It’s a choice what we choose to focus on. I remember sweating bullets because our passports weren’t here yet before our much needed family vacation. It should have arrived since I started the process back in February. But 3 days before we were to leave, at the end of June, they were not in our hands. I did a lot of worrying. I was pretty anxious. I was frustrated also that the break we planned might need to be cancelled and replanned at the last minute. I didn’t need this. Work seemed to pile up and all I could think about was leaving.

I was focused on the things that were seen. Really, really focused. And, I couldn’t do much about it.  Trust me, I am extremely resourceful- but there was nothing more to do but to wait and see.

Well, the passports came and we went on our trip and came back without a hitch. Now I wonder what it would have been like if I wasn’t so stressed out beforehand? It was obvious I had no inner peace. I realized when I had time away that I’d lost focus on what truly mattered most to me. Or what I wanted to matter most to me. I want to be rooted in the Lord but somehow, along the way I shifted focus onto other things. Things that ultimately don’t really matter in the long run.  I’ve experienced again the results of life focused on the things seen rather than the things unseen and eternal. I want to get back to that.

I choose to get back to that. And I know for me to do that it means I need to regularly spend time with God, my source of life and true peace. So I’ve been doing that again and it’s been good. For me, I’ve learned It’s not about WHAT I’m doing but HOW (and WHY) I’m doing what I’m doing. It’s not enough to be in a role where I’m seen as a minister of God to others.  I knew that I needed more personal time with God for myself, for our relationship, and for my soul.  And it takes a choice for me to follow through with that.  Being with the Lord is my focus again right now and each moment and every day I get to make this choice over and over again. This is the spiritual battle y’all.  The struggle is real and no one is immune. I’ve enlisted God’s help with this as well as my renewed refocusing upon the Lord. (Reading all of 2 Cor 4 blessed me this morning as I thought about what’s been happening with me.)

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

2 Corinthians 4:16‭-‬18 NASB1995

How about you? How’s your focus these days? How do you maintain your inner peace?

Sincerely,

Sejana