AN ABUNDANCE FOCUS
There is a principle in abundance thinking that teaches us that whatever we put our focus on we make bigger in our heart and life. Paul would say that there were things he was continually deciding to put in front of him and things he was continually deciding to put behind. He chose to forget those things that were behind and set his focus on God’s prize. Why? Because he knew what he made his focus would become bigger. If we focus on the right thing our faith and love will grow bigger, if we focus on the wrong thing our fear and disappointment for people will grow bigger. Another way of saying this is “what gets your attention gets you!”
I heard the story of how a certain snake captures and eats birds. It could never move fast enough to catch one so it just gets under the tree and stares at it. The stare mesmerizes the bird and causes it to unconsciously move closer to the snake until, “Whomp!” The snake strikes and eats the bird. This is what the enemy is constantly trying to do by distracting us with negative things. Jesus tells us that if “our eye is single, our body will be full of light.”
In another place, Jesus warns us to not stare at the speck in our brother’s eye when we could have a log in our eye. (Matthew 7). What I’ve found is that if I start focusing on what is negative in people, the speck or fault they have can grow into a “log size” resentment or bad attitude towards them. Jesus says, “get the log out of your eye.” That log is your focus on their negative issues.
Plenty Too Much believers intentionally choose what they want to be big in their heart towards people and circumstances they are in. They take to heart Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.” They strategically untangle the thoughts about people and situations that they are going to choose to put behind them and the ones they are going to put in front of them.
I remember a strange church service I attended. They invited someone to introduce the speaker. This man went about 15 minutes chasing rabbits and saying what I judged as weird things. I was so frustrated by the time the speaker came up. When the speaker started, he began by taking 3 or 4 minutes to tell us a few stories about beautiful things the person who introduced him had done for Jesus on the mission field and tell us what a great man he was. I realized I chose to put in front of me the negative I saw, the speaker chose to put in front of him the positive he chose to remember. I repented and asked God to give me that kind of focus.