Where Is Your Focus?

August 27

"Since we live by the Spirit, let us walk with the Spirit." Galatians 5:25

It was 20 years ago, and Patsy Clairmont recounts her conversation with a Marine who was returning from a tour of duty in the Middle East. Their conversation which follows taught her a valuable life lesson:

"Hey, Marine, where are you coming from?"

"Operation Desert Storm, Ma'am."

"No kidding? Desert Storm! How long were you there?" she asked.

"A year and a half, Ma'am. I'm on my way home. My family will be at the airport."

Ms. Clairmont then commented that he must have thought about returning to his family and home many times while he was in the Middle East.

"Oh, no, Ma'am." he replied. "We were taught never to think of what might never be, but to be fully available right where we were." Patsy Clairmont, quoted from God Fruits



You’ve probably heard the old saying, “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is a hope. Only today is given to us. That’s why we call it 'the present.’ This little play on words is rooted in the same philosophy of the Marine. Live in the here and now because there’s nothing else that’s sure.

Good advice if all you claim is the here and now. If, however, your focus is on the promise of God, you always have an eye on eternity. No matter where you might be, no matter how circumstances may be playing out in your life, you know your Jesus is Lord over your life and He is Lord over all that concerns you.

Because His Word assures us, “Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever,” Hebrews 13:8, you can trust in Him that all your tomorrows are not subject to happenstance but are orchestrated by the God who assures His power is viable in your life today, even as it was in the days when He walked the dusty streets of Galilee.

You can know beyond the shadow of doubting that the same Christ whose Word says, “Cast all your care upon Him for He cares for you,” I Peter 5:7, fully intends that you lay your burden, whatever it is, at His feet, because you love Him and abide under the shadow of His wing, and trust that He will, "perform all things for you," Psalm 57:2.