It takes a huge commitment to stay focused these days. There are so many moving parts that need our attention and an ever-changing landscape that must be navigated. I’ve never had to work harder to keep the main thing the main thing. We need the wisdom and guidance of Holy Spirit.
The Irregular’s Creed
I am an Irregular. I have no interest in normal, average, balanced living. I was both conceived and have been sent from another world. My orders are clear and non-negotiable – hear and obey at any cost. By mercy and grace, I have been set ablaze, rescued in perfect love, and established in family. I burn to do the will of my Father and to finish it. I am content to run with a handful of like-minded radicals with devoted hearts and a company with crucified ambitions. Silence, solitude, devotion, and concentration are the means by which my soul finds satisfaction. No longer yearning for the credit, the fame, or the fortune. I exist to see the Fulfillment of one great cause – on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.
In worship God gathers his people to himself as centre: “The Lord reigns” (Ps. 93:1). Worship is a meeting at the centre so that our lives are centred in God and not lived eccentrically. We worship so that we live in response to and from this centre, the living God. Failure to worship consigns us to a life of spasms and jerks, at the mercy of every advertisement, every seduction, every siren. Without worship we live manipulated and manipulating lives. We move in either frightened panic or deluded lethargy as we are, in turn, alarmed by spectres and soothed by placebos. If there is no centre, there is no circumference. People who do not worship are swept into a vast restlessness, epidemic in the world, with no steady direction and no sustaining purpose.
It seems being in that place of rest starts with a decision.
Are you seeking Jesus? Where have you been looking for Him? As you begin your day, think through the various places you will be and the people you will be with; and envision Jesus standing next to you in each of those places.
What is your destination? Where are you going? And who’s map are you paying attention to? Tune in to the directions given to you in the Word of God. Listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He’s the best GPS you’ll ever find.
This Advent we look to the Wise Men to teach us where to focus our attention. We set our sights on things above, where God is. We draw closer to Jesus… When our Advent journey ends, and we reach the place where Jesus resides in Bethlehem, may we, like the Wise Men, fall on our knees and adore him as our true and only King.
One of the reasons God allows adversity into our lives is to get our attention.
The more we see things from His perspective, the more our faith rises. The more our faith rises, the more we get the confidence to step out… and when we step out He always meet us there. Choose to lift your head today and see the way God sees.