Focus

This is the excerpt from Chapter Four, Focus:

The thing that has our attention has our focus, and what has our focus has the potential to rule us. As Christians, we need to find ways to keep our focus on our Lord. Anything that has our focus tends to have our heart. Let us set our focus on Christ! Nothing can motivate quite like a grateful heart. Jesus deserves our focus. 

We need to resolve to be like King Josiah, who did what was good in the eyes of the Lord. He did not look to the left or the right. Let us not allow the world to blind our gaze with all its distractions; instead, keep our focus on Jesus.

Next, we see where we can go to set our gaze on Him. I can think of no better place than His Word. Let us set our focus there. 

So, I wanted to put the concepts I talked about in the last article about the Believe/Faith/Trust chapter together into some insight I received as I worked on this chapter about Focus. 

In 2 Kings 22:1-2, we find an 8-year-old king, Josiah, who the Word says did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, not turning aside to the right or the left. In Joshua 1:7, most notably known for the statement "Be strong and courageous," it is also a warning to obey commands and not turn from them to the right or the left. 

Psalm 100:4 tells us we enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with Praise.

I began to look at this in light of the information in the summary of the last post about Faith/Believe/Trust. 

The summation of a person attending the bible study, Grow Up

We Believe with our heads.

We Trust with our hearts.

Our Faith is a divine gift that allows us to act out in hands of action.

Information below was pulled from the website RDR Bible Study:

• Faith – the act of the will
• Belief – the act of the mind or intellect
• Trust – the language of the heart

So, as I read in the Focus Chapter and did the homework, I could see the connection between this chapter and the conversation we had about Chapter Three in such new ways. I will attempt to share my revelation with you.

Seeming Psalm 100:4, I looked at how I can focus on the Lord and His word. I noted that it tells me to enter His gate; this led me to think about the gate... Jesus is the gate, according to John 10:9. He is the way we enter into the presence of the Lord. The verse tells us we enter this gate with thanksgiving. This led me to evaluate what it means to thank Him. So, I thanked Him for what He had done for me in order for me to be accepted by the Father. I thanked Him for dying for me and then opening up a real relational connection in His resurrection and ascension to heaven that gave me the Holy Spirit.

The second part of the verse tells me to enter into His courts with praise. So, in His courts, I am in His presence. His presence is the Holy Spirit that dwells, abides, and lives in me. I praise Him for who He is.

I was reminded that my faith is in the Character of God. His actions will confuse me at times because His ways are not my ways, so I cannot understand Him fully. When I cannot make sense of the circumstances, I can always make sense of who I know Him to be.

Faith/Believe/Trust are Essential to Our Spiritual Growth

This includes the summary excerpt to Grow Up, chapter three, about believing, trusting and our faith.

We are made right with God because we believe what God said about Jesus and His sacrifice for us. We receive the faith gift He has provided for us. This counts as our righteousness and proclamation made about us upon salvation. Then, we begin a process of cooperating with God by His Spirit. As we allow Him to build our confidence in Him, it strengthens our faith, which is revealed in our actions. With faith, we trust Him and surrender to Him, where He matures us little by little. He grows us up into the righteous one He proclaims us to be by our faith. We see His faithfulness working in us, which grows our faith and trust in Him. We have faith in the work of Christ. 

Faith exists for everyone. We all believe in something. Remember, the object of our belief defines our faith. Followers of Jesus Christ believe God exists. We believe what God says about Jesus’ death and place our faith in the sacrifice that pays for our sins. The activity in our lives reveals what we believe. We mature in our relationship with Him by believing what He says, and to believe what He says, we need to know what He says. To know what He says, we must read the Word of God. All of this will grow our trust and confidence in Him. The next two chapters will look at this concept of being in the Word of God and see clearly where we need to place our focus.

In a discussion group this week, one of the members in the class made an observation about these three words; this is the gist of her summation:

We Believe with our head.

We Trust with our heart.

Our Faith is a divine gift that allows us to act out in hands of action.

I began to dig into this as I was pondering this distinction with her. The following is what I came across. 

The word trust is the heart word of faith. It is the Old Testament word, the word given to the early and infant stage of faith. The word faith expresses more the act of the will, the word belief the act of the mind or intellect, but trust is the language of the heart. The other has reference more to a truth believed or a thing expected.

Trust implies more than this, it sees and feels, and leans upon a person… (No author’s name is given)

The difference in meaning can be outlined as followed:

• Faith – the act of the will
• Belief – the act of the mind or intellect
• Trust – the language of the heart

Every use of faith, belief/believing, and trust will not fit into this box. But the outline is extremely useful in thinking about the differences between faith, belief, and trust. 

This information is pulled from RDRD Bible Study | A Simple Framework For Thinking About Belief, Trust, And Faith

A Simple Framework For Thinking About Belief, Trust, And Faith

Posted by T Whitfield | Dec 22, 2018 | Theology, Thinking Theology |