It seems like everything in the world is trying to distract us from truly focusing on Jesus.
Social media, movies, music, friends, sports, school, and work etc. While those things aren’t necessarily harmful in and of themselves, it seems many of us have found ourselves obsessed with everything but our relationship with God.
I’m just as guilty as the next girl.
I’ll admit that it’s really hard to keep my heart focused on Jesus. I find myself distracted and not living for what really matters. I don’t want this to be my story though. I’m sure you don’t either.
To help us fight the battle and intentionally work on our relationship with God, I’ve come up with ten tips. These are ten ideas that can to help us in our pursuit of having a heart that’s truly focused on Christ.
This Psalm is a beautiful portrayal of what it really looks like to be focused on Jesus.
Psalm 42:1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
That’s my prayer. That each one of us will make this verse the cry of our hearts. That would be willing to do whatever it takes to make Christ our one true desire.
10 Tips to Keep Your Heart Focused on Jesus
1. Get in the Word
This is the most important tip by far. We have to get ourselves into the Word of God.
Hebrews 4:12 says that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
We need to take the Word of God seriously. We need to make time for it in our lives. We need to dig, study, search and making finding truth a priority in our lives.
2. Pray for Strength
You do not have to do this on your own. God is the one who will give you the strength to live for Him and be faithful until the end. You don’t’ have to follow the crowds. You don’t have to give into peer pressure. You can, by God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit within you, follow Him whole-heartedly.
Take time to pray and ask God to strengthen you. Ask God to give you boldness. Ask God to make you a brave woman for His glory.
3. Find a Mentor to Help You
Keeping your heart focused on Christ is not an easy thing to do. We wrestle against our own sinful hearts as well as the enemy (Satan). You need to value the state of your heart and fight for it. Don’t just casually stroll through life thinking that you will choose truth. You won’t.
The Bible specifically calls older women to teach younger women. We see in Titus 2 that this is God’s good design for younger women. We can learn what is true from the godly women who are further along in life. We need their help.
4. Confess When you Sin
We do not have to fear confessing our sins to God. He is not a big bad God in the sky waiting to pounce on us every time we fail. He loves us and promises to forgive us if we ask Him.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
When you sin (which we will all do until the day we die), take the time to confess it to God and repent. You can trust that God will forgive you when you ask Him.
5. Get Rid of the Lies
This is a tricky one. If you really want to keep your heart focused on Christ, don’t continue listening to things and doing things that are filled with lies. Things that are opposed to God’s Word. Things that keep your heart focused on self and the temporal. Get serious about getting serious and get rid of whatever is fueling lies in your life.
That may mean finding new friends, switching jobs, deleting social media accounts, blocking certain numbers, or throwing away certain music or shows etc.
If you truly want to keep your heart focused on Christ, you’ve got to get serious about it.
6. Fill your Mind with Truth
On the opposite hand, we need to replace those lies with truth. Ephesians 4:22-24 talks about the importance of putting off the bad, renewing your mind in truth, and putting on the good. There are so many amazing resources to help fill your mind with truth.
You can read biblically sound Christian books. We have three you can start with. Check those out here. You can replace your unhelpful music with modern Christian praise music. Attend a Christian Conference to help you grow in your faith.
The goal is to take practical steps to fill your mind and heart with truth. Begin fueling your passion for what God says is good and right.
7. Find a Solid Community
This is HUGE! Friendships and community have the biggest impact on each of our lives. My dad used to say, “show me your two best friends today and I’ll show you who you will be tomorrow.” That statement is so true. We are influential beings. We will become like the people we spend time with. Take your friendships seriously.
If you’re in a community or group of friends that isn’t pushing you closer to Christ, I would strongly encourage you to begin looking for a new group. You need to proactively search for a group of friends that genuinely love God and push you closer to Him.
8. Get Accountability
If you truly want to keep your heart focused on Christ, I encourage you to get accountability. That may look like one-on-one accountability (someone to keep you on track with the things you know you’re supposed o be doing), or that might look like a small group at your church. The goal is to find a godly person (or people) that can come into your life and speak the truth. They can lovingly correct you when they see you’re getting off track.
Accountability is such a valuable asset to your life. These people are the ones that can truly help you become the future person that you want to be.
9. Don’t take the Second Look
It’s time to nip temptation in the bud. Think of Eve and the fruit in the garden. What happened to her? She knew where the fruit was and she went towards it. She lingered in its presence. She took the second look and she was deceived.
Don’t take the second look. If you’re tempted with porn, don’t hold your phone in your hand, staring at the screen. Throw your phone out of your room and call a godly friend to pray for you. Don’t linger in the face of temptation.
The more you can avoid “the second look” the more you will avoid giving into temptation.
10. Acknowledge That Life is a Spiritual Battle
The bottom line is this. We need to acknowledge that we are in a spiritual battle. We can’t live life like we’re not. If we do, we will be overcome. It’s time to take our spiritual life more seriously. It’s time to value our relationship with God. It’s time to take our lives more seriously and value it like it matters for all of eternity. Because it really does.
What about you? Which of these ten tips do you most need to work on?
Leave a comment below letting me know.
