The Change IS Coming…FOCUSED (Part Four)

by Alissa Griffith
(Pittsburgh, PA )

Part VI in the Change Series

Welcome to part five of the Change series… as stated in the last lesson, each week, I will leave you with a nugget from the lessons and may it help you. FOCUSED stands for: Faithful – Occupy – Commitment – Unified – Steadfast –Encouraged and Determined. This alone should help you understand how we must be so that we can live for Christ as He has called us to be.

Today’s topic is Commitment

2 Timothy 1:12 (NKJV) - For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.

Commitment to the Lord is what is needed so that we can stay focused on the path that not only He has shown us to walk, but also so we can remain in His presence for all eternity. It takes commitment to Jesus to walk in this life as it is not always easy to do.

The word of the Lord is often speaks of commitment in some way. It speaks in Psalm 37:5 that we are to commit our ways unto the Lord. (Psalm 37:5 NKJV - Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.) Yet many of us struggle with committing our ways. We end up falling back into old comfortable habits, relationships, sins and even jobs because we are falling short on the commitment to stay in His ways.

I remember when I first came to Christ; I was having a hard time committing myself to stop smoking and to stop partying because it was what was comfortable in my life, it was my life and style. I had started out on fire for the Lord and immediately stopped everything only to pick it back up after a few weeks. I could not stop doing the things that I knew I needed to stop. I could not commit.

Yet the Lord one day as I laid in bed disappointed that yet another ‘bootie call’ fell flat, reminded me that I was His child and I needed to make a choice that day about whom I was truly going to serve. This day was one of many big turnarounds in my life, as this was the day that the partying stopped. I could hear the Lord tell me that I needed to be in His word, and in prayer with Him. I heard that my life would not be right until I followed Him with my whole heart and commit my ways to His ways. Yet this is all that commitment truly is…being committed to Christ and serving Him with our whole heart.

Many times we fall short for we are not fasting, praying, and studying the word as we should. We are not allowing ourselves to be unified with others that are likeminded with Christ. These are all things that will help us continue to walk and stay committed to Christ and walk according to His will and His way.

When we do what the word says, we will find that the Lord does what His word says. When we are struggling with things in our lives, we can rely on the word of the Lord that tells us to trust in Him and that He is our strength. We will learn to commit our ways in the Lord and allow our thoughts to be established in Him. Yet all of this is a process and something that we each have to work out before the Lord for ourselves. It is our commitment to Christ that will make the difference in our lives for once we are committed and truly focused on what He is calling us to do, we will see that ALL things will work out for our good.

Just want to leave you with these two scriptures to help encourage you in the Lord.

Isaiah 26:4 (NKJV) - Trust in the LORD forever, for in YAH, the LORD, is everlasting strength.

Proverbs 16:3 (NKJV) - Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.