Eyes on the Prize

Psalm 121
1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2 My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
8 The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Eyes on the Prize

A friend recently posted on Facebook that "Procrastination is the thief of time and love." If this is a true statement (and I tend to agree) then a follow up could be "and Distraction is the accomplice that lets Procrastination work without interruption."

It is so easy to become distracted. Life has a way of requiring full attention in 27 different directions at the same time. There are bills to pay, kids to feed and clothe, parents to attend to, work to accomplish, friends to check on, emails to write and read, pills to take, exercise to fit in, and of course, important shows to watch on TV. From the time we wake until we try to go to sleep, there is a barage of 'look at me! see about me' from countless directions in our lives.

And in all this noise, some of it quite compelling, is it any wonder we have trouble hearing from God?

Yep, included in all those distractions is the voice of God. Despite being God, He can get hard to hear. See, God gave us a free will, so following Him and His call in your life is a choice. A daily choice. Like tuning out the noise around you in order to concentrate on a conversation with one person, you have to choose to listen to God. And just like when children focus in on a cartoon to the point where they can't hear you screaming their name at the top of your lungs, we need to turn not only our ear, but our eye toward God in order to avoid the trap of the distractions.

Dear ones, please hear my heart. It's not that the phone call and your children and your job aren't important. It's just that the help and the way to handle all these things is on the other side of your obedience to Christ. Our advisary understands implicitly that once we take our focus off Christ and Him crucified, that we are set to fall away from His guidence, His protection and His Lordship. When we lose focus, we walk out of relationship and into real captivity.

Hold up, Sis. Steph. Didn't Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, call himeself a prisoner of Christ (Ephesians 3:1)? Sounds like captivity to me.

Yes. In following Christ, Paul became a prisoner in that he was compelled to share the Gospel and preach Christ. But his captivity was from his relationship in Christ. He was a prisoner of love frankly. That's a far cry from the captivity that awaits you when you walk into the hands of your advisary.

Paul talked about dying to self daily in order to fulfill his calling. He made the daily choice of serving Christ, despite being in a physical prison, despite being despised by those who served with him, despite being left alone, shipwrecked, tortured and exiled. Despite all the distractions, he chose to focus on Christ. He also became the vessel through which most of the world came to hear about Christ. Whether those that heard him loved his message or despised his message, they ended up talking about Christ.

Your advisary doesn't care what you do so long as you do not to the will of Christ. No matter what it takes, he is determined to keep you as far from your calling in Christ as he possibly can. That's why Sis. Soandso said that thing to you in church that made you stay away. That's why it always seems like the only thing that preacher talks about is money. That's why every time you think you're ready to give your life to Christ, something happens that makes you doubt if He is even real in your life. You're being distracted on purpose, with the purpose of not serving Christ.

So, when the troubles or even the good trappings of life (why do you think they are called 'trappings') seem to be keeping you from focusing on your life in Christ, stop and look to the hills. Your help doesn't come from drugs, food, other people, new clothes, a new job, alcohol, your kids, or the TV. Your help doesn't even come from this email/blog entry. Your help comes from the Lord.

If you are a regular reader and you are not active in a church, or, more importantly, have never confessed Christ as Savior, I encourage you to get affiliated somewhere where the Word of God is preached without reservation. I offer Fellowship as such a place.

Your salvation is in believing in your heart and in confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9). There's no special prayer, there's no list of things you have to do first. But growth in Christ comes from working in your calling and being discipled in His teaching. We have room and are ready to celebrate your new birth and help your grow in this most important of all realtionships.

Philipians 3:13-14
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Peace.
Evg. Stephanie Robinson

Lifeline is the evangelistic ministry of Fellowship Church in Jonesboro, GA.

The church website is http://www.fcchosengeneration.com/.
Feel free to share this message. For questions or to subscribe, send an email to fellowship_lifeline@yahoo.com. You can reach the church at chosen.gen@att.net.

Fellowship Church
Where Passions Become Reality
Because you are a CHOSEN GENERATION!
455 Hwy 138, Ste C
Jonesboro, GA 30238
Alton Watkins, Pastor