There was the one thing that I struggled with early on in my career though - I was fearful of being hit by the ball. I remember our coach going over with us in practice time and time again, "Focus on the ball ....you'll be sure to get a hit". I seemed to have a focus problem...for as soon as I would step into the batter's box my first thought always seemed to be, "Can I make it through this at bat without getting hit by the ball". I eventually overcame this fear....my stats speak for themselves.
But isn't this our story time and time again. We can many times find ourselves distracted with a case of spiritual ADD. All it takes is one unexpected moment in our day....an irritating phone call....an absent-minded store clerk....and we have gotten our focus all thrown off.
I once heard it said, "wherever you place your fear is where you also place your focus". How many times do we focus on the past or on the future instead of living in the present. Have you ever caught yourself making something out of nothing because you got stuck thinking about it rather than on what you really should have been focusing on.
God's book says that we should keep our eyes on Christ. It also says something quite odd ...."the fear of the Lord is where wisdom begins". If we have a healthy reverence for God (and place our attention upon Him and all that he is capable of) then that will make a huge difference on a day to day basis. It can be easy to blow up about something very small if we switch our focus from Christ to whatever lies in front of us.
What do you have your focus on today? What is your greatest fear? God is bigger than anything that lies in your path....the question - do we recognize how much power God has? If we did, wouldn't we focus our fear and energy upon Him?
