“Keep your eye on the ball,” the coach said. “You can’t hit it if you can’t see it! Pay attention and concentrate on what you’re looking at!”
Some people find it hard to concentrate. Their minds are all over the place. They can do something for a short time, but when you come right down to it, their attention span is not much better than that of a three-year-old – and that’s why their Christian life is so sporadic and inconsistent.
In 2 Corinthians 4:18, Paul says, “…while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Notice that Paul is talking about what we look at as Christian people. “While we look,” he says.
This word, “look” is scopeo in the Greek text, and it means “to notice something; to keep your eye on it.” We get our English word scope from this Greek word – a microscope – a periscope – a telescope. “Scope” is to look at something by concentrating your attention on it.
So, what are you looking at as you go through life? Are you distracted by all the stuff you see out there, or have you learned to concentrate on the invisible world of spiritual realities – the presence of Christ in every situation (by His Spirit) – the spiritual conflict of good and bad angels? The Bible says that we wrestle “not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). Now the problem is that we can’t see these things, so we tend to forget about them. But God wants us to concentrate on this aspect of life because our spiritual welfare depends on what we’re looking at. “While we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen…”
Say – You don’t actually have to tell people you’re seeing things that they can’t see. They’ll just think you’re crazy.