Doin’ my devotions as I sit in the waiting area of the clinic to get blood drawn…
I’m tempted to think for some reason, of a mouse and an elephant in the same room. One is a giant, the other,…virtually impossible to see when your focus is on the elephant…unless you’re told that it’s there and you force your gaze on it.
I equate this metaphor with the challenges (I am realizing that the term ‘problems’ just sets us up for defeat when we say it. It’s too negative) that we face. So often we get bogged down by little challenges. While God never promised us a happy go lucky joy ride on earth every day, I wonder if the challenges that we go through negatively affect our days simply because we give them too much focus.
I am about to be stuck by a needle, you see. And I know it’s going to sting a little. But if I focus too much on that needle, I know it’s going to hurt way more than it should. Why? Because I’m focusing on it. If I don’t focus on this needle and I focus instead on ‘my breathing’, as I’m sure the technician will tell me, what would happen? I bet, it won’t be as painful, because my focus is somewhere else. It’s not on what I’m going through. It’s on me breathing…me realizing that I am bigger than this stupid needle! Believe it or not, that requires much more attention and focus.
How would our little ailments compare to the grandiosity of our God?
It really depends on how much focus we give them.
We could do either of two things. We could look at the challenge that we have all day long,every day, all week, and lose sleep over it. Or we could focus on God…the great, big, God.
Jeremiah 32:17 says
Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:
I love this scripture. Because no matter what the situation at hand was (you can go read Jeremiah chapter 1-32 to understand it), Jeremiah focused on the God that was greater.
When you find yourself looking at the mouse of your situation, it’s probably because you’ve taken your focus off of the ‘elephancy’ of your God. Turn your eyes back on Him, keep them there. Worship and magnify Him as the God who is bigger than your circumstances. If you would keep your focus on Him, you’d realize that there is nothing too big, nothing too hard, nothing too wrong…that He cannot fix.
