Lack of Focus and Faith

14 At the bottom of the mountain, they were met by a crowd of waiting
people. As they approached, a man came out of the crowd and fell to his knees
begging, 15 "Master, have mercy on my son. He goes out of his mind and
suffers terribly, falling into seizures. Frequently he is pitched into the fire,
other times into the river. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they
could do nothing for him." 17 Jesus said, "What
a generation! No sense of God! No focus to your lives! How many
times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up
with this? Bring the boy here." 18 He ordered the afflicting demon out -
and it was out, gone. From that moment on the boy was well. 19 When the
disciples had Jesus off to themselves, they asked, "Why couldn't we throw it
out?" 20 "Because you're not yet taking God
seriously," said Jesus. "The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of
faith, a poppy seed, say, you would tell this mountain, 'Move!' and it would
move. There is nothing you wouldn't be able to
tackle." Matthew 17: 14-20 (emphasis mine)

Each day as I do my morning bible reading, I look for a verse that stands out and speaks to me. This morning I was reading Matthew 17. I found it interesting how The Message translated verse 17. Jesus seems a bit frustrated and disgusted when a boy with a demon is brought to him after his disciples failed to cast it out. He says, "What a generation! No sense of God! No focus to your lives!" Did earlier generations have a true sense of God? I'm sure Adam and Eve did and probably several generations after them. Perhaps, by the time of Noah, that sense of God was nearly gone (except for perhaps Noah and his family) and that is why He was so discouraged with man.

So what is Jesus saying here? We should have a sense of God and a focus in our lives. It seems pretty clear that God should be that focus. Perhaps, because He goes on to discuss faith, faith could be described as focus on God.

So, then I need to ask myself, "What am I focusing on each day?" Even if my intent may be to focus on God, I think I get too distracted with the acts of living and doing the work each day of being a wife and mother. The crazy thing is that this work is from God. So how do I have a sense of God in my day to day, moment by moment actions? So what is the trick to keeping Him in forefront of our thoughts as we cook a meal, wash a dish or hang some clothes? Perhaps I need regular reminders of Him. Those could be items in my view to reminds me to focus on God such as bible verses tacked up or a symbol placed where my eye falls during my work. Another thought is to create benchmarks in my day where I stop my activity to pray. We do this at mealtimes already, but I could also listen for the clock to chime and stop to say a short prayer and make sure my focus is on God in the midst of my activity. I am going to try these things. I believe that if I had that sense of God throughout my day, I would make better choices, have more patience and be at peace no matter what the circumstances. And that is my desire.