TAKING THE FOCUS OFF OURSELVES...

I heard a visiting missionary speak recently. She's from France so I thought surely we'd hear some neat stories about that country! She was given the topic, "Jehovah Shalom, the God of Peace." She was prepared and eloquent and obviously a mature Christian. As she began she ran through a list of times in our lives we especially need peace: divorce, job loss, cancer, loss of home, child lost to death or drugs, fear of an enemy, etc. and at the end of the list she admitted that all of those things had happened to her except for one! BUT what surprised me was she said she didn't want to talk about herself. I HAVE TO ADMIT I WAS A LITTLE DISAPPOINTED... She wanted to talk about the God of Peace and us, the audience. We had some brief times of song and meditation, and then some pertinent questions.

For some time now I have craved personal testimonies from other Christian women. I wanted to know details of how they dealt with whatever life was throwing at them. Maybe I'm weird or maybe I should have been a counselor or something. It was interesting to me that this woman who had experienced so much really didn't want to talk about those things. (She did give us a chance to ask questions later) It was kind of a novel thought to me, very refreshing, actually! Someone who doesn't want to talk about themself? (Blogs exempt, of course!) From time to time I notice the true focus of songs we sing, or how my prayers focus on me and my needs and not the amazing creator. But I hadn't really thought about Bible classes and how much of that time is ALL ABOUT US, rather than God. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of discussion in the Bible of how to live the Christian life, but I think sometimes God gets the short end of the stick.

So today is a reminder to put the focus where it should be - not on ourselves, but on our heavenly Father!

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Matthew 22:37