I don’t remember what my driver’s education teacher looked like, but I do remember one lesson he taught us. He told us to be careful while taking our eyes off the road. He said when we shift our focus, we will pull the car to the side.. I didn’t believe him until it was my turn to drive. He asked me to check my side mirrors and blind spots going down the highway. I looked over my left shoulder, and then I felt the steering wheel pull to the right. I looked back forward and he had turned it back to straight. We discussed it, but I still didn’t believe it. The next time I checked the sides, I was sure I didn’t drift, but he told me to look forward. There I was pulling to the side. I learned that wherever I look, I tend to head that direction.
In 1 Samuel 17 Goliath was taunting the army of Israel. Every time he came out to challenge them, they fled in fear. They would ask each other, “Have you seen this man?” Their focus was on the size of Goliath. However when David saw him, he didn’t panic. He looked back at what God had done for him in the past. The Lord had helped him defeat and bear and a lion. His confidence in God was high. He offered to fight the giant. As he approached Goliath, David said, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted” (AMP). He saw the size, the weapons and the experience of Goliath, but didn’t drift or take his focus off of the one who would give him victory. David triumphed that day, not because he was a better warrior, but because he kept his focus on God.
In Psalm 16:8 David wrote, “I have set the Lord continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” Keeping the Lord continually before you as your focus isn’t a passive act. We live in a world full of distractions that try to get our attention or get in front of us. We face our own giants that seem to daunting to face. They have the ability to strike fear in our hearts the way Goliath did. Are you going to keep the problem continually before you or the Lord? What you look at and focus on is what you will drift towards. In an unstable world and in unstable times, we will find strength, victory and stabilization by keeping our focus on the Lord.
Photo by Eugene Chystiakov on Unsplash
Devotions by Chris Hendrix 