Your 180-Degree Pivot

Your 180-Degree Pivot

Priscilla ShirerBy Priscilla Shirer4 Minutes

Your turnaround will start when you fix your eyes on God
instead of staring at your problems.

Focus on the God who is able will connect your current reality with His present ability. But in order to do that—in order to experience Him now, to burst through the cloud cover that’s keeping you from catching the rays of His light—you need to make a deliberate decision to change your perspective.

This will require some action on your part, beginning with a simple choice to pivot your attention 180 degrees away from where you’re typically accustomed to looking. Away from what’s frustrating you. Away from what’s frightening you. Away from what’s stealing all your joy and confidence.

Away from the darkness, to look toward the light.

If you expect to see God’s ability in the here and now, it will require a turning. And this turning, according to Paul, is a turning to God:

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think… (Ephesians 3:20).

People often think of turning to Jesus as being a bit too impractical in terms of spiritual advice. Turning to Jesus. Looking to Jesus. What does that really mean?

Well, see if this doesn’t clear it up in your mind a bit…

Quit staring at your problems!

While we seem to find the concept of turning to Jesus a bit mysterious, we don’t have any difficulty turning to our aches and pains and wants and lacks. They’re often all we think about. We stare at them through the windshield when we’re driving. We paint them on the back of our eyelids at night. We measure them, compare them, analyze them, and dissect them. If our eye catches a headline that refers to them or a talk show that addresses them, we stop what we’re doing to watch, and read, and listen, and commiserate.

We can’t get enough of them.

Your problems will take all your energy and attention if you let them, because they hate being ignored. They’ll scream and squeal and pout and protest. They’ll remind you what all could go wrong if you dare to overlook them. And when they’re not pressing your anxiety buttons, they’re pushing their load of candied addictions at you, offering to sell cheap wares for the relief you crave.

Poor you.

Poor me.

I’ll admit, I’ve sometimes sat during Sunday services and found my mind wandering back to my worries and concerns—even there, even in church, even after singing His praise and exalting His name.

It all gets down to this: What am I lifting up as the most important, most defining thing in my life? To what am I giving the bulk of my time and effort and energy and attention?

Where am I turning? To Him? Or to them? To His ability? Or to this apparent impossibility?

God is able! Focusing on Him will turn your heart, mind, and body in the sole direction where all your help is coming from.