Your Focus Determines Your Forecast

Have you ever spent any amount of time with a negative person?
I don’t mean the occasional “complainer”… I would think that is descriptive of all of us to some degree.  But I mean a “chronic complainer.”  You know the one.  The person who simply cannot find joy in anything.  The person who consistently seems burdened by everything.  The person who finds fault and disgust in all situations.

And truth be told, being in close proximity to this kind of negativity is exhausting.  And painful.  And damaging.

Because it’s one thing to express an occasional disappointment, but it’s a dreadful disease to enunciate frequent disaster.

I was watching a story on Instagram the other day about a family who lives in the Nashville area, and they were discussing the affects of the tornado that hit that part of country, leaving a trail of destruction and devastation in it’s wake.

The man, who’s story I was watching, said that, for them, it was not a “sit back and pray for them” response, it was a “jump in and help” reaction that automatically overtook them.  As he was videoing his wife chopping trees, transporting resources, and cleaning debris, he said, “For us this is what ‘being the church’ means.”  For them, it was a choice: view the devastation with fear and animosity, or view the assault upon their city as an opportunity to “do good in the face of evil.”

1 Peter 3:11 says this, “…let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.”

Being peace-seekers is what it means to look more like Jesus.  Oh how I love that it doesn’t just tell us to remove evil, but to REPLACE it with PEACE.

Hebrews 11:27 caught my eye the other day.  Out of nowhere, really, and at first glance relating nothing to this Nashville family’s story.

But take a look!
Hebrews 11:27 says this, “It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the One who is invisible.”

And it doesn’t take us long to see the evil all around us.  Sadly, I think we are more often prone to seeing what’s “wrong” over the many things that are “right.”  Unfortunately, many of us are disposed to seeing error, and what’s worse than seeing it, is speaking it.

And I would say it out loud during my prayer time the other day - “We’ve GOT to get better!”
Because our focus determines our forecast.
What we consistently gaze upon will eventually become the reality of the weather conditions we live in.
When we gaze upon the disadvantages, the forecast becomes disappointment.
When we gaze upon failures, the forecast becomes frustration.

But Moses lived differently.
And if he did… so can we!

“He kept right on going”… why?  “because he kept his eyes on the One who is invisible.”

We look into an election year with fear for what could be.
We look at a leader with irritation and loathing at what should be.

But when we do this… we look nothing like Jesus.
When we do this, we've taken our focus off of the wrong thing.
1 John 2:6 says, “Whoever says He (Jesus) abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which He (Jesus) walked.”

Moses made a decision to keep right on going and keep his eyes locked on the One who is still in control.  The One who never disappoints.

Oh how we’ve got to get this right.  It matters far more than we think.

Your focus determines your forecast.
What will it be?  The storm or The Shield?  The destroyer or The Defender?  The pain or the Peacemaker?

External circumstances cannot influence the one who’s eyesight is concentrated on Jesus.