Reading Plan:
Acts 6

Our Thoughts:
Have you ever realized that you lost your keys and found yourself looking everywhere for them with no luck? You search and search only to realize they were right in front of you the whole time? You just overlooked them. How does that happen? Think about the concept of overlooking something. To overlook something, it has to be present right before you, but your eyes fail to see it. It exists. It's staring right back at you, but you just don't see it. When we talk about overlooking our keys, that's one thing, but to overlook your spouse, child, parent, or friend brings a whole new level of consequences. How often are our families present before us, but we fail to see them because our attention is divided? To overlook a person is to fail to notice a living, breathing heart begging to be seen and loved.
We see in Acts 6 how divided attention resulted in certain people being overlooked. The disciples were called to focus their attention on prayer and spreading the message of the gospel. However, their loyalty to God's calling was being divided by taking on the responsibility of feeding the widows. Our loyalty must remain to what God calls us to do, even if that means saying no to good things. I find it very hard to say no to people. However, God is showing me that for every "yes" I give away, I am inadvertently saying "no" to those closest to me. A "yes" to others is a "no" to someone else. The disciples gave a clear example of how to safeguard ourselves from neglecting what is most important. We have to use what God has called us to do as a filter for the things we give our "yes" to. The disciples were able to think through problems in front of them and enlist the help of others so they could stay on track with God. Because of this divide-and-conquer mentality, we see how much more effective the disciples were in their work. The number of disciples increased rapidly because people stayed focused on what they were called to do.
There are ways to stay focused and safeguard ourselves from the dangers of divided loyalty. We have to make sure God is not being overlooked in our lives. We have to remember that He exists. He is present right before us. He has a purpose and a plan for us, and we must take every precaution to notice Him if we want to live a life of fullness and purpose.

More Questions:
Who is it in our lives that we have overlooked because of our divided loyalties?
How often is God overlooked because of our divided loyalties?

Prayer:
Lord, help me to never overlook you in my life. Also, help me to never overlook those you have placed in my life. Give me eyes to always see others clearly. I ask that you help me to stay focused and never allow my loyalties or attention to be divided by things that are not important. Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to play a part in your greater story.

Author: Angie Gates