Mitchell County

One of life’s toughest lessons is trying to stay focused. From a child to an adult, this has been one of my biggest problems. As a child, I was like a fly. I would light here and then over there, and then it would be someplace else. As a teenager, it was almost the same. I would think of what I want to do, people I want to see, and places I want to go. I was just all over the place. Even in my adult life, I have found myself doing the same thing. What needed to be done, where I needed to be, and then other things would just pop into my mind and keep me from focusing.

I believe Satan plans to try to keep Christians from staying focused in their Christian walk. It seems he is always putting things in our minds to keep us from accomplishing the most important things in our lives. He tries to keep us so busy doing this and doing that that we find ourselves flying all over the place, really going nowhere, and never getting anything accomplished in our walk with God.

Satan is trying to keep you and me disoriented so we don’t know which direction we are going. It’s called “Spiritual Disorientation.” It’s what happens when pilots become disoriented while they are flying. Every pilot learns early on that you can’t trust your senses. Every year, tragic plane accidents happen because of pilot error. Often, a pilot, especially a beginner, can become confused and disoriented. Suddenly, they can’t tell what is up and what is down. Their eyes play tricks on them. Pilots have flown their planes into the ground, believing they were pulling them higher into the air.

Experienced pilots know that you don’t fly by your senses; you trust your instruments. The plane’s instruments can tell how high you are, whether you are flying level or spinning dangerously out of control, and whether you are gaining or losing altitude.

See, Satan is trying to keep you from focusing on where you are really at and what you are really doing in your Christian walk. Satan is always whispering something in your mind that everything is going well. He is trying to give you a sense that you’re OK and everything is fine in your life.

So remember this in life: you can go by your senses if you want to. You can go by what seems right, but be warned, you can quickly get into trouble. In life, if we fail to stay focused on God and the leading of the Holy Spirit, it won’t be long until we find ourselves in a real mess, or we may even crash and burn.

The choice is yours. You can focus on yourself, or you can trust God, the One who knows where you are going and how to get there.

As a pastor, I find it hard to stay focused in this old world because things are always changing, and things are always happening in life. In reality, there will be times when we crash and burn, but I have learned this simple truth: you will learn more in life’s trials than in life’s triumphs.

I believe that through life’s trials, God is teaching us to stay focused on Him.

Words of Wisdom

• It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.

• “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” — Mark Twain

• “You can focus on things that are barriers, or you can focus on scaling the wall or redefining the problem.”

• Every day is a gift from God. Learn to focus on the Giver and enjoy the gift!

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Steve Williams is the pastor of Berry Chapel Baptist Church in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. You can read more good Christian news from Steve HERE.

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