Have you ever had a project to complete around the house or at work and at some point during the project you lost your focus on it? What caused you to loose your focus? Distractions? Something more urgent? A lack of desire to complete the project?

Just as it’s easy to loose our focus on day-to-day projects, I think it’s also easy to loose our focus in spiritual matters. My hope is that this article will be the first of many that will show us how we can remain “focused” in living our Christian lives according to God’s will.

Wouldn’t it be great if at the same time we committed our lives to Christ He also gave us the map of his will for our lives?! Unfortunately He doesn’t do that…

But don’t we sometimes go through life acting like God has shown us this map. We allow things to come into our lives as though we know they have been divinely blessed. We make significant life decisions without consulting our Lord because we “think” that’s the choice He wanted us to make. We plan long-term goals and purposes of our lives as if we already know they’re the ones that match God’s goals and purposes for our lives.

I think everyone of us is guilty of making assumptions about God’s will for our lives instead of taking the time to really find out what He wants for us. But why do we do this? Let me put it another way. If we honestly believe that God loves us and has the ultimate best for us, then why would we willingly choose to do something that’s not part of His will?

I think the main reason why is because of the original sin of pride. Pride takes the focus off of God and puts it on ourselves. And when self takes over, we want to be in control, therefore, our ways become best.

When it comes to staying focused on God’s will, especially during the day-to-day, I believe becoming a “nearsighted” Christian may help us. Let’s look at Psalm 37:23 to elaborate on this.

Psalm 37:23 (NASB) says, “The steps of a man are established by the LORD, and He delights in his way.”

Notice that this passage doesn’t say the “way” of a man is established but instead his “steps” are. So what’s the difference between a step and a way?

According to the Hebrew language, the word for “step” is mits`ad (mits·äd’) which means “to go forward; to take a step.” It is the smallest, forward movement a person can take. And the word “way” in the Hebrew language is derek (deh’·rek) which means “a road, path, direction, distance, journey, manner of life.” Just as a journey is made up of many steps, so a person’s way in life is made up of many steps.

With these meanings in mind, we can now clearly see two principles within Psalm 37:23:

1. God has established and prepared every individual step we need to take in life.
2. When we walk in those established steps, He delights in our entire journey of life.

According to the National Eye Institute, over 25% of adults in the United States are affected by nearsightedness. This problem makes faraway objects appear blurry because they are focused in front of the retina. In the physical world, somebody suffering with this problem would have it corrected using glasses or contacts. However, in the spiritual world, I think having a touch of nearsightedness is a good thing.

Just like a nearsighted person can only see faraway things as blurry objects, so we, spiritually, should be able to know when God is preparing us for things in the future but not really make out the details. We need to be less concerned with doing God’s will for the future and more concerned with doing His will right now, in the present. Now I didn’t say we shouldn’t be at all concerned with the future; we just can’t be wholly consumed by it. God wants us to prepare for the hopes and dreams that He’s placed within us. But we can’t live in the hopes and dreams of tomorrow; we can only live in today.
Seek after God’s face to find out what the “next step” for today is, rather than the step you’ll need to take 5 to 10 years down the road!

Keep your Christian life focused by being “nearsighted” when looking at God’s will.