Today’s Bible study from the Standing on Faith in the Storms of Life series is all about choosing to focus on God instead of our fears and anxieties. While I encourage you to grab a Bible and a notebook and pen for the Journaling and Reflection section, you may prefer to just think about the prompts or skip them entirely.
Read: Colossians 3: 1-11
Key Verse
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Colossians 3:2
What Does It Mean?
This section of Paul’s letter to the Colossians is subtitled “Living as Those Made Alive in Christ” (NIV). When we belong to Jesus and have surrendered to Him, we have to live differently from the way we lived before we became Christians.
Our life before Christ could be characterised by anxiety and fear because those are the common symptoms of a life lived without the hope of eternity and trust in God. The Greek word translated mind means to think, have a mindset, and be minded.
The activity represented by this word involves the will, affections, and conscience. We have to consciously shift our thoughts from the fear and anxiety caused by our circumstances and focus instead on our God, who is trustworthy, on His wisdom, which is far superior to our own, and on eternity, which is the anchor of our hope. Setting our hearts and minds on God changes our perspective.
The difficulties don’t go away, but we can view them through the lens of eternity and so bypass fear and anxiety. The word translated ‘set’ literally means to ‘seek, in the sense of to endeavor, to try to gain, to strive after, with the idea of earnestness’.
Whatever the circumstance, we have to strive to have an eternal perspective, to intentionally seek out the truths of God’s Word that can strengthen and encourage us in our times of difficulty. The more time we spend reading God’s Word and putting our focus on God, the easier we will find it to set our hearts and minds on things above.
Bottom Line
As difficult as it sometimes seems, the most important thing we can do when we are facing difficulties is to lift our attention from the troubles and fix our hearts and minds on God. We can focus, too on the promises of His Word, and the hope that we have in eternity with Him.
If we are focused on our troubles, we will inevitably experience anxiety and fear; when we focus on God and fix our hearts and minds on eternity our circumstances don’t change, but we’re able to view them differently, without fear and anxiety.
Journaling and Reflection
- Setting our hearts and minds on things above allows us to shift our perspective. What practical steps can you take to make sure you’re focusing on eternity and not on anxiety?
- The more time we spend reading God’s Word, the easier it is to focus on the things above. How much time do you spend reading the Bible? How can you make changes?
Prayer Pointers
Thank God that through Him, we are able to live changed lives. Ask Him to help you fix your heart and mind on eternity when you face difficult circumstances.
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