Staying Focused

            What do you think about? I have mentioned before about cultivating corn in a large field when the corn is about 1 foot tall. I was assigned the task of cultivating the corn for the first time after it had sprouted. You had to drive the tractor, which in this case was a Ford/Ferguson, in first gear and about one third throttle. It was a slow process and you had to make sure your concentration was centered on watching the corn go between two plates without deviating from one side or the other. I recall one time when my mind began wandering and then I realized that I had let the tractor slip to the right and I had buried about twenty feet of two rows of corn. I stopped the tractor and straightened the corn the best I could hoping that it would grow up straight and tall. My mind had slipped off of the subject at hand. There are many times in life when it pays you to keep your full attention on the task at hand. Our minds are wonderful things and I soon learned that your mind could take you around the world, or to be involved in great feats and would go as far as your imagination would take you. When questioned about the great commandment by the Scribes, Jesus gave us a very important lesson. Mark 12:29-31 says,”And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:   And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”

      Notice that Jesus said that we should love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. He have us a very important lesson and that is that the mind should stay focused on the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ should be the number one thing upon which we think and nothing else should matter or take up our time even for just a minute. That is a hard thing to do but certainly it can be done. In the spiritual state of each believer, we are involved in a growing process and so can be growing day by day in our ability to focus on God in all that we do. When we deviate from the process even for just a moment, the result can be far worse than just plowing our twenty feet of corn. Satan is always ready to take advantage of your mind slipping into neutral or onto a subject of which you should not be thinking. Psalm 1:1-2 says, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.  But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”  Notice that the person who is blessed is one that meditates on the law day and night. It is no accident nor is it just some wishful thinking. It is important for every believer to be having their mind focused upon the Lord in all times. It is also interesting to note that of all the rows of corn I cultivated that day and the days to follow, the only ones I remember are the twenty feet that were plowed up when my mind had wandered off of the subject at hand. So, again I ask the question, “What do we think about? Is your mind focused on the things of the Lord or is your mind wandering off of the task at hand? Praise God for His Word.