⁴¹“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴²but only one thing is needed.^[f] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:41,42

Focusing on What’s Important

Throughout the Bible we find plenty of scripture telling us what we need to focus on. It’s very clear that if we focus on the right things we’ll have everything we need (Matthew 6:33), we’ll bear fruit John 15:7, we’ll have success (Joshua 1:8), and God will redeem our time (Eph. 5:15-17), I could go on and on. So how do we figure out what to focus on? It’s simple:

The Answer to 1,001 Questions - Keith Moore always says that the answer to 1,001 questions is simply: “Be Led”. We need to be led by God in everything we do. The truth is that if we’re being led by anything or anyone other than God – we’ll be wasting time.

Realize Everything You Do, Everywhere You Go, Everything You Say can Be on Purpose: I Cor. 9:26 says, “I run every step with purpose”. God wants to direct your steps in every area of your life. Make sure you spend time each day asking Him to show you what He wants to you to do that day.

If You Don’t Choose How You’ll Spend Your Time Others Will: Carl Sandburg said it best, “Time is the coin of your life.  It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent.  Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”

If We Focus on The Kingdom, We’ll Have all the Time we Need: Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek ye FIRST the Kingdom of God . . . and ALL these things will be added to you.” ONCE OUR TIME BECOMES IMPORTANT TO HIM, HE’LL FREE UP OUR TIME TO DO MORE IMPORTANT THINGS FOR THE KINGDOM as well as things we enjoy.

The Only Way to be Successful in All You Do - Joshua 1:8 says that we need to meditate on the Word of God day and night and ONLY THEN will we be successful in all we do. Notice it didn’t say meditating on all of the subjects of the world, peoples blog posts, peoples books, etc., but on the Word of God!

The bottom line is that if your focus all of your energy (all your heart, soul, and mind) on God then you’ll always be focusing on what’s important, you’ll accomplish more than you could imagine, you’ll be doing what God called you to do, you’ll always be at the right place at the right time, you’ll avoid a ton of trouble and pain in your life, and I can guarantee you that you’ll be changing other peoples lives.

Are you focusing on the right things?

⁴¹“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴²but only one thing is needed.^[f] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:41,42

Yesterday we discovered the best answer to the question, “What’s important”. The answer is “Less and Less” . Today I want to focus on how much time we waste on things that aren’t necessarily the best use of our time. The best of us waste hours upon hours and wonder why we don’t accomplish everything we’re supposed to or why we don’t have the peace God promised us.

The truth is everyone has 24 hours to work with – so why do some people succeed and others don’t? I truly believe it’s because successful people have learned to prioritize their life in a way that they’re able to focus on things that important and cut things that are a waste of time. I’m in the middle of learning to do this in my own life and as I evaluate my life I’ve recognized a ton of areas that I wasn’t using my time wisely. Here are some (maybe you can relate):

Lies that I’ve Bought Into When it Comes to How I Spend My Time

• I Have to Learn as Much as I can About as Many Topics as I can to Become Well Balanced- This is a hard one for me to live out – I love learning. However, I think a lot of the time we learn things just to say we learned them… I’m coming to the conclusion that if it doesn’t help somebody – it’s not worth the time to learn it.
  

• I Have to Spend an Equal Amount of Time with Everyone – As a people pleaser… this is very hard for me. However, the people that get upset about you not spending a “fair” amount of time with them are immature and most likely – have no life and they want to waste your time!
  

• I Have to Make Everybody Happy so I need to do Everything I’m Asked To – Anyone else have trouble saying no? I do, but I’ve learned this… if I don’t say no – Other people will decide how I spend my time. This may not be a big deal in the beginning, but throw a wife and kids in the picture… suddenly, it’s a big deal!
  

• I Have to Hang Out with Someone/Some People Every Night I’m Free – This is so hard for me because I love spending time with people. However, I need to have “Bubba time” to myself at least once a week. I’ve learned that if I don’t schedule this and do it on purpose – it won’t happen.
  

• Everybody That want to Talk to Me I have to Spend an Hour With – Nope! Craig Groeschel had a great post a while back that helped me with this. He said to give meetings a time limit . . . that helps!
  

• Everybody That wants Me to Help Them Actually Wants Helped – This is a hard part of ministry! A lot of people just want someone to listen to them rather than actually getting help with their problem. If people aren’t willing to do things you ask them to do to help them with their problem… you’ll ultimately be wasting your time.
  

• If I’m busy doing something – I’m accomplishing something - Busyness does not equal progress. If I’m not busy doing things that are important, if I’m just being busy for busy sake… I’m wasting my time.
  

• If I’m not doing something - I’m wasting my life away – Ok – I struggle with this one. I struggle sitting in a chair for 2 minutes in silence! However… I’ve been focusing on really just sitting and meditating on the Word, praying, and getting quiet. It’s helped a lot!

These are just a few of the big ones I’ve been recognizing in my life… tomorrow I’ll talk about what we need to be focusing on!

So what about you? What are some ways you’ve wasted your time? Some lies that you’ve bought into?

⁴¹“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴²but only one thing is needed.^[f] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:41,42

One of my favorite leadership lessons is “Focus by Asking” by Bob Biehl. In the lesson, Bob shared a conversation that went like this:

Bob’s Friend: “I’ve been asking myself one question for three years.

Bob: “One question – for three years? What is it?”

Bob’s Friend: “What’s important?”

Bob: “What have you been finding?”

Bob’s Friend: “Less and Less“

God’s really been dealing with my heart about what is important in life and the answer really is – less and less! In a world where we constantly have millions of ideas, concepts, items, theories, and people demanding our attention, we often find our focus spread thin.

I believe God wants to reveal to us what is important to Him, which according to Jesus, is one thing! If we’ll learn what that one thing is and make that our focus, I believe all the other arenas of our lives will take care of themselves. So over the next few days I want to unwrap this thought of figuring out what is important.

Thoughts?