Two Questions to Refocus on God in Everyday Life [Fall Focus Ideas – 3]

This is in a 3-part series on “Fall Focus Ideas” to encourage us to pause and see what new ways we can change to finish the year well.

• 2 Ideas To Not Waste Fall’s Opportunity For Change
• 6 Ideas For Connecting With God In Meetings
• 2 Questions to Refocus on God in Everyday Life

Illness can teach us more than a few things. 

I am just coming off a COVID isolation with some challenging days of illness in the midst of it. Difficulties come. And what we can do in the midst of the “bad” or difficult is important. God does not waste anything.

For me what is interesting is how this experience of being removed refreshed some things in my life. It seemed to untie some things in me even in the midst of some suffering.

• Increased tolerance for silence and slowness, even boredom.
• A renewed sense of God’s presence and the “being” side of that. (Mainly because there was no ability to “do”.)
• A reset on food cravings.

The challenge is that the fruit of this time can become the focus. So, as we head to fall, it is a good opportunity to refocus. 

Getting Refocused on God

One way to see how to do this is in how the Psalms are an expressive place. One where there is prayer in the midst of strong emotions in joy as well as anger or lament. But these strong moments always came with the strong reminder of turning or refocusing on God Himself.

Not so you can have victory. 

Not so you can get something. 

But to be with God.

Psalm 33:16-17 offers a picture of the temptation to turn to the tool rather than the Tool Maker. 

The king is not saved by his great army;

    a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.

The war horse is a false hope for salvation,

    and by its great might it cannot rescue.

Here we see a contrast with what is really bringing the rescue or deliverance: it can appear to be one thing when really it is another. There is often a “working through something else” but it is not about the “something else.” 

So, in this time of your life,…

• What might you insert for your “great army” or “great strength” or “war horse”? What is that obvious item that you gain a lot in life?
• What is a great resource you have internally in your character, outwardly in your resources or skills, or a person in your life that rescues you? 

Now allow it to be something that leads you to thank God. C. S. Lewis described it as chasing the sunbeam up to the Sun. Follow the gift up to God. Pause in your day a couple times and recognize the gifts that enable your life.

Avoiding the Temptation in Everyday Life

As I return to regular rhythms, the temptation is to fall back into leaning on secondary things. Gifts that are intended to lift my eyes beyond this moment. 

Rarely is it bad to have them. So my prayer is to take the opportunity to be thankful but put them in the right place. And find myself refreshed in God’s presence.

Gracious God of good gifts, thank You for the many ways You sustain, renew, and strengthen us. The ways You “bring us through.” Grant us eyes to see past the tools and into Your goodness and love. Thank You for not wasting anything, in Your Name we pray, Amen.

Catch others in this 3-part series on “Fall Focus Ideas”.

• 2 Ideas To Not Waste Fall’s Opportunity For Change
• 6 Ideas For Connecting With God In Meetings
• 2 Questions to Refocus on God in Everyday Life
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