Attention


Act 10:1  There was a man named Cornelius who lived in Caesarea, captain of the Italian 

	Guard stationed there. 

Act 10:2  He was a thoroughly good man. He had led everyone in his house to live 

	worshipfully before God, was always helping people in need, and had the habit of 

	prayer. 

Act 10:3  One day about three o'clock in the afternoon he had a vision. An angel of God, 

	as real as his next-door neighbor, came in and said, "Cornelius." 

Act 10:4  Cornelius stared hard, wondering if he was seeing things. Then he said, "What 

	do you want, sir?" The angel said, "Your prayers and neighborly acts have brought 

	you to God's attention. 


	As we grow beyond the point of birth into the kingdom of God it is essential 

that there be the development of certain habits. In forming these habits there is a 

motivation that flows from a life of worship and desire to please the Father that will 

naturally bring his nature and way of doing things into our nature and mode of 

operation. As we become aware of His desire in a certain area and adjust our lifestyle 

to meet it, a habit is formed that, in a way, defines our character. His ways become 

our ways and His heart becomes our heart when the acceptance of revelation goes 

past the mind alone to the center of our daily routine. Then, as the Father is looking 

"throughout the whole earth for the one whose heart is perfect towards Him", we 

gain His attention as one that represents perfection in our heart by our actions. In 

gaining His attention, there is a way made for further revelation and further 

equipping in our service to the kingdom. 

	The phrase from this passage-"was always helping people in need, and had 

the habit of prayer."- is one that makes me wonder about how Cornelius got started 

in all this righteous living and why. Just about everyone would love to be the one who 

"got the attention of God" and experienced the supernatural demonstration of the 

presence and direction of God in their life. I wonder, though, what the motivation 

really was for Cornelius in the first and each subsequent execution of helping acts 

and prayer times. He couldn't have known that He would be "getting the attention" 

of God in doing these things and yet he formed these patterns in his life and became 

an example of righteousness and its fruit. He might have been inspired by the life of 

someone who lived for God. He might have been patterning himself after a mentor 

that lived righteously before him, but I believe that there was something that went 

beyond the promise of fruit or an encounter with the anointing. Somehow, in every 

performance of an act of Godliness, I believe there was a gratification that came from 

doing that thing as an act of worship, and it was an integral part of his relationship 

with His Father. His heart's desire was to fulfill his Father's desire and in doing so 

was able to become very consistent in doing the acts of his Father. It would have 

been too difficult to sustain that kind of consistency throughout all of his days with 

just the promise of personal gain. His joy and fulfillment must have come in the 

giving of his time and resources repeatedly by touching others and his God in helping 

and in prayer. 

	While there is no doubt that there will be an ultimate reward and our acts and 

prayers will gain the attention of our Father, there is another motivation that must 

be the focus of our attention in order to successfully form our habits of 

righteousness. There is an immediate, fulfilling reward that is received upon every 

event of our helping or praying that in itself is sufficient to cause us to actually desire 

and look forward to the next event. As it represents more than just brownie points 

and as it becomes an essential part of our existence, each opportunity to perform it 

will be met with a choice that is given priority over all other options. There will be a 

pattern formed in our attention to fulfilling the Father's desire that will gain His 

attention and favor. He will most surely show Himself strong in the life of the one 

who has made attention to the heart of God the motivation for his lifestyle. 



4/11/04