Keep The Focus?
By Mike Rule

One of the greatest struggles in my Christian life has been keeping my focus on Jesus. I know that we are to "set our minds on things above, not on things on the earth." (Colossians 3:2) My struggle has been that I cannot seem to maintain my focus no matter how hard I try. As I was wrestling with this one day the Lord showed me how I had slipped into thinking that His working in my life depended upon whether or not "I" had the right focus.

I thoroughly enjoy photography and whenever we have a family vacation, I must look like I have one big "eye" in the center of my face due to my looking at everything through a 35mm camera lens. I work hard to be sure I get the exact photos I want while maintaining the proper focus. It is interesting to note that I often do not really see much of our vacations until I get home and view the photos. I spent so much time trying to get the focus right that I completely missed the view, and as a result have not really experienced anything except photography. Photos are only a two dimensional image of something that was a three dimensional experience. If I would simply turn on the auto-focus I could relax and experience the events first hand, letting the photos of the trip simply evoke memories rather relying upon them to be my entire experience.

As the Lord ministered to me about keeping my eyes on Him He said, "I Am your auto-focus, Mike." I wrestled with this because I really believed that keeping my eyes on Him was my job. Slowly He showed me that I was once again walking by sight rather than by faith. (2 Corinthians 5:7) Faith is confidently trusting God and all that He says. As I slowly began to come to terms with this He showed me the countless ways in which He is drawing my eyes back to Him throughout each day. I was working so hard to do what He was already doing for me. He wanted me to simply surrender my efforts and rely on His efforts, trusting Him to keep me. The only thing He asked was that I be willing to be kept.

He continues to challenge us to trust Him with all our hearts, and not lean on our own understanding and effort. Victory is found in simply acknowledging that He WILL direct our paths. He IS our auto-focus!