“When Life Pulls Our Focus From God”

I don’t know if we understand just how easy it is to lose focus.
How easy it is to become so far from God and not realize how it even happened.

Whether we allowed the day’s circumstances to win or let our feelings set the tone for the day, we fold.
We don’t read God’s Word because today was too much. 
We forget to talk to Him because things got too crazy today, so we leave it for tomorrow.

But tomorrow comes and it feels slightly easier to blame neglecting God on the fact that we were running late, or a kid missed their bus, or traffic was crazy, or work was insane today, or…
and before we know it we’re two weeks into not reading His Word or even having a conversation with Him.

The kids seem a little moodier than normal.
You and your spouse can’t seem to get on the same page.
Work feels like it never goes right.
The world feels a little heavier for some reason.
Your energy seems to have slipped away from you.  
Decisions feel overwhelming because life feels demanding.

Maybe your shift is different from mine.

Maybe you feel you are overworking to maintain a joy that seemed effortless before.
You’re taking on more to make life feel full.
Trying to keep up with the things around you instead of that working for your good.
You feel like a lot depends on you.
The weight has gotten taxing and you’re trying to figure it all out on your own.

It’s easier than you think to lose focus.

Just as easy as it is to drift away in a marriage or for your kids to stop sharing their life with you.
No matter how much we want to follow God or how much we love Him there are things pulling for our attention.

But a true test of love is in action.

Can you pick Him even before you look at your phone in the morning?
Can you share your life with Him throughout the day?
Can you desire Him more than friends, family, or love/approval from anywhere else?
Can you make the decision daily to choose Him?
Can our love for Him be seen?
Can our love for Him go beyond words?
Can we live this life with Him?

You don’t fall out of love with someone, you stop trying to love them.
Love is not a feeling, it’s a choice.

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The beautiful part about all of this is that God is so faithful and His love is deeper than anything we know. And because of that, immediately after we cry out to Him to bring us back to Him, He does.

Like Peter in Matthew 14:22-36 when he called out to Jesus because he removed his focus from Jesus toward the storm (life). Jesus immediately reached out and saved him.

We have a God who NEVER leaves us. (Deut. 31:6)
One Who promises to be with us even if our father and mother leave us. (Psalms 27:10)
A God Who allowed His only Son to pay the debt we owed so that we can come back into a relationship with Him. (John 3:16)

It is never too late, as long as there is still breath in your lungs, to call out to God.

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The problem is our view on why we need to call out to Him.

It isn’t to escape the gates of hell (though we do),
it isn’t to follow a bunch of rules put in place by an authority, and it isn’t to lose out on the “good life”.

We call out to Him because He created this world perfect and that was ruined and it hurt His heart to see His creation walk around lost to true life and abused by Satan’s lies, so He saved us from the darkness this fallen world offers.
He saved us from a life without love, a life without peace, a life without Him.

We call out to Him because life makes sense with Him guiding it.
Life feels full with Him filling it.
Life has joy, peace, and purpose because He is in it.

We call out to Him because we need Him.
Because He IS life.

So I pray that if you have found this and have read this far that you would just take a moment to look to God and ask Him into your life.
Tell Him how much you desire the life He originally intended for you.
Tell Him how you long for the love only He can offer. 
Tell Him to show you how to keep Him first and watch how everything else starts to fall beautifully into place.

Guys, God is good and I pray you come to see that for yourself.

Life happens, and we get distracted, but never stay there.
Come back to Him.
Life makes sense with Him at the wheel.

PSALMS 32: 3-7

When I refused to confess my sin,
    my body wasted away,
    and I groaned all day long.
 Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.
    My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. 

Finally, I confessed all my sins to you
    and stopped trying to hide my guilt.
I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.”
    And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. 

Therefore, let all the godly pray to you while there is still time,
    that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment.
For you are my hiding place;
    you protect me from trouble.
    You surround me with songs of victory.