What is the focus of our lives? Why do we focus on the unimportant aspects of life rather than the important? Why do we focus on the appearance of things rather than what they really are? For example if I look at a good looking woman, I'm attracted to what she appears to be on the outside, how her body looks, the way she dresses, her smile, but I won't look at who she is and what she stands for. I won't look at the pain she has inside of if her smile is a mask that she puts on.
In Genesis 2:11 when God told Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he probably did that because He knew that man couldn't handle that kind of knowledge. He knew that once man's eyes were opened to the "evil" things in life he would lose focus of the good or would blur the lines. You could tell by what happened after Adam and Even ate the fruit. Genesis 3:7-12 gives an account to the immediate reaction that they had from eating; all of a sudden they felt embarrassed because they were naked, shame when they heard God to make them hide, when confronted with their own disobedience they passed the blame on to somebody else. We see in Genesis 4:8 that Cain was the first person to commit murder due to envy of his brother. All this happened as a direct result of the knowledge of good and evil, this opened the door to our selfish and sinful nature. We can't help the way we are because we are corrupt from birth.
God told Cain in Genesis 4:7 that he can rule over sin before Can killed his brother, but Cain just like us nowadays, was too lazy to do that. Instead he acted on his emotions and killed his brother. Then when he was punished in verses 11-12 he told God that the punishment was too great, not thinking about his brother that he just killed. This is how we are, we'll persecute those that do good for their righteous acts but be hurt or angered when we suffer rebuke or discipline for our disobedience. We blame God, call Him unfair or curse Him because of the situation that we put ourselves in. I like how God addresses this in Ezekiel 18:25-26 "yet you say, the way of the lord is not fair. Hear now 'o' house of Israel, is it not my way which is fair, and your ways which are not. When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and dies". But we are too stubborn or ignorant to realize this. We blame our downfall on everybody but ourselves, but our good we always accredit to our own righteousness.
I like when Solomon said that "every way of a man is right in his own eyes" Proverbs 21:2. In our own eyes we are justified for everything we do. That's why we have to live by Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths". If we trust in God and acknowledge Him, He'll direct us to His word or somebody with an unbiased view of our life that we can seek wisdom from. But what we do is look through the dusty grease smeared window of our lives and focus on what we see as something positive or something that with make our lives prosperous and meaningful when in all actuality what we're really looking at is garbage, and if we would've sought outside help they could've told us what were looking at.
If you look at what happened to Adam and Eve you'll see that they didn't trust in God, they didn't let Him direct their paths. Instead they were deceived, and after they were deceived Eve trusted in her own understanding, Genesis 3:6 "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise she took of it's fruit and ate, and gave to her husband with her, and he ate". This goes back to what was said at the beginning of this post, we focus on the wrong things. She looked at the appearance of the tree and how it can temporarily satisfy her selfish desires. Instead of looking at the reality of the tree and what it would eventually do to her. She didn't focus on the warning of the affect the fruit would have on her life. All she focused on was the appearance of tree and it's fruit.
Do you see what I'm getting at? Do you see how this applies to life now? People drink alcohol knowing they can die from alcohol poisoning or liver disease just to get drunk, people smoke knowing the risks, people sleep around with multiple partners unprotected, people do drugs...etc. We do all these things and more knowing the risks, whether death or sickness, or jail time, or loss of families or jobs. We go to extremes to to get a high or a feeling of relief or a false sense of security. But we never look at what it can do to us, or how unimportant it really is. Do these things that you focus on have a positive impact on your life, or the lives of others, is there anything in your life that has control of you? Paul says in 1 Cor 6:12 "All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any" and again in 1 Cor 10:23-24 "All things are lawful for me but not all things are helpful, all things are lawful for me but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own but each one the others well being."
Are you subjected to your desires or cravings, or addictions? Do they hurt or help others? Where Paul says "let no one seek his own but each one the others well being" he's showing us what we as christians should strive for, but we don't do this all the time, some never at all, instead we do like Eve, after we partake of that which will lead to our demise we share it with others. Also we knowing that something can hurt oror kill or imprison us will partake of it because it was given to us, because we're too scared or dumb to say anything. This is an ongoing cycle, and we are all held accountable for our part in disobedience. As we see in Genesis 3:14-19. We need to look at the truth in every situation instead of what it appears to be. We need to focus on all areas of our life, and stay away from that which can destroy us and our family or more importantly the body of Christ, no matter how uncomfortable the temporary decision feels. We need to do what's right so that others will see and learn from our examples of righteousness, instead of taking part in our destruction. We need to let God guide us and direct our paths, instead of leaning on our won understanding. Please focus on your life and the things you're allowing to control you, examine yourself and seek deliverance.
I'll leave you with a closing thought and a scripture to "Focus" on. In the beginning God set in the Garden a tree of life whose fruites would lead to eternal life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil whose fruit led to death. Now we are given the opportunity to receive knowledge that leads to life through His word. We just have to be obedient to it. Deuteronomy 30:19 "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.
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