Focus - Debbie Copeland

I suffer from a rare disease – ADOLAS. What is this you ask? It is “Attention Deficit….Oh Look, A Squirrel!” Do you have this disease also? J Sometimes I tend to lose my focus. I see something that pulls my attention away from something else that I’m reading or watching or cleaning. I’ll even get distracted mid-sentence with another thought. My husband always laughs and shakes his head when we are shopping – as I flit from one display to another until he reminds me why we went to the store in the first place.

Here we are at the beginning of a new year on which to focus – a new year in which to serve the Lord. How was your 2019? Did you focus on the things the Lord wanted you to focus on?

Deuteronomy 5:32 says, “Ye shall observe to do therefore as the LORD your God hath commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.”

Joshua 1:7; 23:6 says, “Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper withersoever thou goest…Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left.”

The Bible tells us that we need to focus, to keep our eyes straight ahead on what God wants. We are not supposed to turn aside to the right or to the left. We are to remain focused. One example was King Josiah. He was only 8 years old when he ascended the throne yet the Bible tells us “And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.” (II Kings 22:2) Certainly if a young boy could stay focused on the Lord’s path, we can! Too many Christians today are wandering from the old path, the straight and narrow path.

The world offers us many shiny things that could, if we allow them, draw us away from the right path. We are each different so what may draw me may not draw you. I know what can cause me to veer from God’s path so I need to avoid the temptations. Do you know what draws you? Have you been victorious in avoiding those things?

Turning aside DOES come with consequences. What does God’s Word say about it? The Lord told Israel in Deuteronomy 11:28, “And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.” I don’t know about you but I really would rather not be cursed.

We need to stay focused in 2020! Stay focused on the King James Bible. Stay focused on biblical dress standards. Stay focused on soulwinning. Stay focused on keeping within the straight, narrow path.

May we all be able to say with gladness at the end of this year “Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way.” (Psalm 44:18)