One Focus

4"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! 5"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6"These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7"You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8"You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. 9"You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 Distractions. Life is full of them. Competition is fierce for your energy, dollars, time and learning. Commercials are screaming or alluring your thoughts and heart to want whatever it is that they need you to buy or believe. Without a compass, without a focus, we can easily end up drifting through life, moving at the will of the swells and currents around us instead of setting a course that brings glory to our God. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is not one voice in the midst of the world asking you for your focus. This section of Scripture is giving us the one focus necessary for true fulfillment, happiness and purpose. There is only one God in all of creation and our allegiance is to be His alone. I’m sure that one reason that the Bible states that there is but One God is that there actually are other entities vying for our attention – powerful things that promise fulfillment, even only if it is temporary. Because there are things to distract us from having a primary focus on the One who created us, we should be reminding ourselves, our families and our friends that God is One and He is to be our One focus. Verse 5 teaches me that God wants everything about me to be focused on Him, my love, my being my mind and even my energy. To respond to the God who gave me life in a lesser fashion is diminishing His influence in my life. Verse 6 tells me that this is actually a command. God is commanding my all be focused on Him first and above everything else in life. God desires that my love for Him stems from my heart, not just because I’m suppose to love Him. Verse 7 teaches me about the importance of living out God being One and the center of my life, my one focus. We are to teach or discuss this single principle of God’s supremacy at every opportunity that we have with our children. We should recognize God in our drive to the supermarket, as we put a loaf of bread in the basket, when we stop and fill up the car with fuel or when we put on our gloves to pull weeds in the yard. We should teach our family to be thankful when our pay checks are cashed or our car breaks down. Verses 8-9 teach me that I’m very forgetful of God’s graciousness to me. I’m so forgetful that I should put reminders on my hands, my forehead and on my front door along with on my refrigerator. I need not so subtle reminders of God’s goodness and supremacy in my life. He is God and there is no other. What does a One Focused life look like? I would like to encourage you to think through that for yourself and your family. What changes in you when you filter all of life’s decisions and distractions through Jesus?