail the exam and we think we will never get a good job. We get dumped, or go through a divorce, and assume we will always be on our own. If we let it, fear takes over and runs wild in our minds, and we begin to invent worst-case scenarios. Fear causes us to have vision without optimism, to see a future without hope.

In Matthew 8 again, Jesus is hanging out with his disciples on a boat. He is asleep when a storm hits, and immediately the disciples run to Jesus to wake him up and say, ‘Jesus! Don’t you care that we are going to drown?’

Bear in mind that at this point they are still safe on the boat; they are not in the water, yet they are visualizing their deaths. This is what fear does. It dictates a false reality and causes us to assume the worst.

What we give attention to, we also give authority to. So the key is to shift our focus, and this will allow us to shift our fear, because whereas fear may well be present, we don’t need to allow it to be president of our mind.

We can either get on one train of thought that focuses on the situation and gives way to fear; that is the train of doubt and negativity and the destination is defeat. Or we can shift our focus and fix our minds on the Word of Jesus; that is the train of faith and hope and the destination is victory.

Today, look for opportunities to shift your focus. Like the author of the Psalm says, God can free us from all our fears, it just requires a shift in focus. God is stronger than our situation, more powerful than our problem, so let’s focus on him, rather than what is intimidating us.

Prayers and Confession
Lord, I choose to focus my attention on what you already did for me on the cross because I know you are stronger than any of my fears.

Further Reading: Isaiah 41:10, 46:1-3