As we have been diving into the conversation of loving Jesus well, we have chosen to begin the initial series of discussions here with the thought of our attention. Learning how to harness your attention and stay centered upon the Lord, regardless of circumstantial variables is something that requires time and effort. What do I mean? I mean you actually have to go through real life in order to develop this. It isn’t something that you can just read out of a book—or a blog for that matter,—or listen to on a podcast episode and all of a sudden become proficient in, how David so beautifully put it, developing the ability to continually set the Lord before you (Psalm 16:8).
Life presents us with unique opportunities to determine what we are going to choose to give our attention to. And that thought is what I would like to unpack together here.
My family recently had the opportunity to get away for a few days at the beach together. It is always an exciting couple of days. My kids find great joy in swimming and splashing around in the pool. They love to go hunting for seashells all over the coastline of the beach. They can literally be out from sunup to beyond sundown and not be bothered or tired by it at all. We look forward to all of the memory-making and sunburns that are a part of the whole experience.
With that said, we got away. As we were driving into the place that we were booked to stay the first evening storm clouds began to form, and it started raining. No big deal, it’s the first night. We were able to go out at one point during a break in the weather, but it still wasn’t ideal. Again, no big deal, we will live to play on the beach another day. We woke up the next morning and the story of the terrible weather continued. Only now we were jumping on to the weather reports and the meteorologist was informing everyone that a tropical storm was forming out in the ocean and that it would have a serious effect on the coast for the time period of our entire time that we were supposed to be away. Okay, things are going from no big deal to very big deal.
It rained the entire day. We made the best of it and stayed in the room. That night we all huddled up together and we prayed and asked God to push the weather back. We prayed for the rain to break and for the emergence of the sun so that we could continue with the plans that we had made.
We woke up the next day, and…yup, you guessed it…rain! At this point, the weather report was calling for an 80-100% chance of rain the remainder of our trip. We all sat together in the room again and began to lift our voices. We prayed, believing in our hearts, that God could and would push the rain back. Not in some selfish or entitled way, but honestly believing that He cares for us. Also, we felt reminded of a few places throughout the scriptures.
James 5:16-18 tells us about Elijah and how he was a man just like us, yet he prayed, and it did not rain for over 3 years. We know the truth of this story is described for us with Elijah’s introduction to the biblical narrative in 1 Kings 17. Also, Joshua in chapter 10 when he realized that they needed more time in order to route the enemy that was against them, lifted his voice to God in prayer and asked for the sun to stand still. And the Bible says that God heard the voice of Joshua and the sun stood still in the middle of the sky for almost an entire day. WHAT?!! Yes!
So, with those 2 encouragements from the Lord, we prayed.
Within an hour from praying that morning, the weather broke. The clouds parted. The sun came out. The sky cleared. We actually didn’t see another rain cloud the entire time that we were there!
However, the weather report never changed. Every day, and all day long, the meteorologist was calling for severe storms. Each day we would check the weather report and it would say that it was going to be a bad day to do what we had planned to do. Yet, each day we would continue to pray, and the sun continued to shine! Again, we never saw another cloud the entire time that we were there.
What’s the point?
There are a variety of ways that you can live your life. One of those ways is this: You can get up every day and check-in with the weatherman, or the meteorologist, and then you can modify your life and live in response to what is being called for. You can live in response to the weather report. You can hear the prophecy of the weatherman and then adjust your life and plans in accordance to what you know has been prophesied by the weatherman. And this is what most people do. You get up, check the news, check social media, check all of the mainstream—or underground—new sources, receive whatever it is that they say is going to happen, and then adjust your life accordingly.
This would seem to be wisdom until you understand that the media in our day has become the false prophet of the enemy. The media has an agenda. The media has been bought out. The media has been driving a narrative. The media has become the enemy’s meteorologist and has been releasing doom and gloom as a forecast over our nation and over our lives.
The alternative way to live, and it is what I am encouraging here, is to wake up each day and check-in with the Lord. Give Him your attention. Give yourself to the secret place. Allow your main place of influence to be His presence. Allow your primary source of information to be His voice. Allow the Holy Spirit to sift through all of the influence of media and our culture. Give God His rightful place in your heart and allow your life to be beautifully bent under the weight of His influence.
THEN rebuke the weatherman. Pray against all of the enemy’s plans. Release the word of the Lord that you have received in prayer.
The point is this: You do not have to receive the weather report!
You do not have to cancel your plans. You do not have to forfeit your dreams. You do not have to agree with the forecasting of the false prophet. You can choose to believe the report of the Lord.
If there was ever a time in which we needed people to rise up in prayer in our nation it is now. We need a praying people. We need a people who are gripped with a sense of what God is saying. We need people, who like Elijah, carry the sound of the abundance of rain on the inside and are willing to ascend into the higher places to be with God and pray in agreement for His will to be fulfilled in our day.
We need to live sensitive and responsive to God, and not constantly responsive to the weatherman and his false reporting.
You have a choice everyday of how you are going to live your life. The choice of developing the ability to govern your attention lies within your choices every day. Again, David said it best—I continually set the Lord before me. You can too!
Until next time….
Michael Dow
