DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION?

One of my favorite Mike Wells’ quotes goes like this…“Whatever gets your attention gets you”

This has been for me one of the most revolutionary and practical discoveries of my Christian life.

I should not be surprised at the power of paying attention when I consider the words of Psalm 1:1-3

“Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.”

Here is the truly revolutionary part of this truth about attention: Human beings are not and never will be the origin of their own reality or behavior. Human beings need a source that generates their reality and behavior. Humans need a stimulus that generates their response. Human beings need a “True Vine” and that is exactly what Jesus said he would be for us.

Thomas Kelly in “A Testament to Devotion” expresses this truth like this:

“In this humanistic age we suppose that man is the initiator and God is the responder. But the Living Christ within us is the initiator and we are the responders. God, the Lover, the accuser, the revealer of light and darkness presses within us. ‘Behold I stand at the door and knock.’ And all our apparent initiative is already a response, a testimonial to His secret presence and working within us.”

Jesus made it even more simple for us: “Without Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

Abiding is to learn to live moment by moment stimulated to fruit bearing by paying attention to the perfect presence of Christ in us. The fruit of such consistent attention to the right stimulus is the ability to love others without stopping. In other words we can be like Jesus if we focus on Jesus as our true source that abides in us right now.

Here is how the Apostle Paul expressed the impact of attention and stimulus truth on our reality and behavior in Romans 8:9-11. Notice how he uses the word “dwell” to bring this essential truth to us.

“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

I know the difference paying attention to Jesus moment by moment makes in my reality and my behavior. Jesus will make the same difference in every life because “whatever gets your attention gets you.”

“On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” John 7:37-38