“Lord, You have always been our eternal home, our hiding place from generation to generation” (Psalm 90:1 TPT). The Psalmist makes this declaration, yet it’s not something we always live out. We may know that as believers in Jesus, as children of God, that we are held in the safety of His hands (John 10:28). We know that we are eternally secure, that we may die once but we live forever— that because of the resurrection of Christ Jesus, we too are raised to life (Romans 6:4, Colossians 2:12).
Yes, we may know these things and we may declare these things. Living them out is different though. We often live with a temporal perspective. We focus on the kingdom we are building — our own kingdom. We focus on our home here. Though we are not of the world, we focus a lot on the world (John 15:19). Our dreams, our plans, our thoughts — the world seems to invade all of these areas of our lives.
As children of God, we are meant to build the kingdom of God. This means that our focus should be on God — our dreams, our plans, our thoughts — these should all be with God at the center. When our focus is eternal, we live differently. We are Kingdom-focused.
How do we try to stay eternally focused? Start the day with Jesus. Read His Word. Spend time in prayer and in worship. Continue to invite Him into each moment as you continue your day. Yes, your focus may drift. We are apt to drift, which is why Paul reminds us on what to think about — “what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable… things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (Philippians 4:8 NIV). If we focus on our focus — if we continue to fix our focus throughout the day — we will spend more time living with our eternal home mindset and be more Kingdom focused.
Tania Gutekunst 