The Challenge to Concentrate

Bobby Gums   05.22.2026

 

In a funny sort of way, the Lord brought two words to my attention, just before I awoke, on the morning of February 13, 2026. The words were ‘concentrate’ and ‘challenge’. So I prayed and began to study to see where The Spirit

would lead. In the spirit of the message I will attempt to be brief and concise. This is a word for the ‘body’ of Christ.

 

Webster defines concentrate: To bring to a common center, or to a closer union; to cause to approach nearer to a point, or center; to bring nearer to each other. Interesting to me because my first thought was on the idea of focusing one’s attention or mental effort, more on a personal level. I really liked Webster’s first thought because it focused on the ‘us’ instead of the ‘me’.

 

1 Tim 4:13 Till I come, give attendance (4437) to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Stong’s defines this word, pay attention, devote yourself. The lexicon says: This Greek word is a verb that demands an active, deliberate response. So we understand the apostle Paul is not making a mere suggestion, it is a stronger ‘statement of necessity’ for the believers. What do we see here that will help us in our     concentration (to bring the ‘body’ to a common center, a closer union, to cause us to approach nearer to the central point)? These things can and will happen as God’s people ‘give attendance to’ deliberate, active devotion to the Word of God.

 

Ps 119:48 My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate (7878) in thy statutes. Strong’s says think of careful consideration. The lexicon said:“Across its twenty-one appearances (in the O.T.), the word consistently links the life of the mind and heart with the tongue, showing that what God stirs within inevitably finds expression before Him and before others”. When we love & receive His Word, the truth & spirit of the Word begins to manifest Itself in our daily lives. We will not manifest it, but He will manifest Himself in & through us as we lovingly meditate on His Word. This will be as a witness & testimony to our Lord Jesus Christ and as we share the blessing of ‘the light & the life’ that we received from the Holy Spirit to the body of Christ, and we draw closer together (concentrate) in relationship, in fellowship, and in purpose, we (the unified ‘body’) bring glory and praise to our God.

 

Challenge: a task or situation that tests our abilities and/or our faculties.

 

John 8:12, 13 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true. There will be much opposition/challenges to our faith. If they denied Jesus–The Light of the world Himself, let’s not be surprised nor dismayed when they deny His light in us and reject our witness.

 

There is a very real challenge for us to be able to concentrate these days as the distractions of the world increase by the hour and also for us to continue to concentrate as the body of Christ, to help each other as near as possible to the central point-unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ (Eph 4:13).

 

I want to encourage us all, let’s just faithfully continue to go for it! Let us incline our ears unto wisdom & our hearts unto understanding. Let’s not concentrate on our failures & our missteps. Let’s not focus on (what we may be viewing as) our disabilities or our inabilities (chances are that our God is not viewing us in that way at all). Let us concentrate our gaze on Jesus Christ our Lord, who sits at the right hand of our Heavenly Father, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, in order that we would all come to the central point. We have everything to gain and nothing to lose!