Where We Focus is How We Live

Yesterday, at yoga we were doing a lot of balancing poses. I’ve learned to do several things to not lose my balance. The instructor usually reminds us to hold in our abdomen, shoulders back and down, glutes tight and ribs lifted. What the instructors don’t always tell you is it’s also really important what you focus on; that’s what helps me the most. I have to quit looking at myself in the mirror and focus instead on either an object in the lower part of the mirror or several feet in front of me on the floor. For some poses I may even need to find a focal point straight down or just a few feet in front of me on the floor.  Some instructors will challenge me to close my eyes while holding a pose. Wow! What a huge difference that makes! It throws me off balance every time.

Yesterday while I was doing this I realized this same thing happens in my life. If I’m focused too much on myself, others or the world I will lose my balance. If I close my eyes to myself, others and the world I will lose my balance. But, if I fix my gaze on Jesus I can stand tall, steady and sturdy; perfectly balanced.

Freeze Tag

(Please see my article “He Touched Me” for part one.)

One Sunday my Pastor’s sermon was called “Freeze Tag”. When you were a kid, did you ever play the game freeze tag? It’s just like playing tag, one person is “it” and runs around, trying to tag the others, the only difference is once you are tagged, you must freeze in that position. You remain that way until one of the other people that aren’t “it” come and touch you and unfreeze you, then you are free to run around again. Well my life related to this game of freeze tag, as I’m sure many other’s do. At a point in my life I was touched and frozen. The part of me that was frozen didn’t grow up and also didn’t want to feel because of the pain I was trying to avoid. I needed to find ways to numb my feelings. People get frozen for different reasons, either for one reason or for a combination of reasons. I think mine was a combination. I had really low self-esteem and self worth; I had what I call a “soil of shame” and a “root of rejection”. These were brought into my life for various reasons.

“…For you shall forget the shame of your youth…” Isaiah 54:4

When I heard the sermon Freeze Tag something happened inside of me. Monday, I decided to quit smoking pot, I was going to call my Pastor and speak with him about the sermon and realized Monday was his day off. I didn’t call him that day and I didn’t quit drugs, but I did only smoke one joint (instead of the usual 8!). Tuesday came and I got up my nerve and called my Pastor. He was so gracious! I poured it all out, I told him all the things I was ashamed of and how helpless I was to stop on my own. I just wanted to live for Jesus-completely! He talked to me about my concerns of quitting and starting a new life, he prayed with me and that was the day I quit!

“Confess to one another therefore your faults (your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins) and pray [also] for one another, that you may be healed and restored [to a spiritual tone of mind and heart]. The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].” James 5:16 AMP

Once you’re frozen in life, you need a touch to get defrosted just like in the game. The difference being in the game anyone other than the person that is “it” can touch you, but in life, it has to be Jesus. He comes and touches that frozen part of you and you’re defrosted. That part of you is now allowed to grow and to feel. It’s a difficult process. Even if you are supernaturally delivered like I was from the addictive substance, there are still a lot of things you have to do in the aftermath of it. For me, the part that was frozen was my emotions; I truly didn’t know how to feel, or what I was feeling. Making decisions was hard; I didn’t know what my opinions were. I cried very easily because my emotions were right on the surface. I wasn’t used to feeling, so when I did feel it was really intense.

“Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And there was a woman there who for eighteen years had had an infirmity caused by a spirit (a demon of sickness). She was bent completely forward and utterly unable to straighten herself up or to look upward. And when Jesus saw her, He called (her to Him) and said to her, Woman, you are released from your infirmity! Then He laid (His) hands on her and instantly she was made straight, and she recognized and thanked and praised God.” Luke 13:10-13 AMP

This sums up how Jesus touched me. I was frozen in life always looking down, unable to look up because the things of the world held me in bondage. Jesus touched me and I wasn’t frozen any more, I could look up and see Jesus, look Him right in the eye and know that He loved me, He healed me from my infirmity!

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds [curing their pains and their sorrows].” Psalm 147:3 AMP

Anyone can be used by Jesus to be “Jesus in the skin” to someone else, let Him use you today. Let Him use your former pain and shame to minister to others. Help Him set the captives free.

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound” Isaiah 61:1 NKJV

“Instead of your [former] shame you shall have a twofold recompense…” Isaiah 61:7a AMP

“who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” II Corinthians 1:4 RSV
(Continued in my next article “The Battle Belongs to the Lord”)

Disordered Results Come From Big Picture Blindness

Why is it so hard for us to seek the Kingdom of God first?
Why is it so hard for us to break the things that were programmed into us as kids?
Why is it so hard for us to see the “big picture, when we make choices?

These are things that have been on my heart. My boyfriend was talking to me about his job and we got on the subject of how much his job means to him. I’ve always seen in him that his job and money are his number one priority. I have felt like I was the number one person in his life, but not the number one thing. His behavior shows it is his job and/or money that’s number one to him. He said the way he looks at work, is because of the way that he was raised. He was raised to “work hard or not eat”, “work hard to provide”, “work hard to make sure his wife and/or family have nice things”. That all sounds well and good, but it can be a form of idolatry.

When anything that is not of God or of His Kingdom comes first, then it’s idolatry. To some it’s their work, others it’s what people think of them, compliments/praise, how they look, what they wear, social status/success, how their kids/family look, the grades gotten at school, TV, videos, many things can become idolatry in our lives. Pity and selfishness is idolatry, because they can take over our lives and consume us, we are so focused on us, we are out of balance and it becomes idolatry.

“But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.” Matthew 6:33 AMP

We don’t always see the big picture when we make choices. I asked my boyfriend about the way he was raised–to work many hours and be the provider, etc. I wondered where that came from, he said that his Dad worked many hours when he was a kid and he was taught that’s what men did. I asked him what kind of relationship his mom and dad had; what kind of relationship his dad had with each of his kids, his answer was that his dad didn’t have a relationship with any of them. The relationships were non-existent. That’s the big picture, if you take the work habits from your dad, you are going to get the relationship stuff too, it is all one big package, it goes together, somehow we get blind to that. We get the “disordered” side of the behavior too, it comes with it.

Parents do their best to mold and shape morals and values into their kids. I know my parents grew up during the depression and it was hard for my dad to throw away anything that was good. I have some of that behavior as well. However, there is a balance to everything and we can find that balance in our lives with God’s help.

“Be well balanced, (temperate, sober of mind,) be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring (in fierce hunger), seeking someone to seize upon and devour. Withstand him; be firm in faith (against his onset–rooted, established, strong, immovable, and determined)…” I Peter 5:8-9. AMP

If we have balance in our lives, it’s spiritual warfare which helps us to fight off and resist the devil at his onset. It is so easy for us to get out of balance with things, even ministry and what we call “church work”. The devil would rather see us busy and out of balance, even with work at the church, attending groups, bible studies, prayer meetings, etc. than to spend quality time with the Lord.

This next week, I challenge you to look for the “big picture” behind your behaviors. What are you doing that brings undesirable things into your life, or leaves out the quality things that are desirable. What areas are out of balance?

Until next time, God bless you and stay balanced.