Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to stay focused on God?  Think for a moment how many times the things of the world take center stage in our lives.  Take a situation with which you have been struggling.  Just when you think the challenge is under control, it reappears with its ingredients of doubt, anxiety, worry, and the “what ifs.”  Mixing these thoughts into our consciousness will tend to affect our spiritual life.  We know that we are to cast, throw down, and place all our cares on Him who cares so much for us. (I Peter 5:7)  But for some reason, we feel we need to use our human resources to combat life’s challenges.  It is true we have the human capacity to respond to all the aspects of life, but when the situations control our time and energy, we must reach beyond our own abilities and let God handle them.  Timing is so important.  If we hold on to the problem too long, it will make it harder and harder to disconnect from the situation.  Satan loves to have Believers second guess their actions.  The more the problem dominates our thoughts, the greater the challenge to our spiritual stability.  Thoughts like, “You should have…”, “Why didn’t you?”, “If only…”, will enter our thought compartment.  We must understand the limits to our human resources.  The sooner we do, the quicker we will learn to cast all our cares on Him!

One of the most neglected verses in the Bible is Colossians 3:1, 2.  Here Paul stresses two words that should be in every Christian’s vocabulary: Seek and Set.  We are to SEEK the things that are above, and to set our affection on Heavenly things.  To seek is to desire and enquire.  The things of the world are temporal, while the things of Heaven are eternal.  The foundation of our faith rests in the things “above,” not on the things “below.”  Would it not seem that our interests and desires should be about God and His Kingdom?  Jesus said to seek and we will find. (Matthew 7:7)  As we seek the things of God, we will find His Truths and will exhibit them in our daily lives.  We are also called to SET our affections on the eternal.  Set is to put in a specified place.  Affection is to exercise the mind, to interest oneself, to regard, and to think.  We are to set our interests on Heavenly principles.  Our interest should be in achieving the directives of our Heavenly Father.

When we seek and set our ways in the Heavenlies, we will learn quickly what His ways are.  How much of our day is spent dwelling on the negatives of life?  How much of our time is spent in self-centeredness?  How much of our prayer time is around our needs and wants?  How much of our life is around problems?  How much of our life dwells on things that are not really that important?  Let us learn to reverse our thought patterns and center on what is really important.

The Fruit of the Spirit is an example of seeking the things that originate from above.  The Holy Spirit reveals to us what He hears in the Heavenlies. (John 16:13)  The nine fruits mentioned in Galatians 5:22, 23 originate from God.  When we seek after the things of the Kingdom, we are putting our problems on notice that they will be short lived.  When we set our minds on the Heavenly, the earthly matters will be opportunities to bring glory to God.