Thought For Today: “Where Should Our Focus Be?”

Have you ever been to the circus and watched the lion tamers? We see them with their whips and pistols. But neither of those are the most important tool in the lion tamer’s arsenal. The stool is by far the most important. Holding the stool with its four legs pointed at the lion paralyzes him because the lion tries to focus on all four legs at once, thus fragmenting its attention, making it relatively tame.

Like the lion, fragmenting our attention also paralyzes us, and this is usually through the various religious rules and regulations we allow in our lives. Therefore, by stating the first and greatest commandment is to love God, Jesus is taking the stool out of Satan’s hands helping us live a focused life.

Jesus takes away what the world wants us to focus on and places it squarely upon a living, loving relationship with God.

When Jesus was pressed for an answer as to which commandment was the greatest, Jesus answered in a surprising way saying that it begins and ends in having a love relationship with God.

“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.’” (Matthew 22:37-38)

The writer of Hebrews tells us to keep looking therefore to Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).