Focus: the 80 / 20 Rule

In this present modern era we fight such an incredible battle during our existence and it all centers around our Focus. Often we let any circumstance or distraction change our focus or set our focus. Rather, we should use our Free Will and choose what we will focus upon. And that can be one extreme or the other. Depending upon what we focus we will see a response in our emotions. Our emotions follow our focus.

When you think about 100% of your daily time ask yourself, "What do I spend 80% of my time focused upon? What do I spend the other 20% of my time focused upon?" Often we will answer that we spend 80% of our lives focused on negative things and 20% focused on positive things.

If we are going to be the people we want to be we need to reverse the ratio. We need to spend 80% of our time choosing to focus on Jesus, thankfulness, remembering what is going right, answered prayers, friendships, family etc... and only 20% of our time on what is wrong.

Too often the enemy radically hinders the lives of God's people by getting us to focus on our problems 80% of the time and completely taking up the whole scope of our vision. Our emotions naturally follow what we focus upon and we therefore feel overwhelmed until we quit, retreat and give into that demonic state called 'apathy.'

We need to decide who we want to be and ask God for the grace to get there. We need to be people who choose thankfulness over depression and despair. We need to choose to focus 80% of our time on things such as these:

The Character of God as seen in Jesus.... His wonderful goodness and trustworthiness
Thankfulness for the good relationships in life
Thankfulness for the the physical health we have verses what we don't have
Thankfulness for the jobs, money and things we have verses what we don't have
Remembering the prayers He has answered
Remembering the times we have encountered Him personally
Thankfulness for His protection over car wrecks, financial lose, averted tradgety's
Remembering what we were saved FROM... remember who you were Before you surrendered to Jesus
And on and on the list goes

I am not advocating living life through "rose colored lenses." Spend some of your time on the problems and issues. But if you choose to control how much your focus on yourself and your problems you will find that they are less overwhelming and more managable than before.

Let's put it another way. What you focus upon is really what you worship! It's true. What you spend the majority of your time upon is what you are giving yourself to. I have to work like everyone else. I work in computers and it is very mentally demanding work. However I can do it with a spirit of excellence and a positive attitude or I can do it focused on the fact that I don't like my job, my boss and the fact that I am inside on a beautiful day.

Often we think that worship is only about songs we sing to God. That is 50% right. Worship is also about our attitudes and actions. When we are fascinated by Jesus and the fact that God enjoys us in Christ that is worship! We are focused on Him! And often we have to choose to whine and complain about something or chose to appreciate something. We have free will and each of us chooses billions of times in a general lifetime what we will be focused on.... what we will be fascinated by... what we will worship.

Fascination is worship. Why do you think the horror movies are made? To draw you in to spend your money to be fascinated by evil. The more you focus on it the more you become like it. Satan is seeking to make people like himself. And he is just counterfeiting what God does. God tells us to worship Him so that we will become like Him... full of love, peace, power, honesty, compassion and justice! He doesn't tell us to focus on Him because He has an ego problem, but because He knows if we do, we will become like Him. 

We need to ask God to give us an emotional makeover. Suffer from depression and despair? Suffer from confusion and pessemism? Just ask God's help to change your focus. Turn the TV off and write down a list of things you are thankful for. You will find that your emotional outlook will change in 15 minutes. Do that for a lifetime and you will find that you have become a person with so much vision and joy that you don't have time for all the people who want to be your friend!

Quite frankly, the TV is the world best distribution channel for fear. Look at the headlines to glean your information but don't focus on it all day every day... or you will become caved in with depression, paranoia, and fear. Give it 20% of your time but not 80%

If you make these choices with God's help (never try to just do it on your own) you will find that as time goes on you have received an emotional makeover and life is worth living. You might even find that life is a great adventure and you are doing great exploits with God! And that is filling the treasure chest in your heart! And you CAN take that with you through death into eternity!