Sabbath Devotional :: Where is Our Focus?

Image Source: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Media Library

“The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the FOCUS of our lives.” — President Russell M. Nelson

There are so many things swirling around in my life right now. We have gone through moving into a new home we have built over the last five months. We were without internet or cable for the first week. (It’s so much fun hot spotting off your cell phone during election week!) Unpacking, acclimating to the area, and attending a new ward. Having people in and out of your home amidst this COVID pandemic add to the challenge. We had a tithing settlement with our new bishop the second Sunday in the ward. It was a spiritually-strengthening experience. It gave me the opportunity to focus on what was most important, where my eternal joy can be found, as President Nelson stated above.

As we all know, trials can really test your faith, if we are not careful. My husband and I were reading Mormon 1, and in verse 18 “. . . the inhabitants thereof began to hide up their treasures in the earth; and they became slippery, because the Lord had cursed the land, that they could not hold them, nor retain them again.” All this happened because of the hardness of their hearts. They could not retain their treasures against the Gadianton robbers. They also lost the privilege of the companionship of the Holy Ghost, which was more important. There was witchcraft, sorceries, and the evil one’s powers were magnified. They had their focus on the wrong thing.

As instructed in the last General Conference, I have been slowly searching for the Lord’s promises that President Nelson instructed us to look for in the scriptures, pondering them. One theme continues as I write them down: Repenting of my shortfalls and then having the companionship of the Holy Ghost.

What is the focus of our lives? Are we so busy collecting more stuff, stressed with worldly occurrences, that we forget the purpose of our mortal life? When I feel disconnected and overwhelmed I get on my knees. It provides an opportunity to reconnect.

In Mormon 3:2 the young Mormon was instructed by the Lord to “Cry unto this people, repent ye, and come unto me, be ye baptized and build up again my church and ye shall be spared.”

There is the repetitive message again. The Lord is providing another opportunity to be focused on the most important thing they can do: focus on Him.

This young leader Mormon receives revelation to cry repentance again. (Can you imagine having that amount of responsibility, leading your people in this mortal conflict from your teen years onward?) He implores them to focus on centering their lives around Christ instead of their treasure and retaliation. It is HE who provides their victories and spared them.

He tells them they have been given one last chance to repent. But no, their success was seen as personal success. They hardened their hearts to the Lord.

I would ask us, how can we apply these scriptures to ourselves?

Do we boast in our own strength, as the Nephites did? Do we lose our own focus? Are we too busy with all the hubbub in our lives to repent of our own self-centered behavior?

When I was around 8 years old, in the 1960’s, I went to school in Chicago. I was chosen to sing in a select choir. It was directed by local nuns. There was a song we sang during the performance. The chorus still runs through my head: “When I fall to my knees with my face to the rising sun, oh Lord have mercy on me. . . .” I don’t remember or have not been able to identify the name of the song, but those verses have meaning for me.

Right now, post-election, we are still in turmoil. Worse yet, the COVID scourge continues world-wide on an upward trajectory. There is mistrust. Can we not stop and search for and then remember the promises that can be ours, if we depend on Him? But we need to fall on our knees and ask for guidance from our Father in Heaven. We need to focus on Him, and the Savior. Strength will be provided when we don’t have personal reservoirs.

Make sure we do this sisters, don’t just lean on our own understanding. FOCUS.