Focus by Pastor E.A Adeboye
OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL
DATE: WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 23RD 2024
THEME: FOCUS
MEMORISE: Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
Proverbs 4:25
READ: Colossians 3:1-3; Hebrews 12:1-2:
Colossians 3:1-3:
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Hebrews 12:1-2:
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
MESSAGE
In 2 Kings 2:10, Elijah was basically telling Elisha, “Son, you have asked a hard thing that I can’t give you, but God can give you. Just don’t be distracted, stay focused.” Hebrews 12:1-2 says that you should lay aside every weight and look unto Jesus. Be focused.
The devil will try to put many weights on you to distract you, but you must stay focused. People may criticise you, lie against you, and say negative things about you, but you must remain focused. Some years ago, people were criticising me almost everywhere. l ignored all of them and remained focused on what God called me to do. By God’s grace, I am still marching on, but no one knows where some of the people that were criticising me are now.
The weights that the devil will try to use to sway your focus will not only be from people that dislike you; some of them will be from people that love you. Their praises, for example, can be a weight that you must set aside so that you do not lose focus.
A man once offended a great king and should have been beheaded. However, the king decided to give him a test. The king told him to carry water in a spoon and walk for some metres. If he spilt a single drop of water, he was to be beheaded. The king asked some people to stand on his left-hand side and criticise him; they were to rain abuses on him and keep booing him. On his right-hand side, the king asked some other people to stand and keep praising and hailing the man until he got to the finish line. The man started walking, and the people on both sides did what they were told to do with all their strength. At last, the man got to the finish line without spilling any water. The king asked him, “Which of these people helped you succeed?” He responded, “None of them. I was carrying my life in my hands, and so I did not listen to either of them.”
Beloved, you are carrying your life in your hands; don’t let anyone make you lose your focus.
ACTION POINT
Set aside every weight that the devil is using to distract you and focus on achieving God’s purpose for your life.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Luke 7-8
AUTHOR: PASTOR E. A ADEBOYE
HYMN 10: IN CHRIST ALONE
1. In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.
2. In Christ alone! – who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe.
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied –
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.
3. There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine –
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.
4. No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand:
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.
