What you focus on, is what you get.
That’s New Age! I hear you groan.
No, I don’t proclaim New Age. I am purely presenting a powerful principle of life.
And no, I’m not talking about sending vibrations into the universe, either. Rather, I am unveiling the potency of the frames of your mind.
Your frames can make your relationship with God.
Your frames can break your relationship with God.
FocusOnPurpose focuses on the frames that make your relationship with God. In the posts, I share my journey, speaking of the frames I’ve remodeled, and the results of remodeling.
I tell my story to make you aware of your own frames— what you need to reform, and how to refine.
Meet René
I grew up in a stable and loving family who valued nature, reading, creativity, and learning. My work experience varied from nursing to computer programming.
And yet, despite a healthy home and good education, I never learned about frames until my life was rubble around my feet.
René’s Background
I entrusted my life to Jesus during the seventies’ revival, and sensed something had changed within me. I saw the first evidence of this change, when I read my Bible and understood what I was reading.
Not only did I understand what I was reading, but what I read was also relevant to me. I felt like God Himself was speaking through the words I read, and I yearned to experience more and more of this relationship with God. I felt like I had discovered a treasure trove!
Yet, as I rummaged through my treasure trove, I didn’t understand how to build my faith with what I found. I didn’t even understand what faith was.
Into the Darkness
Over time, my neglected faith began to crack and crumble. The crumbling of my faith coincided with the onset of a raging hurricane that ravaged my world.
Jesus teaches about a house built on sand. This house fell when the storms came, because the foundation was unstable1. My faith was like the house built on sand.
The frames of my mind were like the grains of sand, and the foundation of my faith was not sound. The hurricane raged, and my house collapsed.
With my faith lying in ruins, I told God I could no longer believe He existed.
Hope Dawns
Within a couple of days of my prayer, I felt a strange contradictory peace. This peace preceded an encounter with the Holy Spirit, a day or so later; an encounter which permanently transformed my life.
This transformation happened despite the raging hurricane. As the dark clouds hovered and the winds continued to pound, I felt the warmth of the early rays of a new day, beckoning me into a new intimacy with God.
God is a God of paradox, and in the heart of the storm, I found stability and rest. This rest and stability, I found in the place of intimacy with God.
Intimacy with God
Someone once defined intimacy as “Into me you see”. Now, for someone to see into you, you need to first open yourself to that person. To open yourself, you need to remove the masks that hide the true you.
Your mask is a form of protection, and you need to feel secure before you can remove your mask. So God takes the initiative, and creates a secure place filled with His peace. Drenched in His peace, you dare to loosen, lower, and lay aside your masks, unveiling the true you.
As you lay aside those masks, God begins to open His heart to you, too. This is intimacy. And in this intimate place, He lovingly draws out the beauty He has created within you—beauty, you perhaps never knew was there.
I felt a weight lift off me, when I lowered my masks and found His peace persisted. God’s presence always carries His peace, so this persisting peace built security in His enduring presence. Here, in His enduring presence, my faith began to brighten, and bud, and blossom.
Have I arrived?
No, intimacy is not a destination. It is a journey that never ends, and this delightful journey will continue for all eternity.
So, this is my story and the focus of my blog. I hope you will join me on this journey, and we get to know each other along the way.
But whether you come along,
Or choose to move on,
Remember, your life depends
On what you focus on!
Footnotes:
1. Matthew 7:24-27