“Keeping your eyes on Jesus, on whom your faith depends.” Hebrews 12:2 NLT.

“Goals set focus; focus directs desire; desire affects direction; direction chooses destination.”

My thoughts today are about “a right goal and a fixed focus.”

After some minor but unpleasant mishaps or near mishaps, Gayle and I have agreed on a simple rule: an automobile should never be moving in a direction the driver is not looking. Such a simple focus eliminates a lot of regrets. Breaking my own rule one day, when I was in a hurry and distracted, left a clear reminder on the back bumper of my car. I backed into a light pole in a parking lot – quite a surprise and sudden stop! I looked that direction then, but it was a bit too late to avoid the abrupt stop.

That seems a good rule for life as well. First, determine which direction you ought to go, and then direct your focus there. You will always be drawn the direction you are looking. Focus directs desires; desire chooses direction; direction determines destination. You need never end up where you never intended to go.

My friend, Campbell, occasionally reminded me, “The heart cannot desire what the eye has not seen.” You can control your desires, because you alone determine your focus, and that decides your desires and ambitions, and therefore, determines your achievements. When you fail to do so, life does not work as well. Avoid distractions from steering your heart away from your goal. See Psalm 57:7 KJV/112:6-8 NIV.

People who focus on the positive and possible are encouraged to move in those directions. People who focus on the difficult and negative find themselves moving that direction. It is good advice to “focus on the new, not the old,” so that life is forward looking and forward moving – looking, reaching, expecting. Don’t let anything from yesterday keep you from looking forward to today.

Here’s a very practical thing the Apostle Paul did, and you must learn to do also. It is not complicated; it’s just one thing! “This one thing I do, forgetting the things that are past, and reaching for the things that are ahead, and pressing toward the goal of the high calling of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 3:13 NKJV. That may sound like three things, but it is really just one thing! You can’t press until you reach, and you won’t reach until you release whatever would push you back instead of pull you forward. See Psalm 27:4 NLT.

There is a qualifier for your success in life. It’s takes more than just focus; you have to have the right goal, and keep a fixed focus. Anything less than the goal “of the high calling of Jesus Christ,” is just an unwanted and misleading distraction. The Bible teaches that life’s success comes, “by keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom your faith depends from start to finish.” Hebrews 12:2 NLT/TEV.

Here is His wondrous promise, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old is gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV. Now that is something in which I can believe.

My prayer for you today is to know that tomorrow is built on the foundation of today.