Margaret Feinberg
Sep 16 2010
September 16th, 2010
Primary Focus
By Margaret Feinberg
"Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith."
Hebrews 12:1-2 TNIV
A STORY IS TOLD about a young boy who lived in a quiet village. On the edge of the village was a grassy knoll where the boy would go to sit, relax and look at a rock formation in the distance which strangely resembled an old man—complete with oversized nostrils and deep wrinkles around the eyes and lips. As the boy grew into a man, he often returned to sit and gaze at the rock carving. One day, while passing through the village, a tourist stopped and asked him, "Did anyone ever tell you that you look like the face on the side of the mountain?"
Whatever we love the most will eventually shape our lives. We become what we focus on.
If our primary concern is money, accomplishment, power or ourselves, then selfishness and self-absorption are natural affects. Eventually, like the rock formation on the outskirts of the village, we will take on the likeness of the object of our desire.
If we gaze on Him, look at His beauty, meditate on His Word, find a grassy knoll in our daily routine on which to escape the demands of our lives and learn to gaze on Him, then we cannot help but begin to reflect His image.
What or who do you spend most of your time focusing on? How does it shape your thoughts and behaviors?
This
devotion is adapted from an article in RELEVANT
magazine. Get
your own copy.