Pay attention

By: Monique Smith

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing RIGHT NOW, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes." Matthew 6:34

Wow! That was a Rama word for me! My my! Ever heard of a Rama word before? If not, it’s simply when God’s word seems to leap off the page and jump into your face! You may have read that scripture hundreds of times before but in this instance, you gain a new revelation about it or something finally “hits” you! This is exactly what this verse did to me! I was scrolling through a friend’s facebook page, and BAM, all in my face this scripture just grabbed me!

I believe this scripture stuck out so much to me today because I am such a planner! I really like to have my schedule set in advance and most times don’t like to come up with sporadic, spur of the moment plans. So with my planning and “multi-tasking” I often times overlook and miss out on the awesome things God is doing in my life at that specific moment….because my mind is already into next week or even next year! Crazy right?

This scripture was a great alarm to me and to my busy lifestyle to slowwwww down and enjoy life’s scenery and blessings.  God wants my full attention on what he is doing right now, like literally right now in my life. In the relationships I have, in the job position I am in, in the city I am in, God wants me to focus and really get the most out of everything. Often times it is SO easy to already see yourself in a “more established” lifestyle, which is married with a full time career in my mind, and so easy to ignore and brush over the stage God has you in right now. There’s no point in fussing and worrying about what could happen tomorrow or next year! God will help you with that! I was just venting to my cousin about still being unsure as to what I wanted to go to graduate school for after I complete my last year of being a college adviser because currently, I have no concrete program in mind. But pause. I haven’t even completed my first year of being a college adviser, so why am I freaking out over what I am to do once my assignment is complete in May 2013? I should chill. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty sure God wants us to be ambitious and set goals for our lives, but this should not be a source of worry and confusion for us. We can’t control it anyways. As the scripture says, God will help us deal with whatever happens when it happens.

Another way this scripture spoke to me is dealing with death. A high school/neighborhood friend of mine passed away last week at the tender age of 19. This completely caught me off guard and left me laying awake in tears one night thinking about him as well as “what ifs” concerning other people in my life. So yea, that night was rough because I was adding imaginary grief on top of current grief and just making things much harder for myself. As stated above, we can’t control things anyways, so why waste time and energy worrying about how I would deal with loosing my little brother or my best friend, when God clearly tells me He will help me deal with those hard things when they come up!

Man God is so great and its such a blessing to truly be in a relationship with Him! It’s so liberating and really has allowed me to live my life in full and opened so many doors for me and has enlightened me on so many levels! My prayer for you is to focus all your attention on the ways God is working specifically in your life and on the purpose that is placed in your life! Enjoy God more and learn from Him. : )  I love you!! <3

P.S. I included the section of scriptures that came before the highlighted scripture, below. All of these scriptures were on point! Enjoy! (This is from the Msg version Bible)

 ^19-21"Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.

 ^22-23"Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!

 ²⁴"You can't worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you'll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can't worship God and Money both.

 ^25-26"If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

 ^27-29"Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

 ^30-33"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.