Looking With Undivided Attention To Jesus

Ever noticed how hard it is to focus on something? To really, truly focus? If you’ve ever tried meditating then let me tell you…it ain’t easy. It’s really, really hard to focus on something to the exclusion of everything else. Really hard.

I was thinking about this today in relation to my spiritual walk. I was thinking about the Scripture that says, “Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end” (Hebrews 12:2). One Bible translation puts it this way:

[Let us look] with undivided attention to the Originator and Perfector of our faith–Jesus…

Obviously we can’t fix our physical eyes on Jesus anymore, so the author is talking about placing our focus spiritually on Jesus. But He’s not just saying to focus on Jesus spiritually, He’s saying to focus on Him to the exclusion of everything else.

Man, that’s hard.

It seems that I always have time to do the things that really matter to me. When it comes time to hang out with friends or to read a book or just do some relaxing I can always find time, no matter how busy I am. But it seems that whenever I want to do something to improve my spiritual life–whether it be praying, reading my Bible, or meditating on the things of God–something always comes up.

Weird how that happens.

Now I do believe in spiritual warfare, and I believe that there are evil spirits (the Bible calls them demons or devils) that try to interfere with my walk with Christ. But if I am willing to be brutally honest with myself then I am forced to admit that I can’t blame it all on that! I’m forced to confess that a lot of it just comes down to where I’ve placed my priorities.

During this last week I’ve been examining my spiritual life over the last few months and I realize that I have a lot of work that I need to do. I haven’t been placing my undivided attention on Jesus. Oh it’s not like I’ve been out doing things I shouldn’t do. I’ve even been reading my Bible and praying. But I’ve allowed my priorities to get out of whack to the extent that in the last couple of months there have been whole days that I have gone without spending time with God and with His Word.

So why am I sharing this on my blog? I guess just because I want to challenge people to investigate their priorities. I want to challenge Christians to see if they are really “looking with undivided attention to…Jesus.” And I’m not asking anyone to do anything that I’m not willing to do, because I have determined this week that I am going to reorganize my priorities to make sure that Jesus always comes first. It’s not an easy task, but I do believe that it’s one worth doing.

And I’ll make you a deal: If you pray for me while I reorganize my priorities then I’ll pray for you while you organize yours. If you want a prayer partner just let me know.

God bless!