Choose Your Focus

I Have a Problem with Focus

I’m not talking about the ability to focus on something — I’m talking about the ability to choose what I focus on.

When things aren’t smooth, when life doesn’t look the way I want, when things seem “not to be working,” I start spiraling.

I focus on everything that’s wrong.

In my head, I can catalogue all the things that didn’t go right, what I wish were different, and all the decisions I wish I’d made differently. And when I start with the shoulds of the past, I know I’m not in a good place.

When you’re in wilderness seasons — seasons where God is speaking but life still feels hard — it’s so easy to focus on the bad.

The Israelites did the same thing. They focused on the food they didn’t have, the water they couldn’t see, and the fact that Moses was gone longer than they thought — so long, in fact, that they built a golden calf as if the God who split the sea had suddenly gone silent.

And mostly, they focused on what they had in Egypt and started wishing for slavery again.

To us, that sounds crazy. I find myself talking to my Bible like, “What are you doing? Look what God’s done and where He’s taking you!”

But that’s the thing about life — we don’t see the full picture. So it’s easy to look backward, to focus on what’s missing instead of what God’s doing.

One day, as I was stuck in that loop of looking back at my Egypt, God brought me to Psalm 50:14:

“Offer thanksgiving as your sacrifice to God,
and pay your vows to the Most High.”

The word thanksgiving here is Todah (תּוֹדָה).
It comes from the root Yadah (יָדָה) — to throw, to cast, to give thanks, to confess.

The heart behind Todah is choosing to acknowledge your place in covenant with God. It means you thank Him not because you feel like it, but because you’re trusting His covenant faithfulness over your feelings.

It’s remembering (Zakar, זָכַר) His faithfulness — choosing to live in trust regardless of your circumstances or emotions.

That sounds easy until you’re David, hiding in caves while people hunt you down.
It sounds easy until you’re the Israelites wandering in the wilderness without food or a timeline.
It sounds easy until you don’t know how you’ll pay your rent.
It sounds easy until the obstacle in front of you feels impossible.

When you have no options and you’re at the end of yourself — that’s when Todah comes in. That’s when we praise God.

Not just when times are good.
But when they’re anything but good.

I recently learned Todah was a voluntary offering — not required like other offerings.

They would Todah before deliverance.
They praised God before the battle was won.

It’s David praising God in the caves.
It’s the Israelites shouting before the walls of Jericho came down.
It’s us thanking God in the season of preparation and trial, not just once we’ve made it out the other side.

It’s praising God not because of the outcome,
but because you trust the One who controls the outcome.

That’s what Todah really is — spiritual warfare.
It’s choosing to remember and partner with God’s covenant promise even when nothing has changed yet.

It’s trusting God’s promises more than what you see in front of you.
And when you choose to praise His promises, it shifts your heart.
It changes your focus.

When our focus changes, it moves us from…
Fear → Faithfulness
Self-reliance → Covenant dependence
Shame → Identity
Control → Yielding

The very next verse says:

“And call on Me when you are in trouble;
I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”
— Psalm 50:15

The word trouble is Tsar (צַר) — narrow, tight, or restricted.
A place of pressure, like being squeezed.

It reminds me of the Israelites trapped at the Red Sea — water behind them, Pharaoh’s army in front, rocky cliffs on both sides. No way out.

Sometimes life feels just like that. You feel stuck. There’s nothing you can do to fix it.

That’s when you Todah.

That’s when you praise God — because that’s when you remember your God is the One who parts seas, knocks down walls, and never stops providing for you.

You can trust Him because He is faithful.

So today, when the pressures of life feel like they’re closing in, choose Todah.
Choose to remember (Zakar) God’s faithfulness and praise Him for who He is — even before you see the miracle.