Change Your Focus and Start Looking Up

 

Several months ago our oldest daughter told me that I needed to look at the clouds with my binoculars. She said that looking at them was like looking at a 3D photo. She said it was almost a spiritual experience for her.

I have tried to remember to try it, but I stay so busy that I remember the idea when I’m in the bed or in the car and couldn’t act on it. Finally yesterday morning I got outside with my binoculars to try it. The only problem was that the sky was a clear blue, not a cloud in sight. So I began to look around. I focused on tree trunks and fallen limbs. I looked and saw what I thought was a small fawn but when I focused better it was simply a clump of dead leaves. I saw a spot on the siding of our house that needs repair. I saw a broken brick in the yard. Everywhere I focused on the things around me I saw something wrong. I decided to go inside and try again later. Too many things around me looked decayed, dilapidated and disheartening.

I hear God speaking to my heart, through the binoculars and through the words of a dear, dear friend, who had texted me earlier that morning, “Quit looking at the things around you. Start looking up.”

You see beloved when we walk with God we have a beautiful world to look at. But sometimes that world gets distorted. Others disappoint us, fail us, dismiss us. We too get our focus on the wrong thing. We want accolades, God gives opportunities. We want commendation, God allows humiliation. We keep looking at the things going on around us and at the people around us and we get upset. We get to thinking about our present suffering. We’re hurting and we don’t like it. Others are uplifted and we are pushed down. We get frantic and will continue to spiral into more and more agony as long as we focus on the things around us.

We pray and we ask God to change things. Then He speaks and He says change your focus. Quit looking around and start looking up.

Oh beloved, God is speaking to your heart. When you look up into My Eyes you will focus on Me. When you are focused on Me you will walk in security and faith like you’ve never known. The Look Up is magnificent even when the look around is discouraging. The look into My eyes reveals My heart about you. The look around is confusing. You may see how others feel about you and mistake that for My feelings. You may see problems like finances, health and heartache when you look around and mistake those circumstances for my condemnation of you. But when you look at Me you will see that even when you are going through “things” I AM in the process of making all things work together for your good.

I am praying that I will focus only on the Lord. Won’t you look to Him as well? His promises for me and for you are that He loves us and He’s for us and that’s all we’ll ever need to focus on between now and heaven to find our peace, our joy and our calling.

Psalm 145:15 The eyes of all wait for You [looking, watching, and expecting] and You give them their food in due season. AMP

Isaiah 17:7 Then at last the people will look to their Creator and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.

Micah 7:7 As for me, I look to the Lord for help. I wait confidently for God to save me, and my God will certainly hear me.

Hebrews 11:27 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.

2 Thessalonians 3:16 Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all! NAS