How to focus, according to the Bible

“One thing I ask from the Lord...that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple." — David, Psalm 27:4

“You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.” — Winston Churchill

In 1979, a passenger jet carrying 257 people left New Zealand for a sightseeing flight to Antarctica and back.

Unknown to the pilots, however, there was a very minor two-degree error in the flight coordinates. 

A couple hours into the tour through heavy cloud coverage and dense fog, this placed the aircraft 28 miles east of where the pilots believed they were.

As they approached Antarctica, the pilots descended to a lower altitude to give the passengers a better view of the landscape. Although both were experienced pilots, neither had flown this particular route before.

Because of this seemingly small error, the incorrect coordinates had placed them directly in the path of Mount Erebus — an active volcano that rises from the frozen landscape to a height of more than 12,000 feet. 

Tragically, the plane crashed into the side of the volcano, killing everyone on board.

It was a disaster brought on by a minor error — just a matter of a few degrees.

The biggest danger you face today is a moment of distraction that you don’t immediately correct…

…because one tiny distraction can lead to a life of destruction —

and even worse, total disintegration.

Throughout the Bible, we are called to live a wholehearted life - to love God and people wholeheartedly. 

This is living with God where your heart, mind, soul, body are integrated with each other because they are integrated with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Disintegration is the opposite of wholeheartedness. It is when your heart, mind, soul, body is (or feels) disconnected from each other.

And you end up there by a moment of lost focus that is never reset back to who and where you truly want to be.

Focus & A Life of Faithfulness

“One thing I ask from the Lord...that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple." - David, Psalm 27:4

It is my purpose on earth to think, write, speak, share everything I can on Presence. And Psalm 27:4 has essentially become my life verse.

David is at a point in his life where he has a ton of responsibility. I imagine he’s stressed, perhaps a touch afraid, feeling heavy, his mind bouncing to the endless amount of people and tasks he oversees.

He realizes that he doesn’t need to get it all done. In fact, He needs to simplify. He needs focus. 

So he says: “Ok, Father. I just want to be present with you. Everything in my life and in history has always worked out perfectly when my heart, mind, eyes are locked in on you. You are perfect and you always help. I have some questions and I know you have answers and the next steps.”

You see, the essence of focus is paying attention to one thing.

And David knows that: biblical focus is paying attention to God right now.

Jesus modeled this perfectly - and then gave this lifestyle to us.

Throughout the Gospels (especially John), Jesus says “I only do what I see the Father doing” and “I only say what I hear the Father saying.”

Jesus paid attention to his Father all the days of his life, gazed upon Him, and inquired constantly. And he perfectly accomplished all his Father had for him.

Now that his Holy Spirit is in you, you can focus and fulfill your purpose in this same Way!

One book that has been extremely helpful to me the last several years is Gary Keller’s “The One Thing”.

The quick summary:

• Ask the question “What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” in any/every area of your life.
• Do that one thing over and over, up to 4 hours every day, and you will accomplish everything you desire. 

Now, this book is so good for achieving goals and finishing important projects. I highly recommend it and have given out a lot of copies.

But I will say, the question and idea is difficult to see how it transfers to our spiritual life sometimes though. 

The mindset shift for us: Instead of “achieving our goals FOR God through focus on task completion”, the incredible truth is that we have been given an “inner operating system” of abiding WITH God through focus on looking and listening.

This is how Jesus accomplished his work, by focusing on one thing: looking to, listening to, and following through with his Father in every moment.

And again, he has now given that ability to focus to us - through partnership with his Holy Spirit!

Focus leads to faithfulness.

How to focus, according to Psalm 27:4 & the life of Jesus:

1. Fix your eyes on God. (“gaze upon his beauty”)
2. Ask Him: “what is the One Thing right now?” (“inquire in his temple”)
3. Listen for the Holy Spirit’s response & keep asking for any clarity. (i.e. could be a verse, word or phrase, picture or brief scene, a person, idea, etc.)
4. Make the next step small and simple. (Reverse engineer the response if it’s not wildly clear.)
5. Do it big and boldly. (A life of faithfulness is made of millions of tiny faithful steps.)
6. Repeat this over and over. (A life of faithfulness is made by consistency.)

Here’s the bottomline of what I’m trying to communicate in this newsletter today:

1. When you’re fixated on God’s presence (gazing), you're at your most productive - and He will give you what is most important to do right now.
2. Then you put that work in front of you - and ask Him (inquiring) what to do and where to go with it next. 

Most of the time, this will be the everyday tasks you already have and people you interact with. This may seem boring or menial to you right now, but they WILL powerfully transform and have a heavenly flow to it.

You see, by focusing on this “one thing”, you have an audience with God and He has an audience with you.

And the biggest danger to your life today is a moment of distraction where you don't repent - simply and quickly turning back to presence on the moment with God. 

All of your focus can change your world - because all of your focus will be on the One who holds it your world together.

Where focus goes, worship flows.

By the way…

1. You can find my previous newsletters here.
2. I’m chewing on the idea of doing a podcast in the near future - where I transfer my minibooks and maybe these newslettere into short episodes for listening. Please reply here if that interests you!
3. I’m releasing my third “minibook” in the next few weeks. I believe it will be one that does something really special.

🤙🏻

Taylor Jervis

Tyler, Texas

March 23, 2025

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