This morning we continue our series entitled, “Refined Focus”, with a mini-series within it entitled “Focusing on the Word”. I had a conversation with someone yesterday about Today’s Word, in general, and about this series, in particular. As we talked about the power of focus and the power of have a mindset that is open to the things of God. The scripture I used in yesterday’s message came up. Solomon said, “Above all, be careful what you think because your thoughts control your life” (Prov 4:23). We had a good conversation about it. Read this scripture again and meditate it for a minute. Your entire life — what you are passionate about, what you love, what you choose to pursue, what you give your time to — are all manifestations of the way you think. Sure, God has a major part. He provided the grace for you to do, and even think, everything you do and think. But from a practical perspective, as it relates to you, your actions are direct manifestations of your thoughts. You can’t even live by faith unless you set your mind to do it. Your must have a mindset that lends itself to a life of faith.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
- God is not surprised by anything you do or face. God has all knowledge. He made plans for you based on His foreknowledge of your decisions. He made those plans by His unearned and amazing grace.
- God’s plans for you are never the issue. He loves you with an everlasting love, He planned to bless you before the world began, and He has already made His grace available to you so you can maximize your purpose and potential.
- You were born WHEN you were born and WHERE you were born because of WHY you were born. You are on this planet to accomplish God’s divine purpose. In so doing, you glorify His name.
- While God does all He does for us by His unearned grace, He requires us to accept, access, embrace and experience His grace with our faith.
- Faith believes God’s plans, even without any sense-realm evidence, and faith launches out to attempt the seemingly impossible simply based on the grace of God.
- God has this amazing life planned for you and He is waiting for you to launch out in pursuit of it with your faith. But you will never release your faith for something you can’t get your mind past. Your thoughts control your life. If your heart says “Yes”, but your mind keeps saying “No”, your mind will keep your heart from your future.
- Most of the time faith does not make sense. God is spiritual and not sensual, so He does not need to make sense. But when you come to God your mind only wants to pursue things that make sense. The more you study the Bible and the more your mind is renewed, the more you condition your mind to accept the things of God and actually launch out into the realm of the impractical, irrational, impossible and unthinkable.
- God wants us to get to the point where we make a rational decision that irrational things in God are worth pursuing. Until we get to this point we will never consistently operate in a faith that accesses God’s grace.
Closing Confession: Father, this is a season of refined focus for me. You love me with an everlasting love. You made plans for me before the world began. You want to bless me richly. You offer me Your best by Your unearned grace. You now command and require me to live by faith. I must use my faith to access and experience Your grace. However, faith does not make sense. To live by faith I must get past the fact that Your pursuits are often irrational, unreasonable, impractical and sometimes flat-out impossible. That’s why I meditate and medicate on Your Word. I SET my mind to the things above. I develop a mindSET that lives by faith. I am conditioned to pursuing the impossible. The impossible is possible for me, because I am a believer and not a doubter. I walk by faith and not by reason. Living this way I will do the impossible and leave a mark in this world that will never be erased. Not by my power, but only by Your grace. I declare this by faith! In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
