“...gird up the loins of your mind” (1 Peter 1:13 KJV). The power of concentration is the God-given ability to focus on Christ, Who has the power of His Spirit to mold us into the image He reveals of Himself. Concentration is vital to seeing Jesus as He truly is and then consecrating ourselves to becoming like Him. To concentrate is to meditate, and meditating is part of the formula for spiritual success (Joshua 1:8; Psalms 1:3; 1 Timothy 4:15). To concentrate is to bring “into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). To “gird up the loins of your mind” means to get rid of loose, frivolous, foolish and wandering thoughts that distract us so we can concentrate on Christ and the Christian race. Our power of concentration can be compared to pearl divers and the time they can hold their breath underwater. How long they can hold their breath determines the number of pearls they gather and are enriched thereby. The time that a Christian can meditate on Scripture by concentrating their thoughts will determine whether they will get beyond the milk of the Word and beyond the obvious and get on the meat of the Word and to its deeper meaning (Joshua 1:8; Psalms 1:2) and be enriched thereby. Any teacher, regardless of how good a teacher they are, cannot teach that student who will not give them their undivided attention and concentrate on the subject that’s being taught. The Holy Spirit is the greatest Teacher there is, but He cannot teach a Christian who cannot concentrate or pay attention to Him as He teaches. We cannot learn and grow spiritually until we learn to concentrate. Seriousness precedes spirituality. God has nothing to say to a frivolous man. We are not serious about our spiritual growth until we get rid of every distraction that keeps us from concentrating on the things of God. Satan knows if he can keep us from concentrating on Christ by distracting us with worldly things, he can keep us from learning and growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. If he can keep us to where we have an attention deficit and a short attention span, we will remain weak spiritually and shallow in our faith. The TV is the greatest distraction. Most people think by default. That means they follow the way others think and have a herd mentality. Others have, through the use of words, planted their thoughts into their minds and without examining them to see if they’re true, they follow them along with so many others. But when we study Scripture and concentrate on it, we form our own individual thoughts. The Holy Spirit will not do our thinking for us, but when we begin to think and focus on the things of God, the Spirit will help us by guiding and directing our thinking so we can have holy and insightful thoughts. Our power of concentration determines our power of consecration. Our consecration to Christ will only last as long as our concentration on Him. Concentration is our responsibility, not God’s. We must remove those distractions that keep us from gathering our thoughts and seeking after God, as well as those things that will matter for two seconds on the other side of eternity.
