O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. Psalm 34:3 (KJV)
When I was doing some research to prepare a teaching on the topic of stress, I came across a video from an expert on panic attacks. As he described the symptoms, I could actually feel my physical state change.
He explained how one’s heart begins to race and how he begins to feel a sense of impending doom. As he described this, I could feel my own heart rate increase and my breathing become shallow. I was getting anxious just studying anxiety!
Focus is powerful because you magnify what you focus on. When you look at an ant through a magnifying glass, it looks like a monster. The ant doesn’t become a monster, but it looks like one.
Magnifying something doesn’t actually make it bigger, it just makes it look bigger to you.
When you focus on God, you magnify Him in your life. God is bigger than anything you could ever imagine so you can’t make Him bigger by focusing on Him. But you’re making your personal perspective and experience of Him greater.
The same is true with stress. If you focus on the things that cause you stress, you make them appear bigger. You may think that you need to focus on your problems to solve them, but they should never take up all of your focus.
Think about problems long enough to come up with a solution and an action plan. Then move your focus right back to the One you can trust to take you through it all.