Would you agree that what you focus on expands?
If you do, then it stands to reason that when you focus on God, He becomes bigger than all of your problems, right?
Well I remember in 1994 when I was laid off from my job. Initially I decided I was going to remain positive because I knew God had something better lined up for me so there was no need to worry. And this was despite the fact that we had recently moved to a new home with a much bigger house loan.
However, when the weeks rolled on, I slumped into near depression and I remember Chris coming home from work one evening and shouting at me (something my husband rarely does)… “Pull yourself together! You have your health and all of your limbs so what is your problem!”
I was so angry, I stormed out of the house and went for a walk – I would usually have gone for a drive, but guess what? I’d had a company car and that went with the job!
As I walked, I told God I was justified in having a moan, but then what Chris said started sinking in and I told God I was sorry. I told Him that as much I just wanted this period to end, I would remember to thank Him for all of the good things I had right now, and so this is what I did… I started thanking Him.
When I returned home, I went straight up to what was the music room at the time and as I sat there in front of my keyboard, I felt a strong urge to turn my head to the right and look at the wall. On the wall, there was a plaque that had been there for years – practically unnoticed but now, I was transfixed:
GOD SAID… Don’t look to the bigness of your need Look to the bigness of your God! Your circumstances are hindrances to seeing MY ABILITIES…
If you keep your eyes on your circumstances, the devil will use your circumstances to defeat you and accuse the Word of God…the written and Living Word. YOUR VICTORY is in keeping your eyes on the bigness of your God and His ability. HE HAS PROMISED to take you STEP by STEP… not all at once… But step… By step and… EACH STEP WILL BE A MIRACLE!
~ Morris Cerullo
I had purchased this plaque at a Christian crusade when I was 14 years old and up until that day (age 27), I never understood what it meant. And do you know how many times I attempted to “chuck” that ugly, plastic brown plaque complete with tacky gold embossed writing in the bin? Anybody still got one?
But that day, those words came alive and became my greatest source of inspiration that totally changed my perspective in an instant that evening.
And God is so good that whenever I wasn’t near the plaque to remind myself of what it said, the song by one of our “boy” bands at the time…”Things Can Only Get Better…” would just totally consume every other thought. This wasn’t even my kind of music!
And things really did get better. I began a relationship with God that allowed me to praise Him and recognise His goodness toward me even though the terrain seemed so rough at the time. I was able to pray without waffling, I praised without straining and more importantly, I knew that everything I did, I didn’t do alone. It literally felt as if I had moved from darkness into light.
I tended the garden, cleaned my home, cooked Chris’s meal in preparation for when he arrived home from work. And then one day, 3 months after being made redundant (laid off) – when I least expected it and had given up on any of the companies that had interviewed me wanting to employ me – I received not just 1 job offer, not even 2 job offers, but 3 job offers! From nothing to choice!
What you focus on expands and I learnt back then that the more I focused on God, the more I made Him my friend, the greater the relationship we had, the more I knew I could not fail.
This is intimacy… and I had no idea what this meant in a spiritual sense back then. All I knew was how safe I felt and how the loneliness I experienced after those first few weeks of being out of a job dissipated, and I knew I wasn’t alone.
With real intimacy comes real trust … and I began to trust God more than ever.
Just think about how you feel when you’re with like minded people who encourage you, build you up and share the promises of God with you. Don’t you feel that you can accomplish anything?
Well just think what it feels like when the source of your encouragement is God. You feel formidable! I’m experiencing this right now at 12:15am even as I rewrite this post.
I understand where David was coming from when he said “For by you I can run against a troop, by my God I can leap over a wall… He is a shield to all who trust Him.” Psalm 18: 29-30.
Here’s A Question For You …
How’s your intimacy with God today? What are you focusing on? Is it the size of your bank balance, your sickness, your children, your business, or are you focusing on the Bigness of Your God?
This is where Romans 12:1-2 (see yesterday’s post) takes on a whole new meaning…
When all around you seems chaotic, you can still look to Him for peace, clarity of purpose, clarity in your business and a clear perspective. Because where there is vision, there is hope and where there is hope there is life and where there is life, there is God…
And God never fails.
God Bless YOU.
