Praise God! It’s really NOT about me!

I recently had an epiphany that I felt was worth sharing. Thankfully, one never gets too old to learn. For a good part of my life I have wrestled with feelings of inadequacy and disappointment. Compared to many men my age, I felt that I had not accomplished nearly as much as I could or should have. I’ve always set the success bar relatively high for myself, so whenever I measured my progress, I always came up short. Now don’t get me wrong! There’s nothing wrong with setting lofty goals and high aspirations. If you don’t aim for the stars, you’ll certainly never hit them. It’s just that I beat myself up so badly for not measuring up that I couldn’t even see the progress I’d made.

I’ve always been influenced by successful people and those who teach success motivation. I love to hear inspiring stories about goal setting and realizing dreams. I’ve even tried to pattern my life after the successful people I’ve know or have read or heard about. Problem is, when I compared my life to theirs, I always came up lacking. On the spiritual side, I’ve looked up verses in the Bible about success and diligence, and posted them around my home and office, but even those began to make me feel inadequate. Add to that the fact that I’m not as young as I used to be, and you can see all the makings of a major meltdown.

Now for the good news: it’s not about me!

I was sharing some of my frustrations with my precious wife the other night, about how I felt that I needed to be the best at something and how I was still waiting for God to drop me in that “perfect position” that He’d surely had in mind for me since before I was born. She listened patiently as I ranted and raved about what a miserable excuse for a human being I had become and about how I had little to show for all my years on this earth. She let me get most everything off my chest, and then gently, she began to remind me of the truth I’d always known, but somehow forgotten. “Isn’t God’s idea of success in life doing whatever you do as well as you can possibly do it?” she asked. “Doesn’t He tell us in His Word that ‘we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us?’” she continued. “Isn’t God’s true plan and purpose for our lives to love and serve Him and others?” It’s not about me!

The truth hit me like a freight train and a light dawned, as they say. It was one of those “WOW! I could’ve had a V8” moments! (Sorry for those of you who are too young to understand what that last sentence means.) My problem was obvious. I had been distracted by the obstacles in my path and had taken my eye off the prize. I had shifted my focus from the Provider to the provision. God does say in His Word that He “shall supply ALL our needs according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus.” But instead of taking Him at His word and going on about His business, I had focused on the provision that I thought He had somehow forgotten about and I began to become disappointed with Him.

Now, please don’t think that I’m the first Christian to have ever become disappointed with God. I may well be one of the few who admits it, but I’m certainly not the first or the only one. To be disappointed with God is in NO WAY an indication that He has somehow reneged on a promise.

“For all of God's promises have been fulfilled in him. That is why we say ‘Amen’ when we give glory to God through Christ.” (2 Corinthians 1:10)

Jesus Christ has never changed.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

To be disappointed with God is simply to have shifted one’s focus from God as the fulfillment of every dream, to the dream itself. Gordon Allport said it best:

“What gains and sustains our attention, will ultimately rule our lives.”

What I believe that means is that whatever we focus on the most is what will determine who we ultimately become. If we focus on provision, we will lose sight of our Provider. If we focus on health, we will lose sight of our Healer. If we focus on anything other than God, whose “divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life.” (2 Peter 1:3), we will be ruled by whatever else sustains our focus.

Focus is the key to our success in life. I understand that from being a freelance photographer. If I don’t focus on my subject, s/he will likely become lost in the background clutter. We’ve all seen photos in which it’s difficult to tell whom or what the subject is supposed to be. In a great photograph, the subject should capture the eye immediately. It should stand out from the background and its surroundings. Our relationship with God should be like that. God should ALWAYS be the focus of our lives, and everything else—success, fulfilled dreams, wealth, etc.—should remain in the background. It’s not about us!

Our pastor shared with us this morning about a pastor friend who has said to him on more than one occasion that he was hoping someday to do something great for God. Pastor gently reminded us that God doesn’t need our help, thank you very much. He doesn’t need us to do anything great for Him. What He wants, however, is for us to give ourselves wholly to Him so that He can do great things through us. Do you see the difference? It’s NEVER about us!

Think about what has your attention at any given moment. If you’re human, your attention likely shifts numerous times a day, and that’s okay, provided you’re only shifting your conscious attention from something like the song on the radio to the red light looming just ahead. The kind of attention I’m talking about is that “sustained” attention to which Allport referred. That’s what consumes your mind, fills your heart, and permeates your spirit, despite whatever else you may have to focus on during the course of a day. Sure, we have to focus on what we’re doing and where we’re going, but it’s what we think about when we’ve finished what we were doing and gotten to where we were going that really matters.

I see the Christian walk as a journey with Heaven as the destination. For every true believer, Heaven is guaranteed, so there is nothing more we need to do to secure it. We need only to think of our destination as an incentive to stay the course. That said, we are free to focus on other things, and that’s precisely the problem. We have so many choices of where or upon what to place our attention. The problem is that NOTHING or NO ONE deserves our sustained attention other than God. He is the only One who has promised to meet all of our needs. He is the only One who has promised never to leave or forsake us. He is the only One who can give us the strength to do whatever He calls us to do. Doesn’t it make sense then to focus on Him rather than on our problems, our failures, or even our so-called successes?I recently finished teaching my senior high boys’ Bible study class about what are often referred to as the “compound” names of God.

• JEHOVAH-JIREH - “The Lord Will Provide” (Genesis 22:14)
• JEHOVAH-ROPHE - “The Lord Our Healer” (Exodus 15:26)
• JEHOVAH-NISSI - “The Lord Our Banner” or “Victory” (Exodus 17:15)
• JEHOVAH-M'KADDESH - “The Lord is Holy” or “Sanctification” (Leviticus 20:7)
• JEHOVAH-SHALOM - “The Lord is Peace” (Judges 6:24)
• JEHOVAH-ROHI - “The Lord Our Shepherd” or “Protector” (Psalms 23:1)
• JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU - “The Lord is Righteous” (Jeremiah 23:6)
• JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH - “The Lord is There” or “Ever Present One” (Ezekiel 48:35)

(Psalm 23 contains references to all eight of these names.)

During the course of this study, we talked about how there is a name for God to meet every need we could ever have or even imagine. If God is our Provision, we have no need to worry about our needs. If God is our Health, then we have no need to worry about sickness. If God is our Victory, we have no need to worry about defeat. Do you see my point? If we have God, we have everything that we need. That frees us up to focus totally upon Him. And if God “gains and sustains your attention," imagine what a difference He would make in your life.

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