Moving the focus
To him who is able to keep you from falling, and to bring you faultless and joyful before his glorious presence - to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, from all ages past, and now, and for ever and ever! Amen. Jude 1 : 24 - 25 (GNB) |
It is quite possible that you hear something like this at the end of your services at church. This short prayer is found at the end of the book of Jude, a single chapter book. In this prayer we see Jude thanking God for always being there and celebrating his authority.
However it is the twenty three verses leading up to this prayer and the shift in focus for these final two that I am going to look at briefly today.
The bulk of the book of Jude is dealing with the problems in his community. A society that has become accustomed to living in the gutter. A community filling their lives with all the wrong things. Listening to false teachers, sleeping around, ignoring God and essentially living and behaving like animals. Jude spends much of this passage highlighting all of the things which are bad and broken within their society. He then urges the people to change and warns them of the consequences if they do not listen to his advice.
All of this is quite negative, however as we reach the final verses of his book, this week's passage the focus changes. Jude finishes by focusing on the thing which is the most important, God. This is a powerful illustration of the way that we should also live our lives. Although we spend most of our time being bogged down with the nitty gritty of what is happening around us, whether that be good (or like in Jude's case bad) this shouldn't be the key focus or closing statement.
Whatever situation we find ourselves in we need to remember to switch our focus and remember God. Not only this no matter how hard it might seem we should be joyful and thankful towards him. This week make sure you keep the right things in focus. Have a great week.
This week's song is My own little world by Matthew West. |
Header image by: Michael Dales via Flickr