Focus

I have been doing a lot of soul searching lately. Several events this week have thrown me into an extremely contemplative mood which may not be a good thing for someone who is regularly accused of thinking too much. I'll spare you the ALL the details, but I will share a couple of things that seem post worthy.

First, you may have noticed (if this is not your 1st visit to my little blog) that I have added a button on my sidebar. The young boy pictured is Grisha. He lives in an orphanage in the Ukraine, but has adoptive parents here in the States who are scheduled to go and get him this month. They are trusting God to provide the needed funds to get there and bring their son home, but as you can imagine, it is a very expensive journey. I would ask that you lift this family up in prayer as they continue to trust God for their needs. You can visit their blog and get all the details by clicking on Grisha's button.

Second, you may remember that I mentioned a few days ago about working on my devotion for our Wednesday night prayer time. In our church on Wednesday nights, we begin together and then, after singing a few songs and taking prayer requests, the men and women separate. We spend some time in what is supposed to be a short devotion (though it varies greatly depending on which lady is giving the devotion that night) followed by prayer time. Let me just say that I love the way we do Wednesday nights at our church. This is one of my favorite times of the week and one of the times that you really get to know people better ~ you can learn a lot about a person just by hearing them pray. So, please understand that I am saying this in love when I tell you that this week they just didn't get it.

I am not blaming them, as a matter of fact, I feel sure that most of the responsibility rests in my delivery, but I can't help but feel somewhat frustrated. My Bible study was based on Acts 17:6 which talks about the early church and how they "turned the world upside down" as they spread the gospel of Jesus. I talked about how they waited on the Holy Spirit and how they prayed in one accord. We had a discussion of what it means to be "in one accord" and really couldn't come to a consensus. For me, it seems that to be in one accord, everyone would need to have the same focus and that focus has to be fully on God. This was the major point I was trying to make. As a church, I believe that when we are praying individually or collectively that we must be fully focused on God. Somehow, as we talked, the focus shifted from how we can be in one accord, to reassuring me that we already are in one accord. Maybe they are right, but somehow I left the room feeling discouraged.

There is hope though. The final point I made was that when the apostles were preaching, they spoke boldly and left the results to God. After a couple of days trying to figure out how I messed up so badly, God reminded me of this point ... the results don't belong to me, they belong to Him and while I believe that He led me to share the scripture and words He put on my heart, I must leave the results of those words in His very capable hands.