Reality and Fear and Focus, Oh My!

On Monday I wrote about the reality of focused awareness. As I said, by nature I’m a very observant person. The enemy’s temptation of me is to twist my gift of observation and make it be about focus. Simply stated, if I’m focused on any living soul (including myself) more than God, I’m in idolatry. Awareness of others is one thing, but a focused awareness is more about my gaze. Focus, as I’m describing it, is an attention that’s supposed to be relegated to the Lord.

Reality as I Saw It

Today I would like to expand awareness into the conflicts we face with people and situations. Before being saved, I was motivated primarily by fear. I literally was a slave to it. And because I was very aware of others and my surroundings, I’d often implode with fearful information overload. My natural gift of observation became a torment that exacerbated my fears. Because fear was my motivation, self-preservation became my goal. My fears distorted my discernment and then exaggerated what I observed. Fear always fabricates reality in order to save itself. Ooo, it’s so demonically stimulated!

Reality, Fear and Focus

So how does this relate to the conflicts we face with people or situations? If I believe that someone or something has more power than God, then I’ll be in idolatry. Humans gravitate towards power and we exalt what we think has power. Whether it’s through our focus, attention, or adoration…we worship what we believe has power. We may even be in fear of the source of this power, but the bottom line is that we present our worship with our focus, our fear, or our love. Love, fear, and focus all emanate from the heart. And it’s from within our hearts that we enthrone a source to give it our focused worship.

The Only Reality

As I was reviewing this topic, I came up with an amazing solution to the focused awareness given to the one in power and Satan’s twisting of my gifting back upon me. It comes from an article Martha wrote about being detached and focused. In it she makes this list of proclamations:

• I am not involved in any human conflicts.
  They have no reality.
• I am not committed to any human goals.
  They have no reality.
• I am not bound to any human institutions.
  They have no reality.
• I am not enmeshed in any human relationships.
  They have no reality.
• I am in union with Jesus Christ alone ­– He is the only reality!
• Only God’s will, God’s purpose and God’s thoughts have supreme reality for my life.

These declarations floored me. They literally pull the stinger out of all my conflicts. My vision is lifted above the fray and placed directly on the Source of everything: Jesus Christ. Fears are deflated and the anxious heart is stilled. Sure, it’s a tremendous work of faith to believe that my crises have no bearing on me because they’re not my reality, but this work is a work I always want to perform because it gives me great peace and amazing rest. Yes, I enter into His Rest within His actual reality—Christ’s life as my life.

Enter Rest

God’s promise of entering His rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it.
Hebrews 4:1 NLT

* I highly recommend going and reading the rest of this article on being detached and Martha’s series as a whole if you’re up to it. The reality of a soldier is amazing!