Distraction and Discouragement

When we focus on what we don‘t have, we miss opportunities - distraction

When we focus on unfair outcomes, we live life afraid to move forward or make decisions - discouragement

When we focus on obedience to God, distraction and discouragement will not overcome us

Ever been in a situation when things start not going well and you start expecting it to go badly and you become so consumed with the fear that you do fail?

There is a psychological concept called self-fulfilling prophecy:

A self-fulfilling prophecy is the sociopsychological phenomenon of someone "predicting" or expecting something, and this "prediction" or expectation coming true simply because the person believes it will and the person's resulting behaviors align to fulfill the belief. This suggests that people's beliefs influence their actions. The principle behind this phenomenon is that people create consequences regarding people or events, based on previous knowledge.

In other words, when I believe something will fail I will act distracted and discouraged resulting in me actually failing. I cause the failure based on my belief.

What if we turned that around? What if we aligned ourselves with God and believed our obedience was the path to winning? It may not be the exact result you imagined, but you are winning. For example, you didn’t get the job or promotion because God has a bigger opportunity and plan.

The parable in Mathew 25:14-30 is a great example of this. One servant is faithful with much and one with little and they are both rewarded. The one with much was not haughty and the one with little didn’t complain he didn’t get a fair amount. However, the third servant acted on fear and hid what was given to him. The gift was taken away from the third servant for doing nothing and it was give to someone else to be more abundant.

To some God will give much, to some little - but whatever is given should not be dishonored or passively unused. He has chosen you with the gifts given to you as He sees is best for you. Stay strong in faith and know that what God has given you, when used, is about God working in you not about fairness or what you do or do not have. Do something with what God has given you and trust that you will live an abundant life. I do not mean you will be rich, famous, or an Olympic athlete - but you will have a joyful and fulfilling life - that kind of abundance - when you are faithful.