MGD: Focus on God

I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise

will continually be in my mouth continuously. My soul will

glorify the Lord. The humble will hear about it and rejoice.

Magnify the Lord with me. Let us lift up his

name together. I sought the Lord and he answered me.

He delivered me from all my fears. Look to him

and be radiant and you will not be ashamed. Father,

in the name of Jesus, we thank you for this morning.

Thank you for the privilege and honor to commune with

you in your word. As we commune and fellowship with

you in your word, may we be radiant and may

we not be ashamed. In the mighty name of Jesus,

we pray with thanksgiving. Amen. Shalom, beloved. You are warmly

welcome to our morning glory devotion. This is Pastor and Mrs.

Bruce Smith facilitating today's devotion. God richly bless you for

tuning in and we know that you'll be blessed by

the end of this devotion. Let's kindly take our confession

together from Joshua chapter 1 verse 8. This book of

Joshua 1:8

the Lord shall not depart out of my mouth. But

I shall meditate in it day and night, that I

may observe to do according to all that is written

in it. For then I will make my way prosperous,

and then I will have good success. Amen. Our theme

for this morning's devotion is Focus on God. Focus on God.

And we shall take our Bible reading from the book

of Matthew chapter 14 verse 22 to 33. Matthew chapter

Matthew 14:22–33 Matthew 14:22–33

14 verse 22 to 33. And I will be reading

from the ISV version. Jesus walks on the sea. Jesus

immediately had the disciples get into a boat and cross

to the other side ahead of him. while he sent

the crowds away. After dismissing the crowds, he went up

on a hillside by himself to pray. When evening came,

he was there alone. By this time the boat was

in the middle of the sea and was being battered

by the waves, because the wind was against them. Shortly

before dawn, Jesus came to them walking on the sea.

When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they

were terrified and cried out, It's a ghost! And they

screamed in terror. Have courage, Jesus immediately told them. It's me.

Stop being afraid. Peter answered him, Lord, if it's you,

order me to come to you on the water. Jesus said,

Come on. So Peter got down out of the boat,

started walking on the water, and came to Jesus. But

when he noticed the strong wind, he was frightened. As

he began to sink, he shouted, Lord, save me! At once,

Jesus reached out his hand, caught him, and asked him,

You who have so little faith, why did you doubt?

As they got into the boat, the wind stopped blowing.

Then the men in the boat began to worship Jesus saying,

You certainly are the Son of God.

Amen. We live in a world full of distractions. There

seems to be an upgrade and an update of everything

every day. New toys, new movies, new versions of softwares,

new technologies, new styles, new babies, new voices, and lots

of words. It cuts across every aspect of our lives.

But one thing we need not to forget is that

the Bible says, Seek first the kingdom of God and

its righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto you.

Some of the things that tend to distract us are

the pleasures of life, the storms and hardships in life.

When we say focus, what do we mean? It means

to pay particular attention to. And one may ask, how

do I pay particular attention to something? One way to

pay particular attention to something is to spend quality time

with it. As believers, we need to spend quality time

with God in order to know Him, to hear Him,

and to seek His face daily. There's a saying that goes,

what consumes your mind controls your life. Let us not

be people that honor God with our lips, but our

hearts are so far from Him. We need to focus

on pleasing Him and not man. Because after all, the

in and out of this kingdom business, it's all about

Jesus and it's all about him. What is the motive

behind what you do? Why do you come to church?

Do you come to church because pastor would ask you

why you didn't come to church? Or you come to

church to seek God? To spend quality time with him?

to get to know him personally and not because you

hear people talk about him all the time. It is

different to know someone by what you hear about the

person and getting to know someone on your own. As believers,

we need to stay focused, pay particular attention to God

and get to know him on our own, not just

by what we hear others say about him. Spending time

with God requires us to shut ourselves from the world,

denying ourselves of the world's pleasures. Colossians 2 verse 68 says,

So then, just as you have received Christ as Lord,

continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him,

strengthened in his faith as we're taught and overflowing with thanksgiving.

See to it that no one takes you captive through

hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human traditions and

the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

The songwriter says, away from the noise, alone with you.

Away to hear your voice and meet with you. Nothing

else matters. My one desire is to worship you. When

we focus on Christ and we spend quality time with Him,

we are folding more time to prune us, to work

on us till we become like Him and till we

become who He wants us to be. The storms of

life has a tendency to weigh us down and take

our focus off God. In life, everybody has challenges one

way or the other. But just as we read in

the scripture, as long as Peter kept his gaze on Jesus,

he walked on the water regardless the storm. Immediately he

took his eyes off Jesus, he began to sink. Remember

we said to focus is to pay particular attention to

something or someone. When we take our eyes off Jesus

and focus on the storm, we magnify the storm but

when we focus on Jesus, we magnify him and he

counts the storm. Beloved, I don't know the storm you

may be facing right now, but be reassured of the

words of the Master. Be of good cheer, for I

have overcome them all. Set your gaze on Jesus, take

your attention of the storm, and He will prove Himself

faithful in your situation. Amen. Amen. Beloved, let us pray. Father,

we thank You for Your Word that has come to

us this morning. We ask for the grace and the

strength to be able to spend time with you, to

be able to focus on you no matter the distractions

and the storms that comes our way, so that we'll

be rooted and built up in you and that our

faith will be strengthened. In Jesus' name, Amen. Beloved, God

bless you so much. We'll take our memory verse from

Psalm 27, verse 4. Psalm 27, verse 4. One thing

Psalms 27:4 Psalms 27:4

have I desired of the Lord that I will seek after,

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life, to behold the beauty

of the Lord and to inquire, Amen.

Beloved, Do not let the storms of life cause you

to take your attention off Jesus. Stay focused on the Master.

and you shall ride over every storm in life in

Jesus' name. I trust you have been blessed by this

morning's devotion. Do not be quick to change your dial.

Stay tuned for more Spirit-filled ministrations. And do not forget

to invite a brother and a sister and a friend

to also be blessed. Shalom and have a fruitful day. Amen.