Looking forward to it?

I remember when I worked in a naval base many years ago, one of the officers would always call me

Jesus' little sunbeam!   While there was an element of the derogatory in that, the reason behind it was that I was always upbeat, happy and positive.

I try to live my life from that place.  Of course I have days when everything feels wrong, or I feel angry or miserable, but that's not a place I like to stay in, and indeed, as a Christian, I don't think it's God's best for us to live out of that space. 

One of the keys that I have found to help me stay in that place of peace and joy, is 'focus'.  

It is so crucial to our spiritual life (and emotional/mental wellbeing) what we focus on.  It can mean the difference between a great day and a bad day.   YOU have a choice on what YOU focus on.  

No one controls that focus other than you! 

I meet so many people that are negative about everything, or who are living just a nominal Christian life, marked by the absence of God's power and joy.  This is largely down to the fact that they are focussing on the wrong things.

In the bible we read the story of the disciples in the boat when a storm comes, and Jesus is fast asleep.  The disciples have witnessed the miraculous and impossible and yet, when the weather gets a bit feisty, they forget it all, and focus only on the immediate problem.   Instead of saying"You know what Jesus is in the boat, he'll know what to do!" they wake up Jesus in a panic and accuse him of not caring about them!

It is easy for humans to focus our hearts on the negative or even just simply the mundane, but when we got born-again, our new nature was made to be like God.  He doesn't panic or fret.  He simply speaks and the wind and the waves cease! 

We need to get passed the natural and look at the supernatural, if we want to mature in our faith and see more of God in action in our lives. 

Discipline is a word that many Christian's shy away from, but it's a word that means to train for something.  It requires discipline not to allow our minds to focus on the negative stuff, or the problems we face,  or be consumed by the everyday this and that, and instead refer to the Word and God's own perspective. 

Choosing to focus on the right things also means not pining over how things used to be, or what we used to do, or how things looked in the past, good or bad.  

Paul the Apostle said it like this 

I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead. (Philippians 3:13 TPT)

Paul got his focus firmly on where God was taking him.  He didn't look left or right.  He didn't get distracted - and he had plenty of things to distract him.  He could have wallowed in self-pity over the things that had happened to him already,  or he could have reminisced over how special he was in his early years, but no! He forgot what was behind and looked only forwards, pursuing the reward of following Christ.

We can choose to be people who dwell on the things in our past (what has happened to us) and we can allow it to make us negative, bitter, insecure or angry. We can focus on 'the good old days' and waste our time yearning for things of the past and the way it used to be for us,  or we can say, today in this moment I choose to press on towards what God has for me, focussed on his goodness and love as I move forwards.

Personally I am looking forward - excited and comforted for a time after this life, when I will rest fully, but also for the future here first.  Where God will take me forward, through his grace and goodness, wrapped in His love for His glory.