Don't focus on the perishable

Sometimes we struggle to advance spiritually because we focus on the wrong stuff. But how can we tell the difference between right and wrong stuff? On one hand, drawing that distinction should be simple, but, on the other hand, our sins often cloud our ability to tell the difference.

To tell whether our focus is right or wrong in God's eyes, a useful metric comes from Jeremiah 10:11 (NLT), where God says,

Your so-called gods, who did not make the heavens and earth, will vanish from the earth and from under the heavens.

So we should ask ourselves: Will the thing or situation occupying my focus exist in 1 year? 5 years? 10 years? 100 years? More generally, is the thing I am focused on perishable?

If we focus more on perishable things or situations than we do on God, then that misplaced focus prevents our spiritual advancement.

Instead, let's focus on the unperishable!