“So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.” Colossians 3:1-2 (The Message)
I shared in He Sees My Heart Even When… that God wants to be invited into our messes, our sin, because God is the redeemer. The following phrase was spoken by someone in our Bible study: “He can take our messes and turn them into messages” if we will invite Him in to do some spring cleaning.
As I was reflecting about my deliberate binge recently (purposeful sin), I realized that while the external factor appeared to be emotional eating, it really could be summed up as a wrong focus. How many times do we allow ourselves to get distracted with the symptoms of our situations instead of focusing on what God is doing to get us out of our situation? As I was sitting here today writing blogs, sharing about the various ways God has reinforced His protection and provision, encouragement through others in similar circumstances who have reached the other side, and remembered the different lessons God is teaching me, my faith muscles were again being strengthened.
My biggest prayer during this adventure is for me to learn the lesson God wants me to learn quickly so I don’t get sidetracked and wind up in the desert for forty years. When I choose to have the wrong focus, that’s one way Satan allows me to be sidetracked. You may wonder why I’m being so hard on myself when it’s just “eating a little too much.” But it isn’t. Not really.
God wants my heart – all of my heart. When I take my focus off God, when I get sidetracked with anything that isn’t pleasing to God, then my heart is divided and that is setting myself up for a long trek in the desert.
I want to keep my focus where it belongs – strengthening my faith, growing in ways that please my Father, and continuing to move in the direction that God wants me to take.
I’m so thankful God not only loved me when I invited Him into my binge but continues to loves me as I am working my way completely back on the path He wants me to take. I know that His love was what reminded me of how far He’s brought our family in just four short weeks. I also know that if we stay focused, the blessings He chooses to give when this adventure is finally over will be “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,” (Ephesians 3:20, NIV)
© Cheri Swalwell 2015