Have you ever noticed that once you decide to buy something, like a new car or a particular brand of shoes, you suddenly see that item everywhere? It’s not that those things just appeared out of thin air—they’ve always been there. What’s changed is your focus.
This happens because of a part of your brain called the Reticular Activating System (RAS). Without diving too deep into neuroscience, the RAS acts as a filter, helping you notice what’s important while tuning out the rest. The moment you make something a priority, your RAS starts pointing it out everywhere.
For example, a few years ago, I decided I wanted a Toyota Tacoma. Before then, I’d hardly noticed them, but as soon as I made that decision, I began to see Tacomas at every stoplight. The same principle applies to the rest of life: what you focus on expands.
Life is filled with distractions—work, responsibilities, entertainment, and endless notifications competing for our attention. It’s estimated that the average person is exposed to 5,000 to 10,000 advertisements every day. Without the RAS filtering out what’s unimportant, we’d be overwhelmed.
This is why your focus is crucial. If you’re constantly dwelling on negative thoughts, problems, or what’s missing from your life, that’s exactly what you’ll see more of. On the flip side, when you choose to focus on positivity, gratitude, and God’s work in your life, you start to see more of those things. What you give your attention to will expand.
The Bible emphasizes this concept of focus. Colossians 3:1-2 says, “Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is... Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” The word “set” here is a verb—it requires action. Paul knew that life would pull our attention toward problems, distractions, and earthly concerns. That’s why he encouraged us to intentionally focus on what truly matters: our relationship with God.
In Hebrews 12:1-2, we’re called to “run with endurance the race God has set before us” by keeping our eyes on Jesus. This, too, requires effort. If we’re not proactive, our focus will naturally shift toward everything else but God.
If you’re feeling distant from God or overwhelmed by life’s problems, ask yourself: Where is my focus? Many times, I’ve found myself coasting through life, distracted by work, entertainment, and stress. It wasn’t until I took an honest look at my priorities that I realized I wasn’t truly focused on God.
To experience the fullness of a relationship with Him, we need to be intentional. You can’t expect to feel close to God if you’re spending all your time on things that pull you away from Him. Just as I started noticing Tacomas everywhere once I decided they were important, you’ll start to see God working in your life when you make Him your focus.
One practical way to fix your focus on God is something I call the “Morning Gaze.” What you focus on first thing in the morning sets the tone for your entire day. If you wake up and immediately check your phone—whether it’s social media, the news, or email—you’re starting your day on someone else’s terms, reacting to what the world throws at you.
Instead, I encourage you to make time for God in the morning. This doesn’t have to be a long, elaborate ritual, but it should be intentional. Spend a few moments in prayer, read a passage of Scripture, or simply sit in gratitude. Psalm 143:8 says, “Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust.”
By setting your focus on God first, you train your mind to look for His activity throughout the day. Just as you can train your RAS to notice a specific car or brand, you can train your mind to recognize the blessings and work of God in your life.
In a world that’s constantly vying for your attention, it takes effort to keep your mind on what truly matters. When you find yourself focusing on negativity, distractions, or things that aren’t serving you, pause and remind yourself: Fix your focus. Whether it’s through morning prayer, reading Scripture, or simply being mindful of God’s presence throughout the day, choose to direct your thoughts toward Him.
When you fix your focus on God, you’ll start to see His work in your life everywhere you go. You’ll experience more joy, peace, and purpose as your attention shifts from the distractions of the world to the One who sustains you.
So, where is your focus today? And how can you start intentionally fixing it on God?
Start your day with God – Before reaching for your phone, spend a few moments in prayer or reading the Bible. Set your heart and mind on Him before the distractions begin.
Pause throughout the day – When you find yourself getting overwhelmed or focused on negativity, take a moment to pause and refocus on God. A simple prayer or a deep breath can help realign your thoughts.
Limit distractions – Be mindful of what’s vying for your attention. Whether it’s social media, news, or work, create boundaries that allow you to focus more on what matters.
Reflect on gratitude – Keep a gratitude journal or take time each day to reflect on the blessings in your life. This will help train your mind to see the good that God is doing around you.
Remember, what you focus on expands. Fix your focus on God, and watch how it transforms your life.
Have you noticed when you want to buy something, like a new car, or a certain pair of shoes, or a certain brand of clothing, all of a sudden you start to see those exact things everywhere right?
I remember a few years back when I wanted a Toyota Tacoma truck. I decided that was the truck that I wanted. Then I swear, it felt like every single person in the city was driving a tacoma. Every time I would get in the car and drive somewhere, I would see someone driving a tacoma.
Before, when I wasn’t in the market for a new truck, I never noticed people driving tacoma’s.
Those same Tacoma’s were always there, but I never noticed them before.
How this works is something called the Reticular Activating System. Without getting too scientific, this is pretty much the part of the brain that gives weight to the important things in your life and filters out the things that are not important.
So when I decided that Tacoma’s were important to me, my reticular activating system fired up to help me start to notice these.
It plays a really important role in our lives. In America, it’s estimated that you see on average about 5,000 - 10,000 advertisements every single day. You are bombarded with messages all day long. There are so many things coming at you that are competing for your attention.
Without the reticular activating system filtering out what is important and what we should pay attention to, our brains would get overwhelmed.
In life, what you focus on expands. What you choose to give your time, energy, and attention to will expand.
If you focus on things that are positive, you are going to find positive things everywhere. If you train your reticular activating system to focus on negative things, things that you don’t have, things that you can complain about, or things that are wrong with you, that is exactly what you are going to find everywhere.
If you are going to Enjoy the Present. If you are going to live with joy and gratitude. If you are going to enjoy a deep, rich relationship with God, he must become your main focus. And you must start to do this intentionally.
This is why we are encouraged all throughout Scripture to “Fix our eyes on Jesus.”
Colossians 3:1-2
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
The word “Set” here is an action verb. It requires action on your part. It doesn’t say get up and coast through your day and hope that you think about things above.
No, Paul knows when he is writing this that our natural tendency is to get focused on the things that are right in front of us, to get focused on our problems, our responsibilities, our work….all the millions of things that can distract us from setting our minds on the things that matter.
You must intentionally choose over and over again to set your mind on the things above.
Another famous verse, Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.
It says we do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus
Again, this is action.
I don’t know about you, but if I am not intentional and I am not purposeful. I am not very good at keeping my eyes on Jesus. Very quickly, my focus gets locked onto other things that are not as important.
Where is Your Focus?
So right now, if you don’t believe you are experiencing life to the fullest. If you feel like you are coasting through life. If you feel like all you are experiencing are problems and issues, let me ask you “Where is your focus?”
What are you telling your reticular activating system to focus on? You might consciously be directing it on negative things, or most likely, it is being directed to negativity and you aren’t even fully aware of it.
If you aren’t seeing God working around you, let me ask you, where is your focus? If you don’t feel like you are close to God right now, where is your focus?
Oftentimes, I work with guys who tell me that they are not experiencing God much in their lives. They aren’t feeling Him. They aren’t seeing where he is working. Maybe you can relate right now.
When that is the case, I want to ask you, Where is your focus? What are you consciously or unconsciously spending your time and energy?
If your day is consumed by work, distractions, entertainment, shows that might not be the best for you, music that might not be the best for you, and other responsibilities that you have, and you are not creating any time to be with God, then no wonder you are not seeing Him work in your life.
I had to be brutally honest with myself this year. I wasn’t feeling happy with some areas of my life and I wasn’t feeling close to God. And then I felt like God confronted me with this exact same question, and I had to honestly say, no God was not my focus.
I was focused on building a business. I was focused on learning everything else except about God. I was focused on sports, shows, and music that weren’t good for me. So I can’t expect myself to be focused on everything but God and experience a full relationship with him.
So now, when I feel myself slipping, I just say “Fix your focus”. Focus on God. Focus on what He’s blessed you with. Focus on what He’s doing around you. Give him time. Give him energy. Give him worship.
You must focus on God. You must give him intentional thought and time in order to be aware of what He is doing in your life. You must spend time with Him in order to know him. You must spend time listening in order to hear him. You must start looking for ways that he is working around you to notice them. You have to intentionally train your reticular activating system to notice the God things in your life. To notice the blessings in your life and the things you are grateful for.
Just like how I started seeing Tacoma’s everywhere I went. You will start to see God everywhere you go.
If you’ve been in church for some time, you have probably heard preachers and people talk about making sure you spend time with God. That it’s important to read your Bible, it’s important to pray.
It’s easy to turn this into a religious duty sometimes. I’ve felt this many times in my life. Make sure you get up and check the box with your God time because this is what your supposed to do if you’re a Christian.
Instead of feeling like it is some religious duty, what if you viewed it as a way to fix your focus. What if you viewed it as a way to set that reticular activating system on what you say is the most important thing in your life.
What if you’ve viewed it as the avenue to make sure your heart and your mind are on a God who promises to give you peace. A God who promises to bring your joy.
You can’t expect to not give God any intentional time or thought and have your focus be fixed on him. I’ve done that before, and it just doesn’t work. You must have an intentional, proactive strategy for how you are going to keep your mind on Jesus when the world around you is designed for you mind to be anywhere but him.
One practical thing I want you to think about today is something I call the Morning Gaze
What you start your day focusing on has big repercussions for your entire day. Think about what you do when you first wake up, what is the first thing that you focus on?
Do you lie there and think about how horrible it is that you have to get up right now? Wishing you could just sleep all day long and forget your responsibilities? Does your mind immediately wonder to all the difficult things you’re going to have to do?
Think about the first thing that you do? Do you check your phone first thing in the morning?
80% of Americans check their phones within the first 15 minutes of the day. And I would guess the majority of those people check their phones first thing after turning off the alarm. If you use your phone as your alarm and have it right next to your bed, my guess is that right after turning off the alarm, you check your phone.
And most likely, what do you check? It’s most likely either social media, the news, or email.
Think about where those things are setting your focus. If it’s social media, a lot of the time the focus is on what seemingly amazing and perfect lives everyone else has. It jumpstarts the comparison game right away. Oftentimes, it causes you to wish you had something that other people have or that you were on that amazing vacation right now instead of lying in your bed at home.
If your morning gaze is going towards comparison and a focus on things that you don’t have, that is what you are telling your brain to focus on today.
If it’s the news first thing, you may be telling yourself to focus on the negative things happening in the world. Now you are going to see negative things all around you.
If it’s email, you are immediately focused on everyone else’s agenda for your life. It could be your boss requesting something or a team member asking you to do something. Oftentimes, email is just an organization system for other people’s agendas.
It puts your straight into reaction mode. It puts you straight into an attitude of stress.
This is why it is so important to think about where your focus is in the morning. This is why it’s always suggested to have your God time in the morning. It’s not some religious duty. It’s you saying, I want my life to be about God and so I want to set my mind on him first thing.
These verses are everywhere in Scripture:
Psalm 143:8 - "Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul."
Psalm 5:3 - "O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch."
Psalm 90:14 - "Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days."
Psalm 59:16 - "But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress."
Mark 1:35 - "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed."
How you want to set your mind on God is honestly up to you. I’m not going to say it has to be a certain length of time or it always has to be reading your Bible.
But I want you to ask yourself, how do I make sure that in the morning, I set my heart and my mind on God?
Fix your focus on God and you will start to see His activity in your life.
This takes intentionality and it takes effort on your part to Set your mind on the things above and to make sure your life is focused on God.
Use that phrase, “Fix Your Focus” throughout the day when you find yourself focusing on negative things. Use that phrase in the morning when you wake up feeling tired and you don’t want to do anything. Use that phrase when you are distracted with social media or other things pulling for your attention.
That phrase has helped me to continuously turn my attention to the things that matter the most in my life.
I believe it can do the same for you!
If this was helpful, please share it with someone you know! And I would greatly appreciate it if you would comment, rate, and like this training if it’s been impactful for you.
Thank you so much for joining me today. I believe in you! You are valuable because God made you and he doesn’t make mistakes.
Live a life you are proud of by living intentionally. See you next time.
