Counselor's Corner: What's Blocking Your View of God's Goodness?

Are you able to see clearly the goodness of God in your life, or do you instead see what’s wrong?

My husband recently planted some really nice trees in my backyard alongside my fence to the left of my office. I have a large window in my office that I can see straight out into my backyard to view these newly planted trees, but I can’t really see the trees. I should be able to see the trees but right in front of these trees is a large pile of stacked wood and trash from a project that we did in the Fall. If I look closely I can see the tops of the trees, but I catch myself instead staring at the large trash pile blocking my way of the beautiful trees. My focus is not on the beautiful trees but on the stack of trash.

There is so much of God’s goodness all around us, but sometimes our views of His goodness gets blocked. How does this happen?

·         The enemy magnifies and distorts what is around us to make our problems seem larger or more threatening than they really are, hence our focus becomes on the amplification of the situation.

·         We become tuned-in to the frequency of what the enemy is trying to speak and confirm to us about our situations. The enemy is a master illusionist, if he can make you think and believe your situation is out of control by using props, people, and places you can easily begin to agree with the illusion.

·         Once our focus in turned towards the exaggerated problems, we no longer can view the goodness around us. At this point all we can hear and see is what the enemy is doing, hence God’s goodness gets blocked.

The enemy is not only a master illusionist at creating problems that seem to demand our attention but is relentless with the numerous attempts to get our focus and cause preoccupation with the issues. When these types of attacks come your way, you will need to be intentional in focusing on what is right. CHOOSE to write down at least (5) things that you are grateful for every day and CHOOSE to speak what your blessings are out loud every day. Turn your attention immediately from problems, distractions, and situations that seem persistent, frequent, and larger than you can handle. Go somewhere quiet and pray, breathe, and ask God to intervene. Then REFOCUS on what is good.

If you find yourself getting upset easily, agitated, aggravated, irritated or distracted when think about or are around certain situations, it is an indicator your focus is on the problem!  

Today, as challenging and unrelenting your circumstances may be, CHOOSE to focus on the good, your blessings, and turn your attention immediately from whatever is causing you to focus your attention on the problem.