The Ultimate Challenge

Today as I was reading my morning devotions I was really touched by this thought: "I want to be central in your entire being. When your focus is firmly on Me, My peace displaces fear and worry." There has been quite a lot going on in my life lately and at times, my focus does tend to wander. I know I need to keep my eyes and my mind on Jesus but this life makes it so hard sometimes! Fear and worry do start to creep in when I'm not focused on my Lord.

I laid the book and my Bible down to check on the boys and when I came back I read the pages that the book had accidentally flipped to. There were two more sentences that really stuck out to me. On May 21st it said,  "The only remedy [to your problems] is to switch your focus from the problem to My presence." And on May 22nd the devotion said, "Don't let the impact of the world shatter your thinking or draw you away from focusing on Me. The ultimate challenge is to keep fixing your eyes upon Me, no matter what is going on around you."

I realized after reading those nuggets of wisdom that this truly is the ultimate challenge. Keeping our focus on God when life is throwing us curve balls is very difficult. I honestly believe that Satan uses these "curve balls" to try to distract us. Thankfully, God never moves. If our minds wander and we allow fear and worry to creep in, He is still right there, waiting on us to return. No matter what's going on in our lives, no matter who is hurting us or what people are saying about us, God is right here offering His peace and wisdom. Now if I could only learn to keep my eyes on Him!

Today I am thankful that even though I often fail at the ultimate challenge, God still offers His peace and comfort. He is the remedy to my problems and He will remove the doubt and the fear I'm feeling. I am also thankful that as I am enduring something very hurtful in my life right now, God is teaching me. He is proving that when I focus on Him, He will not let me down. I have felt His perfect peace invade my heart today as the worry and fear disappeared. Our God is so amazing and He deserves our unwavering focus!