April 6 Devotion - Keeping my focus on Jesus

But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

ونحو نصف الليل كان بولس وسيلا يصلّيان ويسبحان الله والمسجونون يسمعونهما.

Acts 16:25

I continue to learn that if I am not extremely careful, my emotions can and will govern my life.

We are all currently facing an unprecedented situation in our lives with the pandemic created by the corona virus, which is creating emotions that we have not felt before and definitely fear due to the pandemic.

God instructs us to keep our focus on Jesus in order to gain wisdom and to grow spiritually and emotionally and to have peace and joy. When I succeed in keeping my focus on Jesus, the emotional challenges and tribulations of this life fail to shake or change my outlook, hope, joy and assurance.

In “Telling Yourself the Truth”, the psychologist William Backus wrote about joy:

“Joy comes from your relationship to God and His unchanging faithfulness. You don’t need to live in perfect circumstances to be happy. The Bible tells how two men of God, Paul and Silas, were brought before Roman authorities at Philippi and beaten with rods and then thrown into jail … But did Paul and Silas moan and complain, “If it weren’t for the cruelty of the unbelievers, we wouldn’t be wounded and bleeding. We’d be happy!” No.

Paul and Silas had a strong belief that transcended circumstances, events, people, feelings; it even transcended pain. That belief was in the person, power, and presence of Jesus Christ. They believed their suffering wasn’t as important as the message they carried …

They sang so loudly their voices were heard throughout the prison! And not only that, God … opened the prison doors for them. Their happiness came from the belief in Jesus Christ within them and not from circumstances around them.”

I invite you to repeat the following prayer for yourself:

Abba Father, help me to keep my focus on the person, power, and presence of Jesus Christ in my life instead of the circumstances of my life. I thank You Jesus that You promised that You will never leave me nor forsake me. Thank you LORD that I have absolutely no doubt that You are in control of every second of my future and that through this assurance I can have an inner sense of peace that transcends all our human understanding. Thank You Father that You delight in showing me again and again that You are the source of my strength, my provision, my protection, and my ultimate joy in life. Thank You Father God for Your unfailing, inseparable, deep and everlasting love for me and Your abundant blessings in my life. Lord, I praise You, I glorify You, I lift You up on high and I rejoice in Your grace. To Him who is able to keep me from stumbling and to present me before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy, to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore. Amen. Jude 1:24-25

Jesus loves you,

In Him,

Wagdi Henein