So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32, ESV)
I have taken a lot of golf lessons in my life, so in most situations I know fairly well what I need to do to hit the shot I want. Take, for instance, the need to hit a 40-yard lob wedge over a sand trap onto a postage stamp green with water on the other side. I know I can hit this shot and hit it (relatively) close to the pin. In fact, I love this type of shot. High risk, high reward. But I don’t always execute it to my liking. So why is that?
I have done some thinking about the times things go wrong and it boils down to primarily two areas. The first is I am not mentally all there. Call it a lack of focus. My mind is occupied with other things, most of which are not helpful to my golf game. The second is a lack of trusting in the swing I have been taught or the club I have chosen. Call it a lack of faith. When either focus or faith is absent, execution suffers. Practice and experience certainly help, but if I am not thinking through what it is I am to do and not trusting in what I have learned, well, then, bad things happen. Execution, generally speaking, seems to be dependent on a certain amount of focus and faith.
The same is true in our pursuit of God and living for him. Take the Parable of the Sower in Mark 4. The sower sows seeds in four types of people with four different reactions. Some are barely interested and the seeds take no root. Some like it and receive it with joy but are not willing to deal with affliction or persecution. The third group is simply distracted by “the worries of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things.” They become unfruitful and are unable to execute, if you will, for the building up of God’s kingdom. There are a lot of “good things” that fall into this category according to Jesus (see Matthew 8:21-22, Luke 14:25-27, Luke 9:23-24); they are, nevertheless, distractions. Only the fourth group is described as those who “hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some 30, some 60, some a hundred times what was sown.” In three out of four, something goes disastrously wrong. But in those who produce fruit for God, they hear the word and accept it. To accept means to “take receipt of.” They own it.
In those who produce fruit for God, they hear the word and accept it…. They own it.
So, how do we stay focused? How do we come to own it and avoid becoming distracted? Let’s take our cues from Joshua, Jeremiah, the psalmist, and Paul:
“This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall mediate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success.” (Joshua 1:8)
Your words were found and I ate them, and your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I have been called by your name, O LORD God of hosts. (Jeremiah 15:16)
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he mediates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and in whatever he does he prospers. (Psalm 1:2-3)
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:4-5, NASB)
So today, let me encourage you to choose a verse, any verse, and take it with you throughout the day.
—
Bob Kuecker
September 2, 2021
Copyright 2021 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
Photo by RODNAE Productions from Pexels