| | Focus
When you ride it is best to focus on where you want to go -An easy concept to understand but sometimes difficult to perform. If you are jumping, you need to focus on the other side of the jump. Sometimes we make the mistake of looking at the jump, and it is easy to have your horse stop right there at the jump if you do. It is a matter of intent; your intent needs to be the other side of the fence, so your focus should be there. You need to look where you want to go, not at the obstacles in the way.
2 Corinthians 4
17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (NIV)
Sometimes it is hard to think of our troubles as “light and momentary” but they are if we view them in the context of eternity. It is so easy to focus on the problems and forget the goal of our journey, our finish line.
Philippians 3
13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. (NIV)
Little kids are often fond of asking,”Are we there yet?” When it comes to riding we are never there yet. Riding is a journey just as our walk with Christ is a journey. We have a direction we are headed, but as long as we dwell here on earth we will not get “There”. We need to keep growing and learning. There should be joy in the journey and enthusiasm since we are headed toward home, and our father who loves us is eagerly awaiting our arrival.
Hebrews 12
2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (NIV)
Have you ever noticed how eagerly your horse follows a trail when his buddy is a little ways ahead? He just follows; you don’t have to guide him much, and he doesn’t need much encouragement either. When a horse is afraid to cross over a bridge or through a stream, having another horse in front for him to follow gives him horse courage. Both of you need to focus on that other horse. Don’t look down at the water that is not where you want to go! Encouragement, the giving of courage, that is what focusing on Jesus ahead of us, heading toward home should give us.
Sometimes our focus gets too much on the future and we can forget to take care of the business of today. We can’t see heaven, so we focus on Jesus.
There is an old horseman’s adage- “You have to ride the horse you have today.” If we focus on where we think we should be instead of on Jesus, we will have problems. We have Jesus with us so, though we know where we are going, our instructions are to focus on Jesus and not on the future. We want to go where he is and he knows the trail that we should take. So we need to follow hard at his heels. We need to keep him in sight. We don’t need to hurry, but we do need to keep following. Our goal is to be where Jesus is; he is our guide to our future.
Romans 15
4For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
5May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, 6so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (NIV)
We have our road map, the scriptures, and we have our compass, the Holy Spirit, we also have our guide Jesus Christ. Sometimes we may be confused if we misread the map or the compass, but we can always ask our guide. He will get us where we are going. Sometimes when we can’t see where we are headed we just have to trust our guide and follow Him.
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| | Posted 6/29/2008 9:38 AM - 3 views - 0 comments
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