Focus

We may be living in the most difficult time in history to be faithful simply because temptation has been risen to a new height in our country as promiscuity is celebrated in media, pornography saturates the Internet, drugs are common place and even being legalized, and greed is the undercurrent that drives people from Wall Street to the welfare lines, where everyone demands more and more.

Temptation is everywhere to have more, get more, do more, buy more, eat more, play more but be responsible and respectful and reverent less.  And temptation is hard to resist.  As Mark Twain quipped, "I can resist anything except temptation."

Because of the pressure to give in to temptation and the weakness of our flesh, we tend to excuse rather than endure.  When we are faced with temptation it is so easy to give in and then to skirt the responsibility and try to lay the blame somewhere else.  The gamut of the blame ranges from the un-named, "It just happened," to the name-game popularized by Flip Wilson's character, Jeraldine: "The Devil made me do it!"

Temptation is everywhere and it is, as it were, tempting.  But it is not overwhelming or irresistible for with every temptation to do wrong, there is the equal and opposite opportunity to do right.  When tempted to watch pornography, you could choose dust off your Bible instead.  When tempted to have an affair, you could choose to plan a get-away with your wife.  When tempted to do drugs, you could choose to attend a 12-step program and encourage others as well as yourself to victory.

Temptation never appears alone, it simply gets the most attention as it tends to be where we focus.  It gets our attention and we give it our consideration, often without weighing it against the outcome or the alternative.  Moses proclaimed, "… I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him" (Deut 30:19-20).

With the temptation to choose a path of destruction of your family, your faith or your future, there stands an opportunity to support and fortify the same by choosing to act in love toward God, your family and even yourself.  Choosing the good brings life to you and your children, and honors the Lord.  Choosing evil undermines the good of all three.

What we usually wind up choosing is determined largely by what we focus on.  If we focus on what we don't have, greed is given the spotlight.  If we focus on what we have, then gratitude is given a place to shine.  If we focus on our spouse's worst traits, an affair becomes more attractive.  If we focus on his/her best traits, then our spouse becomes more attractive.  It truly is a matter of focusing on the good or the bad.  Where is your focus?  Jus' Ask'n.