What is the ONE THING you are focused on today?
I've written before about my wake-up alarm habits. Every six minutes, my alarm goes off. One more minute, Mom! I think to myself as I hit the snooze button.
Intertwined with the raucous sound of the alarm are often equally irritating thoughts about the one thing that I need to do today. Meeting at one, report due at five, pay light bill before disconnection.
UGH, I am already allowing worry to set in even before I open my eyes. I am already accepting the enemy's destructive carrot of distraction that steals the rest the Lord has prepared for me in this hour.
"But what about planning and preparation?" You may be asking. "Isn't this just preparing for the day?"
I thought that. For forty years, I truly believed that by ruminating on the things I had to do in that quiet hour of daybreak, I was responsibly protecting the day from distraction.
I am on a big project at work. Interspersed between work hours are family dinners and activities, ministry, and hopefully a date with my husband once a week. Every morning I mentally go through my task list feeling accomplished even if I am exhausted.
Do you see anything out of sorts with my list?
My priorities are all mixed up.
As I was studying Luke 10, I came across the famous conversation between Jesus and Martha that led to Jesus lovingly helping Martha with her priorities as she rebuked Him about Mary's:
"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed - or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."
In the first season of my personal revival, God taught me of Himself and His love for me. Then He taught me of His love for His creation. The next was spent focusing on my actions and response. I feel Him moving me into a new season where He is instructing me in things He is using not only for my personal growth but for His Kingdom. Typically, I will receive a message from God either through His Word, His Spirit, or through a dream. This study of Luke 10 was one of those beautiful moments with the Lord where I feel Him instructing me on what is perhaps my most critical lesson. As I was studying, my eyes honed in on the word "ONE."
What a gift in this season of busyness! When I awake with a list of priorities, God is helping me to refocus on the one thing. So, I ask the Lord, "But what is the one thing?" To which He leads me to Psalm 27:4:
"One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple."
The one thing Jesus was encouraging Martha into was Him.
The ONE THING Jesus is encouraging me to is Him.
I'm not sure that I've ever heard His voice more clearly than I do now.
So, in this season, I am intentionally re-prioritizing. I've deactivated social media. I've chosen to manage my calendar rather than allowing it to manage me. And most importantly, I am focusing on the ONE that I need more than anything else.
JESUS