What are You Paying Attention to?

Paul said we should "set out minds on things above, not the things on earth" (Colossians 3). OK. Sounds like a good plan, but how?! Every day there are so many things that pull my attention toward the earth, keeping me earthbound. Come on! You know exactly what I am talking about...Sometimes it is really just the business of my life on earth; sometimes, though they are relationships. We all have people in our lives whose minds are very much set on earthly things, and they try to influence us to dwell on the earthy things. How do we have relationships like this without being unduly influenced by them?

Paul says in Romans 6:16 "don't you know that whatever you obey you become a slave to--whether a slave to unrighteousness or a slave to righteousness?" The word "obey" can be translated "pay attention to." It comes from the root word to "hear." When Jesus says His sheep "hear" His voice, He means they obey Him. The word for obey is simply the prefix "huper" or we might say 'super' plus the word "hear." Obeying is simply "super-hearing" or really "paying attention to" something or someone. It could also be translated "heed."

So how do I avoid becoming drawn into or becoming a 'slave' to the earthly things and earthly influences? I don't pay attention to them. I can see them; I can hear them; and I am certainly aware of them. But I do not pay undue attention to these things.

By God's grace, I am learning to pay more attention to the 'unseen' things of God, walking by faith, not by sight. The writer of Hebrews (2:1) says we should "pay much closer attention to the things we have heard..." As a counselor, I know that the primary reason people get stuck in the old ways is that they continue to pay far more attention to the "old" than to the "new," that it, their present realities in Christ.