Kingdom Focus

So many things come to pull our attention away from Jesus. Some of those things can be good things and some of them not so good things. Distractions, trials, people, situations, goals, and aspirations are all things that can take away our focus. Anything that has our attention more than Jesus has taken our focus.

Focus: the center of interest or activity; the state or quality of having or producing clear visual definition; pay particular attention to.

What is your center of interest or activity? Is your vision clear concerning the things of God and His Kingdom? Do you pay particular attention to God’s word and the things He instructs you to do on a daily basis? Honestly ask yourself these things. Whatever your focus is on is what drives you. It is your motivating factor. If your focus is on social media and staying up to date with all the latest videos and fads, then that’s what you’ll find yourself striving to live up to; that will become your heart’s main desire. If your focus is on making money, getting a degree, getting married, etc., then that’s all you will think about; it will dictate your decisions and actions. Now I want to make it clear that there’s nothing wrong with desiring to one day be married or working hard and being focused on doing well in school to get a degree or excelling at work (as believers I believe we should strive to work with a spirit of excellence in ALL that we do) but when those things become your main motivation and the reason why you live, that’s when it begins to be a problem. When you finally obtain those things you will find out that there is no life in them.

Whatever you are focused on gives you vision. For example: if your focus is on getting married, everything you do will revolve around one day getting married – you will work out and eat right so you can look good for your future hubby/wifey, you will work on your credit to prepare for marriage, you will build up your income to save up for your future wedding/marriage, etc. You will do all these things for what you are focused on instead of doing them because you enjoy it, want to better yourself, or simply because you want to please the Lord. You will go to great lengths for whatever your focus is on.

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”  -Matthew 5:16

When God and His Kingdom are your focus, you will go to great lengths to please Him. You will look to Him for the vision for your life, work, and relationships and He will dictate every area of your life because you seek Him. He will not just be a part of your life but your whole life. When you have kingdom focus you will make it your business to find out what He desires for you in every season and be about His Kingdom business. When God gives you vision for your life that vision revolves around helping to build His Kingdom… no matter your occupation, you know that your main purpose for being there is to win souls and be a light in the darkness. If you are in school, you understand that you are called to be the salt on that school campus. If you are a stay at home mom, you know that God has called you to raise up Kingdom ambassadors, so you intentionally train your children up in the ways of God as you care for them. Those who are Kingdom focused use every opportunity given to them to help win souls and build the Kingdom as God leads. And as you focus on God and building His Kingdom He will add things to you that you need as they are needed. Notice Matthew 6:33 says He will “add” these things (what you will eat, drink, wear – the job you need, the husband/wife you’ve been waiting for, the pay raise you desire, etc.) to you. You don’t need to seek (focus) on those things, all God asks you to focus on is His Kingdom and His righteousness (His ways).

Having Kingdom focus enables you to know where and how God wants you to spend your energy. It enables you to do God’s will in each season. A lot of people don’t know their purpose because their focus is off. They are focused on everything but God who is the giver of purpose. And some know their purpose but won’t even be completely effective in it because they’re not leaning into God and seeking Him FIRST concerning how to go about it, instead they’ve been completely consumed about accomplishing the task. If your focus is not on God even when it comes to walking out your purpose, you will lose God’s vision for it and instead begin to walk that thing out in your flesh, never being as effective for the Kingdom as God desires for you to be because you’ve taken it into your own hands. Anything that God asks us to do will ALWAYS require us to seek Him continuously to get it done. Some of us get the vision/assignment from God and then we run with it leaving God behind. Then later down the line, we wonder why it just doesn’t feel right or why it feels like God is no longer with you. You need the vision and assignment Giver in order to fulfill that vision and assignment. FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS on Him!!

I believe if every person who claimed to be a Christian had their focus on God’s Kingdom, the world would be in much better condition because we would ALL be intentional about shining our light; we would truly be world changers! But we can’t shine our light and impact the world for Jesus when we are so entangled in the things of this world. We can’t do that when we are so consumed by all the crazy world events taking place every day (these world events should fuel our prayer life, not have us glued to them). We must realize that we are front-line soldiers in some way or the other; someone somewhere is looking at our lives because we profess Christ, so the enemy will bring just about anything our way to get us to not be focused. And it’s when we’re not focused that we can’t pray and be watchful like we should. We won’t be as alert to the things taking place in the spiritual realm and therefore the enemy will try to sneak all sorts of things in while we’re not “watching”!

“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”  -1 Peter 5:8, NLT

As I wrote this blog it convicted me as well. Imagine all the Kingdom opportunities we may have missed while we weren’t focused on Him. The souls that needed to be ministered to, the things that God is trying to get us to see or understand, but our focus is so off… So I implore you as I implore myself, be focused but be focused on the right thing – Jesus Christ and His Kingdom.  Jesus is coming back soon, but while we wait we must watch, pray, and build with our focus on Him, not on the things of this world!  ❤

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”  -Mathew 6:33