Hayley DiMarco - Big Picture. Making God the Main Focus of Your Life

The Big Picture, Digital Edition

Based on Print Edition

Copyright 2013 Hungry Planet

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotation in printed reviewswithout the prior permission of the publisher.

Copyright 2013 by B&H Publishing Group

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.

978-1-4336-7972-8

Published by B&H Publishing Group

Nashville, Tennessee

Dewey Decimal Classification: 248.834

Subject Heading: GOD / TEENAGERS / GOSPEL

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, Copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible, Holman CSB, and HCSB are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Other Scripture references are from the following sources:

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

English Standard Version ( esv ), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT), copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

You alone are Yahweh. You created the heavens, the highest heavens with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them, and the heavenly host worships You. (Nehemiah 9:6)

Focus!

When you look at the world around you, you focus on the most important stuff. It might be the stuff you love, or it might be the stuff you hate. Some people focus on their trials, while others focus on their successes. Are you a glass-half-full or a glass-half-empty person? What do you think about the most?

Whats the focus of your life?

How you answer these questions will determine not only your today, your tomorrow, and your future, but will affect your emotional and spiritual life as well. The focus of your life is your magnetic North; everything you do toward that focus becomes the highest priority in your life.

If the main priority in your life is to stop the pain, then your focus might be whatever you can do to medicate that pain. If the center of your life is someone you love, then you will do whatever you can to keep that person in your life. But no matter what your focus, there is a lot going on around it, a lot you cant ignore, a lot thats meant for you. And as long as your focus is on the stuff of this world, then youre missing the most important thing. Youre missing the big picture. Seeing the big picture, instead of wasting energy on one or two things that ultimately dont matter, is the most freeing and powerful action you could ever take.

It can be easy to see yourself as the focus of your life. We all start out that way. You hear your own thoughts, feel your own feelings, do stuff to and with yourself more than anyone else in the world, but that doesnt make you the star. See, when youre the star of your own life, when its all about you and your happiness, your comfort, and your success, then life is a real roller coaster. There are dangers all around you: dangers to your life, happiness, comfort, and success, which you are ultimately powerless to change. When you focus on yourself and bad things happen, the first thing to suffer is your self-esteem. And thats because your self-life has suffered, so the roller coaster takes a dive and all the bad feelings pile on. Self-esteemthe stuff that looks inside and determines the value and the beauty of life based on selfis volatile, threatening to blow up at any second. And thats why self-esteem and all the work that goes into raising it is in vain. No matter how much success you find, you will never be the real focus of this world, so your self-esteem will never be totally maintained. But thats just one reason why self-esteem is an immaterial thing. Instead, there is something essential, something that is the ultimate source of peace, joy, and true success, and that something is God-esteem.

When your life isnt dependent on your success but His, then your life is the definition of successful.

No matter what happens to you or in you or around you, you are a pure success because your esteem is found in the one who is totally perfect, totally powerful, and totally divine.

Esteem involves the idea of vision, of looking at something. And as long as you are looking at yourself and thinking that you are the big picture, then you will see only a teeny tiny part of the whole. But when you stop looking in the mirror and start looking at the bigger picture of a life made for more than your success or failure, you will find all the goodness and hope that you have ever desired. In fact, rather than seeing the glass half full you will see it overflowing!

You werent meant to live with nothing but your little world in focus. You were meant to see the

to grasp the depth of Gods love for you and all of creation . To see His hand on every moment of your life. To see His glory in every event in history, and to see His power in every moment of your past, present, and future life. If you cant look around you and say, I see God in that, then your life isnt free. You are in chains to the world. But if you are ready to be set free, if you want to walk away from the doubt, the fear, the worry, the drama, then stand back and look at the Big Picture . Making God the focus, the priority, the center of your world, with all its suffering and success, will give meaning to every moment and make it all part of an amazing story of true love that can never be matched.

The amazing thing is that God has been with us from the very beginning , He is with us today and will never leave us. As you step back and start to get a bigger perspective on our planet, as you start to see God as actively involved and working in your life you will see that nothing is left to chance. You will start to understand the reason why you exist, and you will begin to take hold of the plans He has for you, to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you hope and a future. Knowing the history of the world, seeing the big picture and your role in it is bound to change your life today and forevermore. So lets dive into the big picture and see the God whose story explains it all.

Gods dwelling is with humanity, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. (Revelation 21:3)